This Is How The Pandemic Drives Real Estate Agents To Get Inventive With Virtual Tours
BlogMay 25, 2020

This Is How The Pandemic Drives Real Estate Agents To Get Inventive With Virtual Tours

Virtual Tours: The New Normal For Real Estate Agents

Virtual Tours: The New Normal For Real Estate Agents

Having physical contact or a close-proximity with other people is one of the most common ways of spreading the virus. No agent, buyer, or seller would want that. Now, real estate’s most significant lifeline is doing business virtually. Continuing business means embracing the new normal and offering virtual tours to clients.

The pandemic has undeniably forced real estate agents to get creative. They’ve transformed most traditional home tours into digital ones. Realtors rely on virtually showcasing homes as it becomes the only option amid the pandemic.

Zillow decided to follow “Stay At Home” policies and complies by halting operations in 24 operating markets that’s active in 15 states. Realtors also state that even without those policies, their clients refuse physical contact. They preferably avoid the risk of infection on both sides of the sale.

Is Selling Properties A Plunging Market?

Some agents advised their clients to drop their listings unless the house was already vacant. Even the National Association of Realtors- Chief Economist, Lawrence Yun recently spoke in an interview. Yun says that 20% of the listings in real estate were pulled due to the fear of COVID-19.

It is detrimental to the economy, hurting the real estate industry.

This leads to low rates, bringing a rare opportunity to clients looking to invest in properties.

Re-inventing The Industry With Virtual Tours

Realtors are adapting and becoming more creative these days. They’re inventive enough to propose real estate package services adapting current health concerns.

It’s a challenge to reach the buyers, especially, at times like this. Properties still occupied by tenants would only go for the virtual viewing. They are hesitant in going out to purchase unnecessary things. But succeeding despite the pandemic requires you to embrace technology in its different forms. You need to go beyond the limit and re-invent.

Real Estate 2.0

Equip yourself with tools to further your reach with your clients. Live cameras are no longer enough since clients are more inclined to purchase with virtual tours. Tours like this have been used for a while. However, this year, the need for it becomes increasingly significant. This feat limits personal contact of people, thus, less possibility of contracting the virus.

The Global Market Today

A pandemic is an unfortunate event we can’t control. But instead of lying around and letting the industry sink, we can move ahead and go on with our businesses. Today you can further your online presence and flexibility. Take advantage of the pandemic instead of letting it take you down.

Re-inventing The Industry With Virtual Tours

In Turkey, a real estate company carries on with successfully selling homes worth $1 million remotely. In just one month, the foreign currency gained 15% as opposed to the Turkish lira. Exchange rates paved a perfect opportunity to buy real estate in the area.

Agents transformed new methods in selling Turkish properties, making sure to provide clients with details and letting them examine it.

In the United States, real estate survived the 2007-2009 global financial crisis. It was a challenging time but they got through it stronger.

Conclusion

There are multiple virtually-motivated concepts you can do to close transactions. Set appointment-based tours. Gear up and let a virtual immersive experience be one of the convincing factors to make a sale. It’s not only a method to continue your business. It’s also a gesture showing the buyers that you are aware of the risks. And you not only care about closing a deal but of their well-being, too.

With the latest pandemic challenge we face today, virtual tours make it possible to recreate the physical space. The experience increases the rate of sales to work around the pandemic. Find out more about the subject by creating your free account on Virtual Tour Easy!

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Virtual Reality Tour: Enhancing Real Estate Business This 2020
virtual realityMarch 3, 2020

Virtual Reality Tour: Enhancing Real Estate Business This 2020

Virtual Reality Tour Continues to Evolve this Year

If you’re still viewing a home on pictures and videos, you haven’t seen the full-blown house-hunting experience yet! This year, virtual reality takes the experience higher as it promises an all too real immersion when touring a home. While images still appeal to the traditional market, the Virtual Reality Tour is innovating with even greater visuals this 2002! The rapid evolution is an incredible response of the VR companies to ensure that clients enjoy a virtual reality tour to the next level!

