In the real estate & game industries, virtual reality is becoming more popular by the year. According to a YouGov survey, over 11% of U.S. adults own virtual reality (VR) hardware or software. The real estate industry is a perfect example of how virtual and 3D tours may assist in the fast and efficient sale of a house.
But it’s not cheap, is it? Yes, it may be, but there are many choices accessible to real estate brokers and house sellers these days. Here are some of the most common factors & tips that realtors need to consider before creating virtual tours for their properties.
What is Virtual Tours?
With the help of 3D Virtual Tours, the property buyers can virtually view a house/property that they are intended to purchase. The home buyer can drag & choose the particular side/view of the property and from what perspective – think of it like Google Maps Street View, but for the inside of a house.
It is different from the video listings because Video listings are not interactive. They are simple videos that generally feature music, zooming, and panning. The consumer has no control over the video’s movement.
The Advantages of Creating a Virtual Tour of For your Properties
There are several advantages to incorporating a virtual or 3D tour into your offering. While the actual images of the property can be deceiving at times, virtual tours help buyers to get a more realistic view of how your house is laid out before directly paying the visit. That implies that those who come to see your house in person are more likely to purchase.
A 3D tour may also help your digital marketing strategy, which is more crucial than ever. Here are a few marketing advantages:
More Market Exposure
When more people view your listing, you’re more likely to receive numerous offers, which might push up the sale price.
Reduce Showings
3D tours provide potential buyers with an excellent sense of the floor plan and flow of the house. If the layout of your property does not appeal to the particular set of buyers/audience, then they won’t visit the place, thus saving your time & effort.
Attract Out-Of-Town Buyers
A better view of your property can make it more desirable for out-of-town and foreign buyers, who can make faster, more informed purchasing decisions without having to fly for a house that doesn’t work out for them.
Must read: Real Estate Chatbot
What Factors Contribute to an Interesting Virtual Tour for Real Estate?
Here’s what a virtual tour must feature in order to be considered as a professional virtual tour rather than just a listing video or slideshow:
- The actual representation of the house, not a recreation or depiction
- Smooth navigation that allows you to easily navigate between rooms and pan 360 degrees.
- Capability to move through, return to and freeze the frame
- A clear and high-definition image
- Photographs that are free from clutter and personal stuff
- Highlights of the best attributes/ features of the residence, such as unique facilities and outdoor spaces
- Each image was taken from the finest vantage point to display the full space
- Compatibility with a wide range of devices – both desktop and mobile
How to Create a Free 360 Virtual Tour?
Now that virtual house tours are becoming more popular, there are applications and tools available to assist Realtors in creating their own virtual tours.
3D Home app for Zillow virtual tours
The Zillow 3D Home app allows sellers or listing agents to create free virtual tours of properties directly from their mobile devices. The length of time it takes to create your 3D Home tour is determined by the size of your home and the number of rooms. If you’re using an iPhone to build your tour, it should take between 30 minutes and an hour. It should take 10-20 minutes if you use a 360-degree camera.
If you utilize the 3D Home app, your listing on Zillow and Trulia will have a virtual tour icon, which will make your listing stand out to online home buyers. Furthermore, homes with 3D tours gain from an extra week of exposure to consumers. Your virtual tour will show on your home’s page on Zillow and Trulia, but you can also share it on other websites by using a link or embed code.
Virtual tour equipment
The 3D Home software requires simply your smartphone, however, it is advised that you utilise a tripod with a rotating head and a phone mount to make your virtual tour as smooth and professional as possible.
The Ricoh Theta camera is also compatible with Zillow 3D Home. You may anticipate the following if you own a Ricoh Theta camera:
- Improved field of view
- Panorama in 360 degrees
- Faster capture time
- Reduced Upload time.
How to Make a Virtual Tour for Real Estate?
Follow these nine steps to make a virtual tour using a 360-degree camera if you’re using the Zillow 3D Home app. The Ricoh Theta V, Z1, or SC2 model 360-degree cameras work seamlessly with the Zillow 3D Home app.
- Using your Apple® device, download the Zillow 3D Home app.
- Open the app and press the “Start capture” button. Select the 360-degree camera option.
- Set your camera tripod to a height of around chest height.
- In the app, choose the room type.
- Capture the first panoramic image. Walk away from the camera and press the “Add” button on your device to capture the image.
- Move the camera around the room to snap panoramas.
- Examine your panoramas and retake any fuzzy shots.
- To upload the tour to your Zillow dashboard, choose “All panoramas completed” and then touch “Finish.”
- To update, share, or publish the tour, sign in to your Zillow dashboard.
Making Plans For Your Virtual Tour
If you’re shooting your own property virtual tour, have a strategy for what angles and views you’d like to include.
- Experiment with different perspectives to determine which ones best showcase your house.
- Examine the camera’s height to see how the lighting changes.
- To indicate where you’ll stand for each photo, use a printout of your home’s floor plan (if available) or tape on the floor.
Tasks That Need To Be Completed Ahead Of Time
Although the procedure of shooting the video for the tour is straightforward, organizing your 3D tour might be time-consuming. Make a point of doing these preparations prior to the day you intend to record your virtual tour.
Make essential improvements
Just like you would for professional still shots, make sure you have accomplished any pre-listing updates, such as cleaning, landscaping, and painting. Consider your virtual tour to be a showing – your property must be in pristine condition.
Finish staging
If you intend to stage with fresh décor and furniture, do so prior to the virtual tour. At the very least, the house should be decluttered, and excess goods should be relocated somewhere.
Plan your shoot for a few days before listing
It will save you time if you arrange your virtual tour capture around the same time as your professional images. You only need to clean and stage once. It will also guarantee that all of your marketing materials have a consistent appearance.
What to do on the day of the shoot
It’s pointless to spend time creating a virtual tour if it’s going to turn off consumers due to clutter or bad lighting. Your virtual tour should depict your property on its best day. While the majority of your preparation work will be completed, here is a brief checklist of responsibilities for the day of your virtual tour shoot:
- Give the house a quick clean and shine.
- Hide any unnecessary items that you don’t want the visitors to see, such as cleaning supplies and garbage cans.
- Make certain that all children and pets are out of the house.
- Turn on all of the lights and pull open the blinds.
- Wipe the camera lens clean for the clearest picture.
- Reshoot any scenes in which the camera isn’t stable or transitions between rooms are choppy.
Is It Possible for me to Pay Someone to Make my Virtual Tour?
Virtual tours are offered by certain professional Toronto based real estate virtual tours services providers. Many of them utilise Matterport cloud-based software and Matterport-compatible cameras to generate these virtual tours. Matterport is available to homeowners, however, because it is subscription-based, it may be rather costly when only producing one virtual tour.
Summary:
This guide is the best place to start for a realtor if he/she is new to virtual tours. If you’re really new to the world of 3D Virtual tours, it is inevitable that you need to act fast & adopt this in order to cope & beat the competition. Get started with Virtual Tour today!!!
