virtual tours

Sales & MarketingOctober 11, 2019

Real Estate Marketing for the Millennials: How to Sell a Home to the New Generation

Millennials are now the largest portion of the population; they have surpassed the baby boomers. According to the National Association of Realtors, this generation has not been given the attention of realtors. This has to be changed for 37 percent of home buyers belong to the millennial generation.

According to the 2019 Home Buyers’ Report, 84 percent of millennials consider owning a home as part of the American Dream more than getting married and having children. This is why it is crucial for realtors to know what this population wants to tap into their market.

What Do They Look for in a Home?

Not all of the millennials prefer to buy a home. The important thing to consider is the type of home that they are interested in. Most of those who plan to buy homes prefer the suburban areas instead of urban areas; but for those who plan to rent, they prefer cities.

According to the National Association of Home Builders, about 3/4thof millennials who prefer to buy homes want a single-family home, 52 percent prefer two-story homes, and 78 percent prefer to have an open concept home. This is a tech-savvy generation and they want modern features such as sleek kitchen and laundry units, appliances, and entertainment areas.

What Appeals to the Millennials?

Technology is something crucial to millennials. They use it for everything they need and even in their search of a home. There are several factors to include such as the right real estate agent, Google Maps, crime rate, the neighborhood, and amenities that enable socialization.

The following are some of the tips to connect well with millennials:

Stay Active on Social Media

The following are some of the platforms that are important for agents to represent themselves: Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat. Don’t just create a profile, you have to engage with the users. Use hashtags for key terms, your company or property, and the location. Don’t forget to post your new listings.

Set Up a Website or a Blog

Millennials conveniently log on to search online for anything they need and that includes a residential property. The National Association of Realtors stated that 94 percent of millennials use sites to look for homes to buy and 51 percent of those who actually buy the homes they found online. If you already have a site, you can add a blog section where you will be able to discuss trendy topics such as home-ownership, home buying, and home maintenance tips. You may also focus more on the technological aspect. Make sure that the site’s aesthetics is futuristic and also ensure its mobile responsiveness to make sure that the site can be accessed in all mobile devices. You may also add a chatbot on the site.

Photographer: Priscilla Du Preez | Source: Unsplash

Don’t Miss Out on the Technological Tools

The millennial generation is so keen on the use of technology. It’s better to offer them interactive 3D content. Through the creation of 3D content such as a virtual reality tour or 360-degree pictures, you can enable buyers to tour the property and focus on areas they are more interested in without having to be there physically. Augmented reality is also contributing to image recognition and GPS. Realtors can use mobile proximity marketing which enables them to be informed when a potential buyer is near your listed property.

Come Up With an Event Instead of the Traditional Open House

Going to a traditional open house is both boring and awkward especially for millennials. The best move is to hold an event with DJs, hor's d’ oeuvres, and even some outdoor activities while physically touring the property. This is a great way to mingle with everyone especially because millennials love social events. Doing this with a virtual reality tour to complete the picture will be a great motivator for millennials.

Learning to market to the millennial generation serves a great investment for the future. There are many options for you to market to millennials based on what they want, but you can start by learning how to communicate with them. Start by creating your first virtual tour today! Sign up on Virtual Tour Easy for free!

marketing, virtual realityAugust 19, 2019

The Importance of Using Voice-Over and Background Music to Your Virtual Tour

Most marketers have underestimated the impact of sound design on the virtual tour creation process. There are those who intend to make their VR tours as real-life like as possible, but most often it is better to supplement the creative visuals with voice-over and music in the background.

Defining the Voice-Over

Voice-over enables viewers to listen to a human voice while viewing a video in a 360-degree environment. The voice is particularly helpful in educating the user, guiding him or her to view a particular scene or area, and also to enhance the virtual tour’s entertainment value. What is required here is an MP3 file.

A voice-over can make the entire tour experience more humane. This can also make the virtual tour experience more personal and genuine. Virtual tours with voice-over are specifically useful in several cases such as in education, tourism, training, real estate, and travel.

On Background Music

It is also possible to add music to a certain scene in a virtual tour. This will render a certain feeling or ambiance to the scene. Music can enliven the whole virtual tour experience. It can also make it more engaging. Same with the voice-over, an MP3 file is required for background music. Virtual tours with background music can be used for entertainment, travel, and tourism.