Many people have adapted to positive change. Most brokerage or real estate agents featuring VR tech are the ones with remote clients. For others, they save costly expenses from constructing a model home as VR makes it possible to see yet-to-be-built homes. These yet-to-be-built homes are mostly modified and customized based on the request of clients.

A Success Story

In 2016, VR technology was used by Sotheby’s International Realty real estate agent, Gregg Lynn. He sent a link of a VR tour to a few agents in San Francisco. The property was a massive loft condo to which he recalled sending the link to several agents. Fortunately, the link reached a buyer who wanted to relocate to San Francisco. The selling point was the incredible VR seen by the buyer. The client finally decided to see the home in person and fly to the city. Clients need the inspiration to make sure that they are purchasing worthy assets. The client assured the agent that as long as the reality is as good as the VR, he’ll take it. The sale became one of Mr. Lynn’s greatest, inspiring numerous agents to sell better.

Ensure that clients enjoy a virtual reality tour to the next level

The deal closed at $7 million, holding the record as the most expensive loft sold in the city.

Lynn adds that he believes that it’s the best alternative for remote tours. Now that he has a home listing in Russian Hill, the VR tech is making things brighter as ever! Clients are taking notice of how well VR is working. It’s interesting how views on Lynn’s $19 penthouse listing reached 17,000 views. You cannot accommodate that much tour when done in person. Virtual Reality Tour is making home tours easier featuring a remote tour to a larger audience.

The New Phase

VR doesn’t cease to amaze us all, it doesn’t stop developing. It can be used in partially complete communities. The rendering presented can be realistic and overlaid on photos or drone videos.

Tim Costello shares his thoughts about how VR can enhance the experience of buyers. He says that showing buyers the built and unbuilt homes give them a sense of the life quality there. Costello is the CEO of Builders Digital Experience in Austin, Texas.

Not everyone is trained to see what a place looks like with furniture. Ernesto Cohan, Oceana Bal Harbour sales director, says they used virtual staging. They created a 3-D walkthrough of model units enabling buyers to see it with pieces of furniture.

A month ago, BDX delivered as many VR tools to builders in a single month like they did in all of 2016, according to Costello. He said that growth is more than 12 times across the last four years. A virtual reality tool created from renderings was used to sell condos at Oceana Bal Harbour in Bal Harbour, Florida, before construction. The VR tours of the units can be viewed online.

Real estate experience enhanced with VR means a wider audience reach. You can just imagine the condos worth millions just like in Oceana Harbour making use of VR tools.

Developers are latching to VR to showcase units especially when selling a property with a larger area

Conclusion

The evolution of technology gave an edge to think better ways in marketing properties. The virtual reality tour makes the buyers feel more at ease about their pre and post-construction purchase. Find out more about how a virtual reality tour can improve your sales!

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Take a Sneak Peek in Cambodia's Real Estate 360 Virtual Tour
BlogFebruary 10, 2020

Take a Sneak Peek in Cambodia’s Real Estate 360 Virtual Tour

360 Virtual Tour: Invading Real Estate Industry

Are you having a hard time viewing a property miles away? Maybe not having enough time due to a fully-packed schedule? There could be thousands of reasons why an attempt to view a home listing becomes impossible. Then, the 360 Virtual Tour happened. While there are already several realtors adapting the new ways to promote properties, people are yet to understand what to expect from it.

One of the countries embracing the new tour option is the Kingdom of Cambodia. 360 virtual tour is an innovative way prepared to present homes the features of the property online. The panoramic image allows clients to appreciate a 360 degrees perspective of a given property. Homebuyers don’t need to be physically present when they don’t need to be, especially, for initial viewing. It’s a good way to save the realtor’s and homebuyer’s time, effort, and money. The tour also enables them to filter only the properties that meet their requirements.

