Intero A Berkshire Hathaway Affiliate
Maria Elena Casillas, Intero A Berkshire Hathaway AffiliatePhone: (408) 821-2649
Email: [email protected]

Making a Virtual Home Tour Easier: Tips for Sellers

by Maria Elena Casillas 08/02/2020

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

The COVID-19 pandemic has stepped in and changed the way a lot of businesses function, including the real estate business and the actions within the industry. If you have been planning to sell your home or have it already listed, all the social distancing requirements and preferences don't necessarily have to hinder your sale. Creating a virtual home tour for prospects allows them to get a good look at your for-sale property from the safety of their own home. Check out some good tips to remember to make sure the virtual home tour is as insightful as possible for prospective buyers.

1. The virtual tour must be easily accessible. 

You don't want to go through the trouble of creating a virtual tour for it to only be accessible by someone with certain computer equipment or tech-savvy skills. The tour must be readily accessible by most buyers and easy to use and navigate. 

2. Show the true flow of the house from room to room. 

Flow from room to room can be really hard to capture in still imagery. The onlooker is left trying to piece the house together, image by image, which is hard to do mentally and get a good feel for the house and what it would be like to walk through it. The best virtual tour has no problem producing this effect. 

3. Give the user full control of where they go and what they look at. 

Virtual home tours often get confused with other things, such as 360-degree pictures or video walk-throughs. An actual virtual tour has several obvious differences, but the primary difference is the fact that the tour makes it possible for the prospect to go where they want and look at what they want to look at. It is critical to use a software to create the tour that makes this a possibility. 

4. The virtual home tour must be all-inclusive. 

This tour should not leave out the pertinent details. If a prospect came to your home, they would likely open closet doors, look under the sinks and take a stroll around the property. You should make it possible for them to see all those same details during the virtual tour you create. 

5. Make the user walk away feeling like they visited the home.

Here's the thing, a virtual home tour may be the closest thing some buyers get to an actual showing before they really decide to make an offer or proceed. You want any prospect to feel that they know the home well enough that they recall it or feel as if they've already been there. It's in the details you cover, the breadth and scope of the tour and how much knowledge you provide about the property in the process. 

Get Professional Help Making Your Virtual Tour 

The best virtual tour of a home delivers an immersive experience for a prospect; the prospect feels as if they've actually visited the home. At a time when a lot of people are relying more on these virtual home showings, this technological tour becomes one or your primary selling tools to get your home sold. Work with a qualified real estate agent to make sure the virtual tour you create is stellar and capable of truly giving shoppers a look at your house as a home. 

About the Author
Author

Maria Elena Casillas

  

You don’t need to do this alone. I am bilingual in English and Spanish, and I have been in the industry for over 20 years, after earning my degree in Business Management and successive studies in Human Resources and Technology. Never content to let my education lapse, I also received a certification in Negotiation Skills from Pepperdine University and attended courses at Stanford University. A leader in the field, I am a member of the Santa Clara Board of Realtors and served as a professional standards ombudsman for 8 years. I completed a term as the President of the National Hispanic Organization of Real Estate’s Santa Clara chapter in 2016, now serving as this organization’s National Vice President. I pursued additional in-depth training to achieve professional designations as an ABR (Accredited Buyer’s Representative), CRS (Certified Professional Specialist), and SRES (Seniors Real Estate Specialist), GREEN certification, and RCS-D (Divorce Real Estate Specialist). Far from being a meaningless alphabet soup, this demonstrates how proactive I am in pursuing the latest knowledge so that I completely prepared to satisfy all my sellers' and buyers' unique needs. I am committed to Excellence!