Virtual Real Estate Tours: How to Sell Luxury Real Estate Across the Globe
Why Offer Virtual Real Estate Tours
Technology has seemingly made our lives a lot more complicated—but, at the same time, it has made our lives much easier. This stands true in the luxury real estate market. Virtual real estate tours offer home buyers a unique opportunity to see a home without actually walking through the front door. Not only is this cool for the buyer…it’s a valuable asset for the agent.
Save Yourself (and Your Clients) Time
Virtual real estate tours have opened up the world to potential buyers. This method of showcasing a home allows busy professionals to see the property on their own time so they can make an informed decision. In addition to freeing up the real estate agent’s time, it ensures your buyer that you can work around their schedule and solve their problems.
Eliminate the Need to Travel
When selling luxury real estate, a lot of potential buyers may not live in the area they are looking to buy. They also may not have the time to travel to you and spend a week looking at properties. This gives the savvy real estate agent a good advantage here. If you can show them the house in high detail with a quality video tour, high-resolution photos, and virtual walk-throughs, this gives you a solid advantage over the other agents in your market.
No one is going to make a luxury real estate purchase on a vacation home in your area without seeing it first. Use virtual tours to your advantage.
Show the Finished Product
With the right technology, you can show the finished home on a virtual real estate tour. If your prospect is interested in an unfinished house, it may be difficult for them to imagine themselves there. With the power of technology, you could finish that home for them and even incorporate some of the small touches they would like to see.
These will not only increase the likelihood of them buying the home but also help you build rapport when you cannot meet the client in person.
Give Them the Full Experience in Virtual Reality
It was not too long ago that we were first hearing about virtual reality and augmented reality. When they first came out, we expected this technology to be out of reach and complicated to use. By 2025, real estate revenue generated because virtual reality is expected to reach $2.6 billion. The cost of using this technology is getting lower, and the anticipated outcome, as a result, is staggering.
With a virtual reality headset, you do not need to be at the property to show it. You and the client could be in their current home or at the office, and you could still show the house. It’s one thing to show someone a video tour on the computer—it’s another thing for them to stand in your office and turn the key to their new home.
Virtual reality offers stunning 3D tours of their potential new home. This gives luxury real estate agents the opportunity to virtually stage homes and show the finished product. This increases the likelihood that you will sell out entire condo blocks before they get finished. We’ll get into this subject more below.
How to Offer Virtual Real Estate Tours
Twenty percent of home buyers make offers on homes without actually seeing them. This doubles if we are talking about luxury real estate. There are so many ways to offer virtual real estate tours, it’s becoming an industry standard to offer this technology, especially in high-end and vacation home areas. Here are a few ways you can offer virtual real estate tours in your business.
Website Virtual Tours
This is the most common method of offering virtual real estate tours. On your website and the listing site, you offer a virtual walk-through of the home. The only difference between a standard video walk-through and a virtual tour is that the latter allows you to navigate the home yourself and see every nook and cranny for as long as you like.
These virtual tours immerse buyers in the experience of seeing the home in person without actually being there. For busy professionals and frequent travelers looking to buy a vacation home, this could be the thing that gets them to hire you over someone else.
Virtual Reality Headsets
Virtual reality applies to a lot more than video games and amusement park rides. It is now a serious marketing tool that realtors all over are using to sell luxury properties to potential buyers who are
- Too far away to see the home in person
- Too busy to travel and see the home
With the development of Matterport, a completely immersive virtual reality experience, prospects can see the home from all angles, indoors and outdoors. Through the use of 3D modeling, 4K visuals, and specific touring points throughout the home, you can travel throughout the property just as you would if you were there.
Virtual reality tours allow you to show homes on the buyer's schedule because they won’t have to travel to the property site. This opens up your local real estate market to more buyers who otherwise would not be able to see the property.
Another great thing about virtual reality is that you can virtually stage a home without having to hire a professional or move a single piece of furniture. Augmented reality allows your clients to customize the property to their exact liking personally. They can choose how they would decorate the home and arrange the furniture. Not only is this fun for them but it allows them to feel how they would if they purchased the home and were decorating it themselves. If they love it, they’re bound to buy it.
