Virtual viewings are an advanced technology that allows you to discover and view a property in detail. This virtual visit of a property and its surroundings is possible from your smartphone or computer. Over the last few years, this phenomenon has become increasingly popular, and is also being used as an effective marketing tool in the real estate industry. It is generating a lot of interest and enthusiasm because it provides a number of advantages to sellers and buyers.
On the one hand, this new technology allows sellers to give their potential clients a more in-depth look at the home, while also presenting their inventory in an innovative way. On the other hand, buyers are able to project themselves more easily into a given property, and virtual motion allows the layout and configuration of individual rooms and spaces to be visualized. All this creates a prerequisite, even a guarantee, for greater efficiency in the search and sale of real estate.
Within this article, we will introduce some of the main advantages of virtual real estate tours:
Save time for both sellers and buyers. For example, from a sellers' perspective, when you put a new property on the market, you are likely to receive numerous phone calls from potential customers. Repeating the same information to each of them can take up a lot of your time. Plus, you have to remember that many of them are just curious and unfortunately have no real intention of buying. While those who are really interested and have liked the home already based on the virtual viewing, they will contact you and ask to visit the property "in person" as the next stage of the process. This will free up your time so you can focus on other useful activities related to your business.
Meanwhile, on the buyers' side, they can quickly view the property from their laptops, tablets or smartphones, and assess whether it meets their expectations. Accordingly, at a later stage at their discretion, they can decide whether to invest their time and physical presence for an actual viewing.
Reduce costs associated with visiting the property: Attracting leads and arranging viewings, which are an integral part of the process, can be costly. All the logistics, including fuel costs, remain in many cases sunk costs. There is no guarantee that going to a viewing will result in an actual sale. The solution in such cases is a virtual viewing, whereby clients can take a tour of the property before they visit it in "real life".
Save the need for a real estate broker: Thanks to virtual viewings, you do not need to use the services of real estate brokers to assist you with the organization of real viewings on the spot. Potential buyers or tenants have the opportunity to view the property completely independently, without fixed appointments and so on. The virtual tour allows to explore every single detail of the property, and nothing remains hidden and unclear.
A virtual visit ensures that a property is presented in its best light to potential clients, with the right look and feel: When you are looking to sell a property, the first thing to consider is that it should always look good, in a commercial appearance and in perfect condition. This again, is somewhat complicated and burdensome as it has to be cleaned at every subsequent viewing. No such case exists with virtual tours. With their help, sellers can present their property in its best condition while also highlighting its strongest points, precisely in order to attract sellers.
Guarantee of a realistic experience: Virtual tours are always with doors open. Potential clients can access the home anytime, 24 hours, from any mobile device. They can also show it to their loved ones, consult with them and discuss together. Virtual tours are very different from just a photo as they give the feeling of a more real and precise "immersion" in the details.
Access from every corner of the world: In case some potential customers live abroad, it will obviously be easier and more cost-effective to take advantage of an interactive virtual tour of the home that has grabbed their attention.
Opportunity for competitive advantage: The benefits of virtual viewings are indeed great for the real estate industry. They enhance the visibility of the property and help significantly in its positioning in the market. There is an increased interest from a wider target audience due to the simplified access to the homes listed. Also, with the availability of virtual tours, particular trust is built with potential customers, and this is key in fighting competition.
In an epidemic situation (Covid-19): Virtual viewings do not restrict anyone from "viewing" a property for sale. Anyone can view freely and safely from the comfort of their home and office.
In conclusion, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that with the digitalization of processes in many areas, it is extremely important to strive to keep up with new technologies. This does not mean that we should ignore the importance of physical viewings when selling a property, but thanks to virtual viewings, we have an effective filter that weeds out only customers who have a real intention to buy. With the help of virtual tours too, unpleasant surprises are very often avoided for both parties. At the same time, price negotiations at the next stage are shorter and more efficient, as the buyer is fully aware from the outset of the characteristics and specifics of the property he/she intends to purchase.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio