The real estate industry is rapidly becoming more and more technology-based. Gone are the days of print advertising and mail-outs. These days, you have to have a technological edge to be a next-level agent for both sellers and buyers. Having professional pictures taken has been one of the most vital parts of listing a house for decades but the newest feature for displaying a house is a Virtual Tour of the home. Often referred to as a “Matterport” or “Interactive Floor Plan” this feature is extraordinary and is something that agents should be taking advantage of for the following reasons.

1. Potential Buyers Can View The House From Any Location

Out of state and out of country buyers can walk through the house with the help of virtual tours. International buyers come from an array of backgrounds, such as embassies, businessmen, families, and individuals that want to find the right home for them in America without having to take a long and expensive flight. Typically, these individuals go off of the pictures and a video chat with their U.S. agent to see the home. However, if you have a virtual tour, out of state buyers can have the experience of walking through the house without having to take that long and expensive flight or rely on their agent entirely.

2. Buyers Can Have Multiple Viewing

Buyers can have multiple showings without even stepping foot into the house. Buying a house is an incredibly stressful and difficult decision. Many buyers want to see a house 2-4 times before they make a decision. With a virtual tour, they can have a showing any day, any time, as much as they want. You don’t have to coordinate with the owner, the agent or anyone that may be occupying the house.

3. Easy Access Without a Real Estate Agent

Buyers without agents don’t have anyone to lead them in the decision-making process and can get lost along the way. Showings can start to run together and the decision becomes more and more difficult. With the virtual tour, your listing can stand out in the crowd because they can walk themselves through the house without the guidance of an agent.

4. Virtual Tours Help Buyers Picture The House As Their Own

Buyers can picture the house as their own and imagine what they would do with each room while walking through the virtual tour. A showing lasts anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. During that time, a buyer will walk through the house and start to get vague ideas of what they might want to turn the house into. With the virtual tour, they can look at each room at length; begin to picture where they would place the furniture, what colors they may paint the walls and which bedrooms the kids will get.

5. Time is Not Limited

There is no time limit for a virtual tour like there is for an in-person showing. Showings often have limited allotted amounts of time due to a bunch of reasons. The agent’s schedule is packed, there is a tenant in the house that only wants to leave the house for an hour, the owners aren’t comfortable with long showings, or the buyers have four other houses to look at that day and need to fit them all in. With the virtual tour, they can spend hours “inside” the house. No one is rushing them and there aren’t any other people in the house making them uncomfortable.

Conclusion

Virtual tours are an impressive new feature for the real estate world. When you go on a listing appointment, being able to show the seller how beneficial virtual tours are, they will feel much more confident in your ability to sell the house, therefore you can get their listing. These virtual tours are a very powerful weapon in an agent’s belt and if you don’t utilize it, your competition will.