What Benefits to Expect from 360 Virtual Tour

Homebuyers have their preferences on which houses meet their expectations. They can be generic and choose a feat that contributes to a certain look or ambiance. They can also be specific requirements due to their nature of work or habits. What realtors should realize is the potential of bridging their needs to what you can offer.

Photos are great but taking a leap and embracing something new means an opportunity in taking your business to the next level. Images leave homebuyers puzzled about where we can find certain sections and parts of a home. The virtual technology lets people experience an interactive tour.

360 Virtual Tour Convenience

Real estate agents generate more buyers by providing valuable service to homebuyers. Imagine the remote experience, bringing a modern touch to a classic business. The 360 virtual tour brings even more value to clients abroad looking for a convenient way of purchasing a home in Cambodia. Just like any other showroom, homebuyers can virtually move through the rooms at their own pace with a 360 perspective of the property.

Developers and homebuyers know that the real estate market in Cambodia is rising fast. New condos and commercial buildings are picking up, easing in the progress of the economy. We’ve accepted the competition rising, leaving outstanding agents to find ways to stand out! Step up and take the challenge to render a 360 virtual tour every homebuyer is eager to experience.

The Visuals Matter Inside and Out

Marketing properties that technically don’t exist yet is never easy but made possible by virtual reality. You may have even seen your share of 3D models or miniature of the properties. They are impressive, the landscapes and driveways are visible but what about the interior?

360 virtual tour better than the 3D house models

Real estate agents often create showrooms to showcase the property as full-scale models. It’s a marketing method that requires a costly investment to impress homebuyers.

The Solution

Virtual Tour Easy offers real estate businesses an enhanced way of staging properties with little investment. The 360 virtual tour is a cheaper and immersive marketing strategy to encourage homebuyers to purchase properties that aren’t built yet.

Imagine the number of homebuyers you can accommodate by having a showroom available 24/7. With 360 Virtual Tour, they’ll have a variety of choices on the halls they want to walk and gain access to rooms they want to see.

Conclusion

Traditional home buying is priceless but the world is turning into a fast-paced market. Goods, products, and services sell better online. The innovative virtual technology continues to create wonders by generating leads. Learn more about the 360 Virtual Tour and how you can improve your home listings by signing up for Virtual Tour Easy!

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Boost Your Airbnb Sales With These Creative Real Estate Tour Tips
BlogJanuary 6, 2020

Boost Your Airbnb Sales With These Creative Real Estate Tour Tips

Wanting to earn a passive income while you’re still waiting for your real estate properties to get sold? You’ve probably heard of Airbnb. As the hospitality and tourism industry continues to surge, more and more travelers are looking for accommodations. Gone are the days where people have to book an expensive hotel room for a night. The customers nowadays conduct a real estate tour to book real houses through Airbnb.

How can you take advantage of this new trend? It’s quite simple, really. Transform your property into an Airbnb accommodation and let your customers experience it first-hand! Not only do you get to make a passive income, but it also serves as a real estate tour marketing strategy. Here are the top tips to boost your Airbnb real estate tour sales.

List Your Airbnb Real Estate Tour All Year Long

If you still have real estate listings that are still sitting for God Knows how long, it’s the perfect time to transform them into Airbnb accommodations. And since it’s available all year long; we recommend you make your accommodation available to the customers all year long too. Most real estate agents commit a mistake of only listing their real estate property during the peak season.

real estate tour
Hit two birds by increasing your income and having free real estate tour marketing by listing your property on Airbnb.

What they don’t know is that they’re losing more money throughout the year too. That’s why we recommend you enlist your property to Airbnb all year long to have a steady source of income. Another benefit of this is that your customers get a free real estate tour during their stay. This can also give you potential leads to sell the property in no time.

