Virtual Tours: Why They Are Not Effective And How To Improve Them
The real estate industry has undergone significant changes thanks to the development in technology, but not all companies utilize such innovative solutions as virtual tours fully. Furthermore, even if an agent makes use of this great approach, there are lots of mistakes made, and it spoils the experience of the potential buyer.
However, it is possible to make virtual home tours more impressive and improve the impression about a home for sale in this way too. For this purpose, real estate agents should learn more about virtual tours and consider how to make them more convincing using the following tips.
Features of a virtual tour
Many realtors mistake video walkthroughs and navigable home 3D models for virtual tours, but none of them provides an interactive experience to clients. Therefore, it is important to identify key features of a virtual tour to differentiate it from other solutions:
- A viewer has full control of the 3D home exploration;
- Real photos of the home are used in a tour;
- Anytime access to every room;
- Simple accessibility in the web browser or a mobile device;
- High quality;
- Mobile compatibility;
- Intuitive control;
- Similar to the personal home visiting experience.
Making virtual tours efficient: 12 tips from experts
How to achieve this effect and make every virtual tour outstanding and complementary for a property for sale? There are several things to consider and remember to get the best results.
1. Shoot staged homes free of personalized items
Every potential buyer wants to understand the dimensions of the room and its potential, but it is a challenge when it comes to an empty property. On the other side, entering a home with lots of family photos and hand-made decor creates an impression of being a guest and does not allow a potential buyer to imagine how he or she will live there.
It means that a virtual tour should be provided with photos of the staged property. It is better to leave basic furniture pieces and declutter space to accentuate home features without distracting the client’s attention.
2. Ensure to have bright and consistent lighting all around the whole property
The impression of many things and spaces can be easily changed by lighting. You can play with the effect of warmth, brightness, and deliver an absolutely different impression to viewers. Therefore, it is important to avoid photos with dim and moody lighting since it will look tiny and less welcoming. Another thing to spoil the virtual tour created is no consistency in lighting brightness in different rooms.
It means that you should open all curtains and remove blinds, add artificial lighting if necessary, but all rooms must be well-lit and inviting in photos and videos.
3. Let a viewer control the tour
The main goal of every tour is to provide an immersive experience. It means you should be able to travel around all rooms, change the viewing angle, and allow a person to choose what direction to choose. Clients spend more time watching such tours and it generates more interest of buyers since they get better recollections about the property.
4. Make footage from the natural perspective
It is possible to shoot from a variety of angles, but the tour should be composed in a way that reflects natural movement around the property. In fact, it should be a duplicate of a traditional person’s experience. You can enter the room and show the location of windows and other doors, but it is important not to neglect a beautiful view from the window or an area that overlooks the stairs and other floors if there are any.
Another piece of advice is to shoot from the corners of the room instead of their central parts.
5. Focus on room connections and outside of the home
The virtual tour should provide an experience of how each space flows into the next one. Consequently, a client should feel that he is learning not only about the area he is located in but also the whole property. Therefore, opt for views that provide outdoor visibility, connection with nature, and availability of other amenities.
6. Don’t skip spaces that may seem not so important
Every corner and niche of the property can reveal its unique personality, so it is important to add shooting of these areas to the virtual tour too. Such small touches create a feeling that a potential buyer really knows this home and it gets stuck in his mind better.
7. Start or end up your tour with shots of outdoor areas
It is important to provide a viewer with the feeling that he or she is located in the home for sale, so it would be great to start a tour from the street, show nearby facilities and neighbors, and enter the yard to emphasize the curb appeal. It will also prevent questions if you show some window view since a person will already have some memories about the outside area.
8. Check your final tour version for errors
All shoots should be clear and without blur that may be caused by movement in panoramic photos. One more aspect is the order of shots that should provide a smooth and realistic movement around the house.
9. Add a home tour to the listings and not only
All videos and virtual tours boost the number of views significantly, so the chances to attract more potential buyers in this way are higher too. It would be great to provide users with an immediate switch between 2D and 3D views to have an easier grasp of the floorplan and its real look. Realtors can also benefit from such tours when they tell about this property and emphasize some features worth the buyer’s attention.
10. Remember about mobile optimization
The majority of people prefer to watch videos and tours on mobile devices, so they should be compatible with the majority of modern gadgets and load quickly. The reduction in load time, latency, and crashing to a zero rate will be a plus too. Don’t forget to test your final version on several devices and with the accommodation of VR to guarantee the highest customer satisfaction rate.
11. Develop a powerful marketing campaign and make a virtual tour its complement
You should consider a virtual tour the focal point of the listing, so all other material there should complement it. However, not only listings should be used to promote your home sale. It is important to take advantage of social media and make use of ad campaigns to attract more potential buyers to it.
12. Don’t neglect information from your clients and other agents
The most important data can be received from people who work with virtual plans on a regular basis or ones who view them. Therefore, taking surveys and asking questions will help you to improve the quality of your tours and their performance. Try to keep track of the analytical data and other metrics to understand what works better. It allows making conclusions and improving the efficiency of every new product.
As you can see, a virtual tour can become better if you consider the tips provided and won’t neglect a chance to improve it by following the advice of others.
