As a real estate professional, you’re always looking for innovative ways to captivate buyers and close deals faster. One game-changing tool at your disposal is the virtual tour, here are 5 expert tips to help you create immersive experiences that leave a lasting impression!

1. Incorporate Virtual Tours into Property Appraisals

Building a Polished and Credible Professional Image

Arriving equipped for a virtual tour demonstrates your professionalism and expertise, which reassures sellers that you have the capabilities to effectively manage their property listing. This enables you to deploy all necessary resources to highlight the value of their home, ultimately securing a quicker sale at the best possible price.Arriving equipped for a virtual tour demonstrates your professionalism and expertise, which reassures sellers that you have the capabilities to effectively manage their property listing. This enables you to deploy all necessary resources to highlight the value of their home, ultimately securing a quicker sale at the best possible price.

Virtual tours offer a comprehensive, in-depth view of a property, capturing every detail from floor to ceiling - an advantage over static photographs. This enables a more thorough and accurate appraisal, eliminating the potential for errors and inaccuracies that can arise from relying solely on photo-based estimates.

Appraisals that More Accurately Reflect Market Conditions

2. Virtual tours to the property description files

Enhancing the Client Experience

Prospective home buyers increasingly prefer to gather detailed information about a property before a physical visit. In fact, an IFOP study for OptimHome found that 85% of buyers opt to take a virtual tour before scheduling an in-person viewing.

Providing a comprehensive online listing - including a virtual tour, property diagnostics, and high-quality photos - can give potential buyers a more immersive and interactive experience. This allows them to visualize the home from all angles and fully understand its features, helping to inform their decision before making the trip to see the property in person.

Virtual tours save valuable time for potential buyers and real estate agents alike. Those opting for a physical visit will be individuals who have already shown genuine interest through the virtual tour.

Maximizing your time efficiency

3. Capture renovations to common areas using Virtual Tours

Virtual tours are a versatile tool, extending far beyond their typical use in showcasing properties for sale. For instance, they can document renovations and maintain a historical record of common areas before and after work. This benefits dispute resolution, insurance claims, and building maintenance tracking.

Allowing owners and tenants to preview common area conditions prior to renovations can also prevent misunderstandings and conflicts. Since common spaces are shared, ensuring all parties are informed about upcoming work and potential disruptions is crucial.

Virtual tours offer significant benefits for property owners, tenants, and real estate professionals conducting inspections. While not legally binding, virtual tours can supplement in-person inspections by providing visual evidence of a property's condition, such as existing damage or wear and tear, before and after a tenant's occupancy. This documentation can help prevent future disputes and issues related to security deposits.

Compared to manual notes and photographs, a virtual tour allows for more precise documentation, potentially saving property owners from financial losses due to tenant-inflicted damages, while also protecting tenants in case of disputes.

5. Showcase your properties in a customisable portfolio

Helping to Secure Mandate Acquisition

Creating virtual tours for each of your listings, even if not publicly published, can be a valuable asset. Compiling a portfolio of these virtual tours helps document the properties you've been entrusted to sell. This can then be shared with future clients or used internally to showcase your capabilities.

Demonstrating your experience working on similar properties can reassure sellers of your ability to effectively manage the sale of their home. This may encourage them to entrust you with their mandate.

Additionally, showcasing your expertise and equipment for high-quality virtual tours can help differentiate you from competitors during mandate negotiations. This can foster confidence in your abilities among future sellers.

Conducting property shoots allows you to export URLs of your most impressive virtual tours. By using video editing software, you can quickly and easily generate engaging content. Providing this portfolio to your marketing agency empowers them to format and energize your communication campaigns. This helps attract more potential buyers, accelerate property sales, and highlight your agency's expertise. Agencies that offer high-quality, standout content are more likely to attract prospects and establish themselves as industry leaders.

Creating Compelling Marketing Assets

4. Virtual Tours for property inspections