Allow Instant Booking

Now that you’ve set your Airbnb property available all year long, it’s time to streamline the booking process. Don’t let your customers keep waiting for your approval before they can book. Or else you’re going to lose money in the process. Allow instant booking by letting your guests choose their preferred travel dates.

Then they can tick AGREE to house rules. After that, they can click the booking button and they'll be redirected to a payment portal. Instant booking not only increases your Airbnb sales, but it also increases your ranking. Studies show instant bookable real estate tour accommodations increase their search rankings.

Allow Long-term Bookings

Most Airbnb accommodations only allow short-stay bookings. While hotel bookings offer long-term booking, they can be pretty expensive in the long-run. You can outsmart these by offering an affordable long-term booking for your Airbnb property! You can set your booking to have minimal and maximum days of stay. Not only it gives you a more stable income, but it also offers convenience to customers who opt for a long stay.

Make Your Airbnb Children and Pet-Friendly

Most real estate agents don’t cater to families who bring children or pets with them. However, they also lose money in doing so. So as much as possible, we recommend you keep your property open to any kind of guests. Maybe you can charge higher rates for families bringing in their children or fur babies to cover maintenance costs. In this way, you’ll retain your customer leads and earn more money in the process!

Offer Local Experience In Your Community

Since you’ll be catering to foreign guests, this is the perfect time to give them a local real estate tour experience. Aside from their itinerary, you can opt to meet them and give them a local tour to our community. It might pique their interest to invest a property around the area if they’ll like the lifestyle and vibe there.

Want us to help boost your real estate tour sales? Create your first real estate tour today!

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4 Real Estate Tour Technologies to Adopt In Your Business This 2020!
BlogDecember 23, 2019

4 Real Estate Tour Technologies to Adopt In Your Business This 2020!

Ready to take your real estate tour to the next level this year 2020? Gain a competitive edge against your competitors as you apply these new emerging trends to your marketing strategy next year. Let’s take a look at these state-of-the-art technologies and how it’ll help innovate your real estate business.

Big Data

Whether you are selling your real estate properties or currently using them for rental business, big data helps in determining your customer’s buying intent. According to experts, the huge quantitative data collected from your purchase history as well as other real estate platforms provide a predictive analysis report.

A sample of this report includes Airbnb analytics where it lets you determine your customer's purchasing behavior, trends, patterns. Big companies like Amazon, Facebook, Netflix, and Uber also applies the same technology. Fortunately, our real estate CRM also uses big data technology to fetch information and generate reports. You can use this report to evaluate your real estate tour marketing plan periodically.

Virtual Real Estate Tour

If you haven’t already, we recommend you start incorporating 360 virtual tours in your real estate business. This technology helps prospective buyers and renters to inspect properties anytime and anywhere they want. A virtual real estate tour gives you and your clients the convenience you both need.

real estate tour
Most customers love the virtual tour because it lets them inspect their potential properties anywhere they want.

You don’t have to waste time syncing your schedules for an on-site visit. Your clients can just visit your website link and have a thorough virtual tour of your properties. Studies show longer time spent on your virtual tours also increases your chances of sealing the deal.

Cloud Technology

Virtual tours, big data, real estate CRM tools. What do you think is the common denominator among the three? Most technologies nowadays rely on cloud technology to store their data and information. Cloud-based technologies nowadays let you streamline your business and store and access data wherever you go. Gone are the days where you need to keep a physical copy and transmit it manually to your clients and team members.

Likewise, it helps your clients streamline their application process since you already save their information online. The lesser paperwork you have, the more customers are likely to make transactions with you. Studies show most customers got turned off in buying real estate properties because they don’t want to deal with the hassle of paperwork.

Real Estate Bots

As you streamline your real estate business, make sure to upgrade your customer service too. Don’t just leave your customers hanging after making a transaction with them; especially if they need your help or assistance. One way of making sure you attend to your customer's needs 24/7 is by installing real estate tour robots.

