Virtual Tours – Why You Need Them
Virtual tours are a must for every real estate listing. In today’s market 80% of people looking for a new home are doing it online. It is extremely frustrating when you go to Virtual Tour see a listing of a property that sounds fantastic, but there are no photos or virtual tour to show the layout of the home, the colors, the cleanliness, the style, etc. I am actually suspicious of homes that do not use virtual tours or photos. What are they trying to hide? I personally do not want to drive clear across town to see a home that sounds great on paper but is horrible in reality.
There are basically 2 reasons why an agent does not have a tour done on one of his/her listings. The main reason is they don’t understand the value of the tour, and their seller is inexperienced and doesn’t understand the value either. The second reason is the agent is trying to stay on a budget and tries to cut costs in every possible way. Unfortunately, when money is the issue, the seller suffers and the agent usually suffers because the house sits on the market longer and the seller is not a happy camper to work with.
Many brokers require their agents to do virtual tours on all their listings, yet many agents do not understand the value of this. The agents are basically doing the tour because it is free to them. Since those agents do not appreciate the value, they do not properly market the tour in all their advertising endeavors.
I personally know Real Estate Agents who do a virtual tour on every listing they take no matter how low or how high the listing price is. After having the tour done, they make sure that all of their advertising materials show the tour address, web site address, etc. so anyone viewing the advertisement can immediately have access to the photos and tour if they are online.
One thing that always perplexes me is that some agents order virtual tours and then do not promote them. I review many real estate magazines in our area, and I see agents using beautiful pictures to promote their listing, but they never mention their virtual tour in the ad. With consumers looking for Internet information, it amazes me that agents do not cross advertise.