Adding Background Music in Virtual Tour through Virtual Tour Easy

In Virtual Tour Easy, the user can freely add background music in every virtual tour. There are two ways to add background music in your virtual tour . You can add music to the entire virtual tour itself which can help build an overall theme for it, and the other is to add background music or a voice-over to a particular scene.

· Adding Music to the Entire Virtual Tour

Log in to the site. Look for the pencil icon which is part of the Tour Builder. Within the Tour Builder, look for the filter icon. Once you find the Tour Settings popup, click on the Audio tab. Then click the Upload button and choose your preferred music. After this, click on the “Upload” button. Wait for the Success Notification popup to appear.

· Adding Music or Voice-Over to a Specific Scene in a Virtual Tour

Find the Click the Pencil icon once you have logged in to the Virtual Tour Easy site. Once in the Virtual Tour Builder page, click the specific scene then click the Edit button. Once you see the popup, click the Audio tab and the Upload button to look for your preferred music. A Success Notification popup will show up once the music is added.

It is not difficult to add warmth to your virtual tour. It only takes a few steps. For more information, you may visit the site: VirtualTourEasy.com.

marketing, virtual realityAugust 12, 2019

Most Effective Techniques to Increase Marketing ROI Using Virtual Tours

The use of virtual tours is one of the priorities in the list of marketing techniques. The impact of virtual tours in marketing range from repurposing the content for different goals, leveraging the chat messaging function for customer satisfaction, and the benefits that it provides to analytics. There are several components that compose a 360-degree virtual tour. These are the following: audio, 360-degree videos, photos, lead generation forms, and other forms of content that can be embedded in a 360-degree virtual tour. The final output of a virtual tour can be used across different devices such as tablets, smartphones, desktop, and VR headsets.

Make Your Content Useful Across Multiple Channels

Content can be created to serve different goals. Create a virtual tour that presents information that can last for a prolonged period and can be accessed across various channels. The trick is to reuse your existing and branded content within the virtual tour making them hotspots which can help reduce cost. It is also easier to update the hotspot compared to reshooting and editing a series of full videos.

Videos Are Now Live and They Are More Personal

It is significant to connect with potential clients authentically and to make a community of like-minded individuals. This can be done simply by embedding a vlog or video blog in a virtual tour for prospects to keep coming back for more. A live broadcast within a 360-degree virtual tour enables everyone watching it in one location. It is also as easy as featuring news or events on the virtual tour. You can create streams of income on the 360-degree virtual tour by adding native advertising, product ads, and some sponsorships. A virtual campaign allows for engagement with prospects and current customers and presents a pipeline for multichannel distribution of content.

Virtual Tours Increase Bookings by 85 Percent

A 360 degree virtual tour is more engaging, and it offers you more time to laugh, freak out, cry, and create an emotion that can be associated with your particular offer. Emotions often stimulate thoughts and decisions. Being able to view a physical location has a profound psychological effect on any buyer. VIP tours behind the scenes are also considered to be largely helpful for businesses that are non-public facing in nature.

Photographer: Lucrezia Carnelos | Source: Unsplash

Optimizing the Message of Virtual Tours

The message conveyed and the creativity involved in the delivery of the message can have a huge impact on marketing. Being able to deliver the right message to the people can increase business ROI. Marketers must optimize the right message and send it at the right time to a targeted audience. Optimizing a 360-degree virtual tour may only require changing a voice over audio clip or perhaps integrating a lead generation form. Heat maps and several other data points collected from virtual tours may also enable channel optimization.

Bright Future for Virtual Reality Market

It’s the right time to start the use of virtual tour as a stepping-stone toward more virtual reality engagement. Every marketer uses video as content delivery method. To rise above the din produced by video production, a marketer can take refuge from an interactive 360-degree virtual tour. The application of a 360-degree virtual tour will serve as a roadmap for the increasing use of virtual reality in the marketing methods of the business.

For you to find out more about the benefits and the methods of creating virtual tours, visit Virtual Tour Easy now.

marketing, virtual realityAugust 5, 2019

Virtual Tours Can Maximize Lead Generation and Conversions | Here’s Why!