You can install chatbots and a 24/7 ticketing system for your business. The bots can handle general inquiries that don’t need you or your team member’s personal attention. For custom inquiries, you can forward it to your customer rep or personally handle it to solve the problem. Increase your chances of customer retention and loyalty by always addressing their concerns without wasting your time.

Internet of Things

Nowadays, customers don’t only want a normal real estate property. They also want to make sure their property is safe from possible theft. That’s why they’re looking for smart home properties where they can monitor their house 24/7 whenever they’re away. Not only that, but they also want the internet of things technologies like energy efficiency and predictive maintenance.

Conclusion

There’s no doubt most people nowadays utilize technology to make their real estate home purchase convenient and comfortable. Want to start incorporating these technologies in your real estate business to step up the game? We offer a 360 virtual tour for your real estate listings.

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360 Virtual Tour Mistakes You Must Avoid Right Now!
BlogDecember 16, 2019

360 Virtual Tour Mistakes You Must Avoid Right Now!

As technology continues to evolve, most digital marketers also look for ways to innovate their real estate business strategies. While content is still king, we’ve learned how to innovate it by engaging in different multimedia. We’ve started incorporating images, infographics, GIFs, and videos in our marketing campaigns. Nowadays, we also see how 360 virtual tour seems to boost our views and engagements tremendously.

The experts claim the interactive virtual tour helps them reach out to remote customers all over the world. It also offers convenience as their clients don’t have to go physically to check out the properties. It resulted to increase in real estate sales. Despite its stunning benefits, many realtors claim they still struggle with virtual tours. Why is that? It may be because you’re committing these fatal mistakes!

Learn How to Correct Your 360 Virtual Tour Mistakes here!

Staging Your Home With Little Or Too Much Medium

An empty property space is like a blank canvas. Your buyers want to imagine and immerse what it’s like to live in your proposed property. That’s why you need to capture these anticipating feelings through a 360 virtual tour. However, most realtors tend to declutter their spaces and only add minimal furniture or features virtually. This effectively turns your customers off since they feel the room is barren and empty. Prepare a 360 virtual tour addressing your customer’s needs.

This photo was created with:AMOUS™ ANALOG 01 for Adobe Lightroom. https://amous.co/downloads/analog-pack/
Prepare a 360 virtual tour addressing your customer’s needs.

On the other hand, cluttering your home too much also turns your customers off since they feel the property is too narrow for them to add the amenities they want to incorporate. So how do you solve this problem?

According to real estate experts, you need to find the “Goldilocks” balance in home staging. Instead of putting virtual furniture, decor, and ornaments that are irrelevant to your customers attend to their needs instead. For example, if your customer is a fitness coach, do a 360 virtual tour where an unused room can be converted into a gym or yoga session place.

Dim Lightings In Your Virtual Tour

Most realtors commit the mistake of ignoring lighting thinking the software will do the job of lightening up the virtual tour. While the software can help improve your 360 virtual tour resolution, it may end up being dim or having inconsistencies.

Having dim lighting makes your property look smaller; while inconsistent lighting also creates some jarring experience for the user. You can produce consistent lighting by a combination of sunlight, as well as your home’s cardinal orientation. Having a well-lit house makes your property look inviting and spacious.

Not Making a Self-Guided Interactive 360 Virtual Tour

Just like how the customers have full control once they bought a property, they also want to exercise the same control in a 360 virtual tour. Don’t make the mistake of having pre-programmed virtual tours. Allow your buyers to navigate each room and move around the property how they want.

They should be able to see every angle, approach, and corner of the property. Not only it improves their interactive experience, but they also tend to dwell longer in your 360 virtual tours. Higher and longer virtual tour engagements lead to higher real estate sales.

Not Highlighting Your Property’s Unique Features

While it’s great to highlight every corner and angle of your property, don’t forget to give extra attention to your unique features. For example, you can highlight the master’s bedroom’s terrace which offers an overlooking view of the beach. The peaceful scenery triggers a relaxing ambiance for your customers. You can also highlight infinity pools where they can swim and chill after a long day.

Whatever unique features you have in your property, make sure to highlight it in your 360 virtual tour to entice your customers.

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6 Innovative Ways to Make Creative Virtual Tours For Your Real Estate
BlogDecember 5, 2019

6 Innovative Ways to Make Creative Virtual Tours For Your Real Estate

Real estate marketing is all about advertising your brand as an agent and assuring consumer and supplier leads by sharing your listings on social media platforms, promoting your company, and constructing your website content. With these days’ advanced technology, a lot of things have already been made possible. One of which is what we call a virtual tour.

A virtual tour is a model or a simulation of an existing location. It is usually composed of a succession of videos or still images. It may also be incorporated with other multimedia elements such as sound effects, music, narration, and text.

A virtual tour is also one of the best ways to promote your real estate. It gives your clients a perspective of the area without having to go there. Why spend both time and money traveling to the location when you can get a tour even within the comfort of your own home? This strategy will surely impress your clients. However, creating a virtual tour is not an easy task.

Here are tips on how to make a real estate virtual tour:

Virtual Tour Equipment

virtual tour set up
Invest in state-of-the-art cameras, equipment, and technology to create a stunning virtual tour for your real estate property listings.

You need to make sure that the equipment you will be using is of high-quality and in perfect condition; batteries fully charged and empty SD cards are available.

Shooting Time

Checking the weather forecast is a must so that you can schedule the shoot on fair weathered days. Also, the best time of the day to get warm and high-quality images are at sundown.

Tidy Up

If you want to impress your clients, make sure that the area you will be shooting is free from any clutter or unnecessary things. The camera will be shooting the area in 360° so it’s gonna see everything there is to see. The best way to check if the area is all good is to stand at the same spot as the camera and do a 360°. If something is not in place, then it’s time to do a quick sweep.

Furniture Setup

It is important that the perspective of the area is pleasant to the eyes of your clients. Interior design is the key to this. Matching the furniture with the spatial aspect of a room must be well-thought. Consider also the type of decorations to place from one room to another; the color that will enhance the vicinity; and the like.

Also, take note of the positions of mirrors, windows, and anything that’s going to give off a reflection. The camera might capture you in the reflection or even the camera itself; it might also create gleams that could ruin the image so find angles that will prevent this.

Lighting

Since the ideal time to do the shoot is at sundown, interior shoots should be done with the curtains up and the lights on. If there are doors available, open them to allow light from outside to come in. Also, this gives your client a view of the outside from where he/she is standing.

Stay Away

Literally, just stay away from the camera as far as you can. If you can see the camera then it means that the camera can see you, too. Another thing to remember is that even if the camera cannot see you, your shadow might be peeking at the corners. Make sure that this does not happen.

Once you’ve done all these tips, you may check the images to see if it’s a perfect capture or not. If not, you can always take another one, just make sure to correct the error that occurred in the image. If it is, then you deserve a pat on the back. You did a good job of creating your own virtual tour.

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5 Reasons Why You Don’t Want To Miss A 360 Virtual Tour!
BlogDecember 2, 2019

5 Reasons Why You Don’t Want To Miss A 360 Virtual Tour!

The 360 Virtual Tour

The Real Estate market is an ever-changing industry and the demand increases every year. We make use of virtual reality to promote selling properties. We make it an even more realistic experience by offering a 360 virtual tour.

Promoting properties using a 360 virtual tour is one of the latest trends that realtors developed to get them ahead in the game. Various tools are available for realtors to outwit other competitors and draw attention to their properties.

How does a 360 virtual tour help with a real estate deal?

Fine Way to Display

A 360 virtual tour is a great way to showcase the property you are promoting regardless if it’s commercial or residential.

Here you can highlight the rooms and available spaces in the house that the client can explore and navigate by moving to directions they want to see. Most clients explore the different parts of the house like bedrooms and hallways to get an idea of how the real property must look like in reality. Depending on how many floors, the client can freely select the area that piqued their interest.

You can even find additional details on the screen and get the information you need. In most cases, this information holds the exclusive details available in the house like a piece of antique furniture or a rare collection included in the sale.

No Wasted Effort

Realtors get calls all the time from clients and you are no different. This technological advancement would save both parties from unnecessary hassle. Instead of putting an appointment for a home visit for a property that’s far from your area, a 360 virtual tour allows you to find out if the home meets your requirements without going on-site. This saves you more time and avoids the hassle of scheduling a home visit only to find out the property does not meet your standards

People with busy work schedules will appreciate the convenience of this tour.

Not only easy but Cost-effective

Virtual tours give the impression of being costly and it would take a lot of time to create them. Contrary to that assumption, it is easy to make them and saves time. You can use the internet and follow the instructions to create them.

WordPress, for example, allows you to create a virtual tour with an exclusive WPVR plugin.

Take a single panorama image from every room around the house or property that you want your client to see. Upload that image to the plugin. The WPVR will link those images and viola! Now you have a 360 virtual tour that’s readily available for your clients!

More Reliable

360 virtual tour makes you reliable in presenting parts of the property
360 virtual tour help buyers see an entire room

High-quality real-estate images and visuals help leave give an impression to your clients, which you can take advantage of thanks to this technology. Virtual tours give clients a certain image for them to look forward and help them eliminate unnecessary visits to properties they are less likely to admire. On many occasions, clients are becoming meticulous in purchasing both residential and commercial properties. Single images won’t stand a chance in the industry.

Buyers get more inclined to images they can manipulate to see better. Panoramic images help them get the best visual of the actual home.

A new way to Attract Clients

Many realtors remain unaware of this feature since they lack background on virtual tours which is why this is the perfect time to explore and offer the clients an accessible way to view properties. Technological advancement taught people a convenient way to do almost everything at home, especially ones who are from abroad looking for relocation or seeking inquiries on remote property investment. You’ll surely get an extra boost and generate traffic in promoting your social platforms.

Take the challenge of experiencing it first hand. Expand your horizons and use the latest trends in landing more clients. Real Estate agents and investors will surely benefit from a 360 virtual tour.

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Study Shows that Young Homebuyers Rely on Technology for Virtual Tours
BlogNovember 25, 2019

Study Shows that Young Homebuyers Rely on Technology for Virtual Tours

Younger buyers are using technology to buy new homes. This has changed the impact of technology. Michael Booe of Helen Adams Realty said that younger buyers often want to speed up the process. They do this by accessing 360 virtual tours using their mobile phones. He added his observation that people are now making property purchases using Facetime with real estate agents.

For tech-savvy clients, the real estate sector is still so analog. It has still remained as a relationship-driven industry, Booe continued. Amazon aims to facilitate these relationships through a platform it has created with the program known as Turnkey. This is made possible in partnership with a brokerage company called Realogy.

Kohleen Nornes of Coldwell Banker said that the buyer benefits from this by enjoying the services of a personally selected real estate agent.

Once they close the deal on a new home, buyers can enjoy up to $5,000 worth of smart home gear and services from Amazon. Example of these are unpacking and installation that are free of charge. This particular deal boosts Amazon’s goal to become the online destination for all kinds of purchases.

A comfortable spot for everyone.
Photographer: ROOM | Source: Unsplash

According to a 2017 survey by Redfin, about 47 percent of millennial buyers made offers for homes without seeing them in person. The National Research Association, on the other hand, revealed that the buyers aged 36 years old and younger represented the largest percentage of the total homebuyers, which is about 34 percent of all purchases.

Millennials and the older generation start their home purchases by doing online searches. They are willing to go to the next step and this is what fintechs are taking advantage of. These companies have already started rolling out virtual tours, live streaming of open houses, and speedy mortgage applications online.

