Are Virtual Tours Important for Home Sales?

Last year the National Association of Realtors survey of home buyers found that 87% of home buyers use the Internet to find the home they are looking for. That number has been steadily increasing since the Internet was an option. Today, it is the largest source of information for home buyers except for Realtors and the two are close.

When asked what they look for when reviewing listings, the top answers were virtual tours and high quality pictures. Further, a review of websites has shown that more and more sites are either requiring virtual tours in order for a listing to be displayed or are allowing buyers to only include listing results that include virtual tours. Clearly, the use of virtual tours has become more and more important, if not vital, to the sales process.

Don’t All Properties for Sale have Virtual Tours?

A recent review of listings in the Daytona Beach Area Association of Realtors showed that 22% of all listings had a virtual tour attached to them. Approximately one out of every five properties for sale include the top feature that buyers are looking for. There seem to be three main reasons: time, know-how, and cost. Most listing agents don’t seem to have the time to create a virtual tour on every listing. Others simply don’t know how to create them or can’t afford the software to build them.

Marketing Property for Sale in the Daytona Beach Area

The solution is simple. As a brokerage, this is a service that needs to be provided for every seller on every listing. In an effort to ensure that our sellers have maximum exposure, Adams, Cameron & Co. is creating virtual tours for each listing. In addition, buyers who are interested in Daytona Area Real Estate are better serviced when they are looking at Adams, Cameron & Co. listings.

Each time a new listing is created, the company will create a virtual tour on behalf of the seller and enter the tour into the MLS and across the hundreds of websites on which the listings are promoted. The time savings allows listing agents to offer maximum service to sellers while also pursuing additional leads and removing an administrative burden.

The new solution also provides a custom template on the virtual tours that highlights the brokerage’s branding efforts while displaying information for buyers including a mortgage calculator, school zone information, weather, and more.

Below is an example of a virtual tour provided by the new system.