It is possible to create leads through virtual tours. It is a great way to capture the attention of users by offering them a good experience on the site. One way to ensure this is to focus on the creation and on stimulating interaction with the site visitors. Let the users explore the business through the virtual tour and allow them to directly purchase an item or pay for a service on your virtual tour.

Make sure that you use several call-to-action buttons; these depend on your type of business and your specific conversion goals. Such call-to-action buttons include links to online shops, sign-up forms for newsletters, restaurant and hotel reservations, and requests for real estate property deals.

You can also provide access to webshop links and enable direct bookings on the virtual tour itself. You can allow your visitors to experience visiting your business and for them to capture the moment by letting them make a reservation straight from the virtual tour. You may also redirect them to your own booking page. Hotel managers must make sure that their guests can book the exact room type that they have visited through a virtual tour. All you have to do is put a Book Now button on the page.

Virtual tours can also be integrated with different platforms. Platforms like these These platforms can ensure seamless and easy booking online. For businesses that have their own web shops, deep links can be used to lead visitors to online shops where they can complete their orders. You can highlight particular brands and let visitors find out more about the products or services offered by the company.

Photographer: Hammer & Tusk | Source: Unsplash

It is easier to track conversions and performance through the virtual tour. It is crucial to monitor and keep track of the ROI that the tour provides for the company. An analytics backend can be placed within the virtual tour that can help in monitoring the clicks of visitors on a specific call to action buttons in the virtual tour.

Without difficulty, you can see the number of time users spend on the virtual tour and which particular hotspots are considered the most popular; and also you will be able to track those leads that are generated by each of all the call-to-action buttons such as Book Now, Contact Us, and Request Quote.

If you want to know more about how to leverage your virtual tour for your marketing, try creating your virtual tour with Virtual Tour Easy. Create your free account today!

BlogJuly 29, 2019

[Guest Post] Tips on Making Your Hospitality Listing Standout Online

If you are planning to rent out your vacation home in a popular area you will need to do whatever you can to make your listings stand out from the other vacation rentals that people can choose from. If you are smart about your listing you can keep your vacation home rented throughout the tourist season and bring in the extra income that you want. Here are some expert real estate agent and designer tips you can use to make your online vacation listing pop.

1. Hire The Right Stager

Staging your vacation home for listing is very important because guests will be making the decision to book your home based on what they see in the listing. Hire someone local to the area who has experience in playing up the best features of a vacation home. The furniture used should be comfortable and inviting and should show off the best features of the home. If your home is beachfront or waterfront the furniture should be arranged in ways that show off the natural views outside and make the best use of the proximity to the beach.

2. Interior Design Trends to Make a Statement

If your vacation home looks outdated or dingy people will surf right by it. People who are going on vacation want to stay in a place that is luxe, trendy, and looks updated and cared for. New paint in colors that complement the location is a must. For example, in a beach house use hues that will mimic the natural colors outside like blues and pale greens. In a vacation home in a remote woodsy location use deep greens, browns and natural colors. Update the home to include on trend design elements like an open kitchen with durable and attractive countertops, modern light fixtures, and gorgeous flooring like distressed hardwood floors.

You should also pay a lot of attention to the small details of the rooms. The curtains, pillows, blankets, and bedding will all make an impression on potential renters. The home should look contemporary and on trend but also relaxing and comfortable. Those little details like pops of color in throw pillows, accent walls using wood or natural materials, and painted trim and molding make a big visual impact.

3. Make Sure the Pictures Show Off Your Home

It’s easy to take high quality pictures with any smartphone these days, but when you are listing your vacation home on a rental site you should really hire a professional photographer. Choose a local photographer who knows when the local light is best and how to capture the water, the fields, or whatever natural landscape is around the home. Professional photos of the interior of the home will show off your home to the best advantage. Having pictures that truly show of the house, location, and all the features of your listing will help your vacation home standout online.

4. Help Guests Even Before They Rent Your Home

Providing your guests with extra information is a great way to attract renters. On your listing mention things like the best family activities in the area or the best places to eat. If your rental home has a kitchen make sure that you let your guests know where the local supermarkets are if they want to buy groceries instead of eating out. Suggest local farmer’s markets and specialty gourmet stores. Make sure that the kitchen has a full set of cookware, plates, and dishes and show photos of them in the listing so guests know they can cook their own meals in the home.

5. Consider Posting a Virtual Tour

A virtual tour is something that guests will really appreciate. Utilize a 360 camera and a virtual tour software to create a simple virtual tour that will really show off your home. This will help give vacation goers a realistic view of the home before they get in the door. Adding a virtual tour to your rental listing will help you book more guests.

About the Author:

Corey Tyner is the owner of Phoenix Fast Sell and Austin Fast Sell Home Buyers. He is one of the top real estate investors in Arizona with over a decade of experience. His work has been featured on Bigger Pockets, Real Estate Agent Magazine, and several other real estate investor publications.

virtual reality, Virtual ToursJuly 15, 2019

Differentiating Virtual Tour and Virtual Reality: What Is More Useful to You?

Digital technology today has become more refined. Users now have a different way of accessing information on the net. Two of the most efficient tools used in today’s industries are virtual tours and virtual reality. However, there are differences between the two that make each one suitable for a particular type of content. The two may appear similar but they have differences in the manner they deliver content and stimulate engagement.

The 360° virtual tour is a digital marketing tool that makes use of actual photographs from 360° cameras that are put together appearing as one whole composition. This technology can provide both photos and videos of various settings such as resorts, houses, casinos, restaurants, clubs, and other real estate properties. The viewers can take a look at the content created by the tool. It’s primarily about the immersive visual experience. The 360° virtual tour can be viewed several times and 24/7. It will always be available for you on any of your mobile devices.

There are two types of virtual tours namely: 3D animation and 360° virtual tour. The 360° tour allows viewers to view the entire environment within a specific physical location in a 360° radius. 3D animation is an interactive means of depicting objects in three dimensions on the screen which makes 3D content available for users.

Advantages

There are several advantages of virtual tours. Here are the best ones:

1) A Growing Number of Probable Visitors

A virtual tour is easy to access with just a computer or mobile with internet access. This makes it a favorite choice of many users.

2) Scalability

The scope of a virtual tour and its functionality is not limited. It’s easy for one to add new exhibits, functions, and virtual tours which can be truly exciting for visitors.

3) 24/7 Access

You can access a virtual tour anytime, anywhere.

4) Enhanced Premise Visibility

Virtual exhibits often encourage you to view the exhibit in real life. This is also the same as viewing real estate property online.

VR Painting @ Trailerpark I/O — Photographer: Billetto Editorial | Source: Unsplash

Virtual Reality

Virtual reality enables users to immerse in an entirely virtual environment. Viewers will be given the freedom to interact with the surroundings and they are also provided the basic freedom that is not possible with the 360° video. This means that this tool is able to create an alternate world and enables the viewers to stay on it. There are key elements of a virtual reality experience. These are immersion, virtual world, sensory feedback, and interactivity.

A virtual world is a three-dimensional environment that often is made possible through a medium where users can interact with one another and produce objects as part of such interaction. Immersion, on the other hand, is that sensation of being physically existing in a non-physical world. Virtual reality requires as many as our senses to be simulated. Interactivity is the comfort that users experience when engaging with their natural environment.

There are also three types of virtual reality. These are the non-immersive, the semi-immersive, and the fully immersive. The non-immersive is the least immersive in the implementation of the technology. This means that only a subset of the user’s senses is simulated. The semi-immersive virtual reality means that users are not fully immersed in the virtual environment. The fully immersive virtual reality offers the most immersive rendition of the technology.

Virtual Tour and Virtual Reality are different from each other, but they are somehow related, and both are important in many industries. For you to come up with your own virtual tour without any hassles, you can check on this site: VirtualTourEasy.com.

BlogJuly 8, 2019

A Definitive Guide on Shooting Panoramic Photos for Virtual Tour Creation

When taking 360-photos of the different areas of a house, it is important for you to stay focused. From the start, you have several aspects to consider. You need to think about double exposure in the case of high lights or what is known as HDR exposure. It is also important for you to tilt or rotate the panoramic head and move the tripod for shooting the nadir.

Tips for Beginners

The following are the major aspects to consider when shooting for a virtual tour:

A virtual tour that doesn’t use a tripod or is handheld is not possible. You need to use at least a monopod. Best of all, use a tripod.
It is important to set the camera on a panoramic head and on a tripod for ease of use.
Remove every trace of the tripod on the photo.
Compensate the high lights through a door or a window.

When Shooting the Photos…

It is crucial to decide whether you will use a tripod or not. Almost every photographer uses the circular fisheye on a monopod. This lets the camera stay on the nodal point, particularly in height. Handheld shooting can only be possible for a virtual tour when you only have to take up to three photos to complete the entire sphere. It is better to stick to the entrance pupil or nodal point and to have a mobile solution. It is compulsory to use the tripod when you have to take more photos.

Note: The more complicated the tripod, the more space it will take at the nadir level.

During the preparation, you have to decide on the number of shots to take for rotation and also the number of ranges. You have to tilt or rotate the camera between two shots depending on the angle covered. If the camera used is notch-based, you only have to rotate the camera to the next notch. Without the notch, you can base everything on the viewfinder or the control screen. The viewfinder has its own set of benefits if the camera does not have any built-in cloaking device. An important piece of advice: look around to find out whether the subject can enter the field of the photo.

Ghost in a relinquished building — Photographer: Ferdinand Stöhr | Source: Unsplash

How to Shoot the Nadir With or Without the Tripod

There are several methods to eliminate the tripod. It depends on the nature of the floor level, the panoramic head, and the time you can spend on taking the photo. One method of shooting is one that requires you not to include the floor underneath the tripod. The second method is to take the floor under the tripod and let the tripod disappear in the actual virtual tour.

When you include the floor under the tripod in your shoot, the tripod appears on the photo. There are two methods to remove it: by placing a circular shape in its stead, covering it and by ceasing the downward movement of the mouse until the boundaries of the tripod’s arms. For the first method, it is important to include the copyright and the name of the location.

It is preferable not to include the floor in the photo. But if you still prefer otherwise, it is imperative to show as a little tripod as possible and make sure that the circle will be the smallest possible. These can be done through any of the following means:

Shoot with a circular fisheye
Shoot with a full-format fisheye and make sure that the vertical field of view makes the circle small
Add one more line at its bottom where the boundaries of the tripod’s arms are.
On the other hand, shooting the nadir without the tripod can be done following these steps:
You have to shoot the raw materials that you will need later.
Using photoshop, make sure that two or three photos match; and through the layers’ masks, remove all possible traces of the tripod.

How to Shoot the Raw Material

Shoot at 0 degrees.
Shoot the zenith photo at 90 degrees.
Shoot towards the floor at -90 degrees. This can be done by directing the camera towards the floor right above where the rotary axis is. Be sure that the vertical arm is right above one of the tripod arms.

You will have a photo that is directed towards the floor with a print of the panoramic head and one of the arms of the tripod. This photo will go well with the others because the tripod is not likely to move. You will see that 80 percent of the photo tripod and it is free from the panoramic head. Only a small area of the floor is missing for the sphere to be complete.

It is necessary to shoot a photo of the place again, this time without the tripod. When shooting indoors, it can be complex and quite impossible to use the Photoshop stamp. The only solution to this is to use the same tripod for the panoramic head but tilt the tripod a little towards the floor.

Here are some more tips to consider:

Put a coin marker on the floor under the central column of the tripod before the tripod is moved. This represents the rotary axis of the nodal point of the lens and the camera head. It is also wise to rotate the vertical arm of the panoramic camera head at 180 degrees. Here the camera is already hung on the floor yet still on the tripod and at the same height which makes it stable all the time. Hence it is important to reposition the lenses accurately. All you have to do is to look through the viewfinder or make use of the live view or else position the coin at the center of the viewfinder. For the rest of the preparations and editing of the photos, you only need the raw material of the floor and paste on the old photo of the nadir through the use of Photoshop.

HDR or Double Exposure

This requires only minimal focus. Make sure to create a photo with less exposure time and a second one with exposures of 1.5/2 diaphragms. Make sure that you will not move the tripod or the panoramic head at this point. Exposure will always be in manual mode. Exposure changes must be done through speed change instead of the diaphragm to stay away from stitching problems.

Now you’ll be able to take amazing 360-photos upon following the above-mentioned guidelines. Don’t forget to upload those photos into Virtual Tour Easy and start marketing your real estate properties today!

real estate, virtual reality, Virtual ToursJuly 1, 2019

These 8 Trends Will Let You Think How Great the Real Estate Industry has Changed

There are real estate trends that have been foreseen in the past; they are deemed to have staying power as well. There is a golden rule in this. If you want to tap into potential new buyers today, you have to go where they go online. Doing this will set you off from your competitors who use the traditional methods. It is crucial for the success of the business to bring it to social media and to various websites. The following are some of the trends that real estate businesses have to take advantage today:

Virtual Reality and Virtual Tour

VR is relatively new to real estate, but it has become life-size and highly accessible that potential buyers demand to see a virtual tour of a property before they even entertain the thought of viewing the actual property. One of the great features of VR is the ability for the potential buyers to view the home in various styles. Through VR, they can change the interior paint, add new furniture, put new bathroom tiles, etc. Buyers can easily get a tour of their preferred properties without having to go there.

The Use of Mobile Devices

This means one thing: the real estate website has to be mobile device friendly. It means that you need to ensure that the website can be totally viewable and that it can be navigated through a mobile device screen. A website that loads long or is not responsive on a smartphone may lose visitors fast.

Social Media Can be a Venue to Promote Real Estate Services

A 2017 study conducted by NAR (National Association of Realtors) revealed that 80 percent of real estate industry players use Facebook to promote their services. They also use LinkedIn, YouTube, Google, and more. Social media offers the cheapest and fastest means with the widest reach for the real estate agents to put their messages out there. There are also several platforms that possess several functionalities such as instant messaging tools and sharing options.

Drone Videography

There are multiple tasks related to real estate that drones simplified. All of these drones can capture aerial video and photography. It will not be long for drones to show live videos of the construction and renovation procedures. This is essential for tracking the home’s progress.

Outsourcing the Editing Process

Editing the photos and videos can be time-consuming. Outsourcing the editing process of the output can help you save on time, money, and effort. All these will enable you to take more photos, search for more new clients, and devise more marketing strategies to upscale the business.

Photographer: Francesca Tosolini | Source: Unsplash

Virtual Staging Means Power

Staging is one of the most important steps in shooting a property. This involves enhancing and totally preparing the property for it to be sold in the market. The major purpose of staging is to make the entire property more attractive to potential buyers. The upcoming solution to this is virtual staging. This entail filling empty spaces with superimposed realistically rendered 3D furnishings and decorations. Virtual staging is a more affordable means for the buyer to plan, decorate, design, and think of the space before buying the property.

Potential Buyers Search for Real Estate Listings and Services Online

The traditional way of looking for listings on magazines and newspapers is all in the past. Potential buyers now look for listings on the internet instead. According to Google and the NAR, 90 percent of buyers go online. In the last four years, there has been an increase of 253 percent on different real estate related searches. Another thing is that local search terms are important for buyers.

Collaborations between Photographers and Real Estate Databases

Zillow and other real estate databases offer mutually beneficial partnerships with photographers. This is important knowing the traffic that sites like Zillow have.

No one knows until when these trends will stay, but every real estate business has to take advantage of its perks or else it will be lagging behind its competitors. All the aforementioned trends are crucial to running a business, but on top of them all is the virtual tour. For a virtual tour software that covers all your real estate needs, try Virtual Tour Easy. It's also free!

BlogJune 10, 2019

Virtual Tour vs Video Tour: Identifying What’s Best for Real Estate Marketers

Real estate agents are always confused about what to use for their marketing campaigns; is it the virtual tour or a video tour? First off, most of them don’t know the difference between the virtual tour from the video tour; hence, it is crucial to define these two types of technology.

Model High-Tech : Fabien Benetou — Photographer: My name is Yanick | Source: Unsplash

Virtual Tours

A virtual tour is simply a 360-degree photo that can be rotated and can be viewed in any direction. There are companies that deliver them such as the Tourbuzz, Matterport, and Virtual Tour Easy. It can include around one to two 360 views to about dozens of 360 spins.

Some people call still photo galleries as virtual tours. However, it is not a slide presentation.

Video Tours

A video tour is a motion video of the property. It looks like the ones that you can view on YouTube. You can also use it while walking around the property similar to what you do in an open home. It can also be a great tool when you are story-telling about the featured property while doing your real estate marketing video.

Photographer: Patrick Schneider | Source: Unsplash

Other Differences

Today you can easily find really complicated virtual tours that they can blow you away. You would truly feel that you’re inside the house. You can, in fact, get into all the rooms and figure out if it’s what you prefer. This is the best advantage of a 360 fully immersive virtual tour.

In general, the best quality photos are key. It’s because when the photos are great, viewers would check the video. Yet when the video is amazing, the viewers may check on the virtual tour. Virtual tours are often thought of as an expensive approach to marketing a property, but this won’t be the case when only three or four 360 degree tours are required. It helps if you discuss video tour production with a real estate photographer and find out more about the actual cost.

Buyers are also comfortable with the video since they know how it works. Videos can also be used anywhere from Facebook, YouTube, and other sites where people are active.

Marketing Priorities

To sum up everything, the following are the steps in prioritizing your marketing campaign:

Obtain top-quality photos from a photographer.
Video tours are next. They can work with any site or social media platform which can help build the company image.
Virtual tours follow. This can be achieved when you possess high-resolution images and a high-performing video.

Remember that there are three key elements to a successful real estate marketing campaign: photographs, video tours, and virtual tours.

virtual reality, Virtual ToursMay 20, 2019

Top 5 Best Uses of Virtual Reality in the Real Estate Industry

If you have sold a property in the past, it means you know the process involved in real estate. The first step is when the real estate agent shows a list of properties to the prospective client. Then there would be a series of negotiations, explanation, and the actual visit to the property’s location. This has been the case for decades already, yet it remains to be inconvenient and time-consuming for the agents themselves.

This is now changing since a revolutionary game changer came into the picture. It transforms the way the real estate industry works. This is virtual reality or VR. This technology enables real estate agents to grow their business, acquire more clients, and provide the highest quality service to their clients. According to the National Association of Realtors, 95 percent use the net when looking for properties. Before they decide to visit the actual property, they check on the most basic information online first. The following are the most common uses of VR in the real estate industry:

1. Virtual Staging

You can show the property with all its furnishings and interior design that would make it more appealing to your targeted buyers. According to the National Association of Realtors, 77 percent of real estate agents, virtual staging helps their customers to associate the property they are selling with their future home. It used to require a lot of monetary investments when staging a property, but this all changed with virtual reality. Agents can now stage the properties with minimal expenses.

2. Virtual Commerce

It’s difficult to separate e-commerce from virtual reality. Imagine if the clients can do changes to the property they see virtually. If they are looking at a virtual tour for instance and they want to redecorate the space, they can simply go to an online store, pick new furniture, and put it on the virtual tour. Doing this enables them to redecorate the property according to their preferences. It may also be that they are interested to buy any of the items showcased in the virtual tour. They just have to go to the virtual store and buy the items.

3. Visualizing the Architecture

It has always been a challenge for real estate agents to market a property that hasn’t been developed yet. Three-dimensional models are often used to showcase the neighborhood or the entire development. When it comes to the interior of the property, often full-scale models are used. All these require a huge amount of money. Virtual reality has resolved these concerns. It has made architectural visualization cheaper and more immersive. Even if the property is not yet built, real estate agents can showcase the interior and exterior of a property using virtual reality.

4. Virtual Property Showcases

Clients tend to check on multiple properties before they decide on a particular one. This can be time-consuming and it costs a lot as well. But this has been changed by virtual reality. Buyers can now visit properties without having to leave their homes. All they need to do is use a VR headset and they can walk through a 3D virtual tour of the property. In just minutes, buyers can visit a couple of properties. There are two types of virtual tours: the guided ones and those that are interactive. Guided visits are like the usual promotional video but are entirely virtual or using 360-degree videos. The interactive visits allow users to choose where they prefer to stay within the property by simply checking on the hotspots in their field of view.

5. Virtual Instructions and Improved Communication with Tenants

Real estate agents and property owners have to communicate with their tenants a lot. Virtual technology can help them communicate more conveniently and effectively with their clients. The tenants simply have to do in the VR headsets and immerse in the virtual tour. These 3D virtual tours also help tenants to understand how the utilities in a certain property work to avoid difficulties and to make it unnecessary for them to contact the landlords.

If you want to prosper in your real estate business, It’s best for you to create virtual tours for your property sites.

virtual tours

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