Virtual reality tours have become popular among younger buyers. Coldwell Banker Real Estate polled around 3,000 US adults regarding their level of interest in the use of virtual tours. The study revealed that 77 percent of the survey respondents want to view a VR before visiting the site while 84 percent want to view video footage of the property first.

About 68 percent of the respondents want VR to see how their current furniture will look in the property. Sixty-two percent of them said that they want to deal with real estate agents who made VR technology available for them to use.

Virtual tours are a necessity in today’s real estate 360 marketing techniques. Learn more about its uses and benefits by checking Virtual Tour Easy.

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4 AI Trends Real Estate Brokers Must Use
real estate, virtual realityNovember 21, 2019

4 AI Trends Real Estate Brokers Must Use

Artificial Intelligence (AI) or the simulation of human intelligence using machines has slowly become part of everyone’s daily lives. That’s why we talk to Alexa, we drive smart cars, receive recommendations for movies and music on our smart devices, and play video games against computers. There is however a lag when it comes to real estate property selling and buying.

Real estate is considered as the largest asset class in the world. It has contributed a whopping amount of $3.5T to the US GDP. It’s good that now there are signs of AI application in buying and renting homes and offices.

The following are the top AI trends that real estate brokers must know by heart:

Alexa

According to a new study, about 48 percent of buyer inquiries don’t get responded to. An agent’s average time of response is 917 minutes. Another study, on the other hand, showed that buyers considered responsiveness as important. This is why brokers usually take turns in answering queries, but there are instances when no one is available to take inquiries. That’s where Alexa is needed, to respond to queries 24/7.

An Austin-based startup called Ojo Labs raised the amount of $71M to set up a chatbot for real estate that can answer queries on information regarding listings through text messaging. Some people are having second thoughts about chatbots due to their inability to answer open-ended questions. Ojo Labs also acquired WolfNet to improve its algorithm. Their competitors are Kelle and Structurally.

Zero Paperworks

Benjamin Franklin said that time is money. This is especially true in real estate. It takes time for a realtor to enter information about the property such as lighting, the number of rooms, location, room types, etc. This can be resolved through the use of Restb.ai. This is an AI that can automatically input information about a property based on its photos.

This tool has 30+ home scenes, 30+ high-value home features, and 16 architectural styles to classify images. This saves time and enhances the convenience of storing and accessing property information.

Leverton a start-up that is based in Berlin invested $17 million is now able to extract information from contracts, leases, and corporate documents. The broker simply uploads the documents, and AI extracts information such as rent charges, allowing brokers to find information faster and more conveniently.

Crystal Ball Prediction

It would be easier if real estate agents can easily predict who is going to list or buy a property soon. Rex is an LA-based startup with $70M in funding. It uses AI to predict buyers who are more likely to buy specific homes. It sends out targeted as to those who it considers as possible buyers. Based on the clicks, the same customer segments will be sent ads in the future.

A North-Carolina-based startup First with $7M in funds started using AI to analyze contracts and how these contracts are likely to sell in the following year. During the pilot period, First predicted more than 1,800 homes that are listed.

Reevaluate is another startup that can predict the individuals who are likely to move in the next 3 to 6 months. The company claims an accuracy rate of 36.4% as it analyzes over 200 data points based on information from spending habits and data news.

Virtual Reality Tour

A virtual reality tour can help any buyer envision the property listings of any real estate broker. A buyer can now see the internal and external views of properties using 360-degree views. This technology provides the buyer with the experience of walking through the listing, using only any mobile device or computer. This aids in their decision to buy or rent a property.

AI is not meant to replace the real estate brokers. They are here to make them more efficient. AI ensures property buyers the ultimate experience. If you want to know more about the impact of a virtual reality tour for your business, you may visit our website –Virtual Tour Easy.

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