Five Reasons Why Virtual Tours Can Help to Sell Properties
The ongoing COVID-19 outbreak has impacted Australia in ways both small (don’t touch your face!) and large (cancelations of public events, disruptions to commutes, and so on). And for those who are interested in renting, selling, or buying a home, the new reality—in which social distancing and reducing your exposure to as many people as possible is the norm—has made typical real estate searches a bit of a challenge.
Virtual tours are an excellent feature in order to show an agent’s buyers around a property from the comfort of their own home. However, they are more than just a feature; they are actually a solution. So why are virtual tours such a revolutionary tool in helping to sell properties?
Well firstly, there really is nothing more engaging than a virtual tour.
Buyers spend more than two thirds of their time online when searching for property, before they actually buy or rent. By providing them with more information than ever, they are better enabled to make an informed decision and agents can then pre-qualify their interest levels.
1. Virtual tours benefit by saving them money, time and a lot of hassle.
They are intended to be a first viewing, so the purpose is not to eliminate your in-person viewings, but merely to ensure that these second, physical viewings are qualified.
By streamlining the time spent searching and narrowing down properties to view, buyers will only plan viewings for those in which they are most interested. This also relieves the agent of potentially up to eight hours per client, which can add up to a vast increase in efficiency on other pressing tasks, and in return increase productivity.
2. It is more likely to gain extra views after impressing buyers with the addition of virtual tours on their website.
It enhances the value of the online hosting substantially, that sets itself apart from competition by offering this extra dimension is one which will see improved brand perception from both buyers and sellers. With other agencies being slower adopters, you would get ahead of your competition. Virtual tours are currently a massive advantage. Essentially, there is no reason you wouldn’t want to get your property in front of the largest possible audience!
Property agents can now eliminate viewings where their client goes to see the property with no intention of purchasing. 80% of first viewings don’t lead to a second. And so this forward-thinking method of doing the first viewing as an interactive virtual tour, will not only get the agent more instructions due to the fact that it is innovative and exciting for buyers, but it will also allow agents more time to go after those instructions.
3. Virtual tours also benefit the buyer. Those who have engaged with a 360-degree virtual tour report satisfaction with the accuracy of representation enabled by a more three-dimensional view of the space.
Overseas clients for example, may no longer find it necessary to take time-consuming journeys to visit properties that they have merely seen in photos. With virtual tours, they are now able to experience representations of the properties you are marketing in a more immersive, true-to-life way, without leaving their home.
Estate Agent research shows that 75% of the interviewed potential real estate buyers stated that they preferred interactive virtual tours over normal photographs and that these tours influenced their purchase decision.
With some virtual tour providers, you are able to customise your virtual tour until it is exactly as you want it. Some also allow their users to use their software completely online, without the latter needing to download anything. This is a major advantage over the previous providers who required their clients to download large files and have advanced IT skills.
Anybody of any skill level can create virtual tours using software such as EyeSpy360™. It is also easy for agents to integrate the tours into their websites and promotional emails, as well as even texting or WhatsApping their users the tour link.
A few providers even allow the agents to do live video chat based virtual tours, where they can interact with their clients within the tour itself. Whilst some also allow you to add all the information you want in the virtual tour, via information labels. Then you can add property details, zoomed in images, videos and Google Street View. You can really showcase any key selling points of the house. Agents can also compile a pre-recorded, narrated virtual tour, which will attract buyers and allow the agent to market their properties 24/7.
Moreover, some providers now make it easier than ever to share the tour. For example, if a buyer’s partner is in a different location, they can simply text them the virtual tour link, or they can both join an agent in a live virtual tour.
4. Virtual tours are a huge benefit to those with restricted mobility, or other issues that make it difficult to view properties in person.
Visiting numerous properties when seeking a new home is time-consuming and draining for everybody, and even more so for those with disabilities and special needs. An individual can now experience a prospective home without having to travel there, until they are convinced that it is a property that they are interested in. Virtual tours also help individuals to ascertain the accessibility of the property and to, therefore, decide whether it will meet their needs. Evidently this will also benefit the estate agent because the buyers’ ability to view a property remotely, widens the scope of buyers that may take an interest in each property.
5. And finally, let’s not discount the fact that vendors also benefit from virtual tours.
They won’t have as much disturbance and disruption to their normal routine, as less buyers will be viewing their property in person. Now buyers can get an accurate look online first. When deciding on who to sell their house with, this is going to be an important factor for the vender, as not only does the addition of virtual tours lead to more qualified viewings of their properties, but these tours also increase the likelihood of a quicker sale, due to increased interest from buyers.
The seller’s house can also be tidy at any time of day online, and the buyer can see the property’s interior and exterior in the daylight during a virtual tour, no matter what time of day it really is. They may not otherwise be able to do this easily, with work schedules and so on. Statistically 60% of viewings are done on evenings and weekends. Now buyers won’t lose as much of their free time, or have to view the property in the dark when they’d need to come back in the daylight anyway.
