The rise of virtual property tours

The virtual tour — a technology that was once reserved for luxury homes — is now a primary sales tool for most real estate transactions.

According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR)'s 2020 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, the pandemic has accelerated changes in homebuyers' habits. And most industry experts believe those changes are here to stay in a post-Covid world.

The biggest change is that buyers are relying more on technology to make home buying faster, easier, and more convenient. Here are three trends that show why virtual tours are the future of home sales.

1. Homes with virtual tours get more online engagement

A record high of 97 percent of buyers searched online for a new home last year, up from 93 percent the year before. And the average search time for a home fell from 10 weeks in 2019 to just eight weeks. In those eight weeks, home buyers viewed an average of nine houses, five of which were exclusively online.

As more and more buyers search for their homes online, photos and virtual tours have increasingly become the best way to capture and maintain their interest.

A study found that web visitors stay on a site with virtual tours five to ten times longer than sites without virtual tours. And it's no fantasy to say that the longer a buyer stays on a page, the more likely they are to contact the agent or seller for more information.

“Real estate ads with virtual tours are clicked 40% more often

“Real estate ads with virtual tours are clicked 40% more often than ads that only use still photos. When asked, 75% of all prospects surveyed said they preferred virtual tours to help with the decision-making process.” — Planet Home Study

Virtual tours also increase the visibility of listings on major search engines, such as Zillow, realtor.com, and Redfin. According to the Zillow Group Consumer Housing Trends Report 2020, virtual tours increased by 750% in the month after Covid home orders took effect in the U.S. and remained twice as high as the previous year until the end of November.

Here's even more proof of the new power of virtual tours in the real estate industry. Report Realtor.com statistics that listings with virtual tours get 87% more views than homes without tours and that 54% of buyers skip property listings without virtual tours.

2. More buyers bid without ever visiting the house in person

Redfin agents report that around one in ten of their home tour requests involve remote video tours. And here's an astounding statistic. According to a Redfin survey of more than 1,900 home buyers in 32 major real estate markets, 63% bid on a property they didn't see in person. That number is twice as many as last year.

And data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) also shows that people are increasingly comfortable buying a home online — without visiting the property. The percentage of buyers who bought a home without seeing it in person has almost doubled, to 5 percent in 2020 from 3 percent before the pandemic. This trend will only increase as people become more accustomed to virtual tours and as younger generations of homebuyers enter the market who prefer to use new technology.

Today's experts agree that virtual tours help reduce the time spent by agents and home buyers on wasted viewings by around 40%. And a Planet Home study found that 75% of home buyers see a virtual tour as an important factor in their decision making process.

75% of home buyers have a virtual tour as an important factor in their decision-making process

In an interview with realestateboston.com, Brian Caluori, a realtor at Gibson Sotheby's International Realty, described virtual tours as a valuable pre-screening step that will never go away.

“Why take the time to see a home when you can watch the virtual tour even before you step into the house?” he asked.

3. Buyers expect virtual tours as the gold standard for buying a home online

Gautam Pant, a professor of business analytics at the University of Iowa, conducted a study of thousands of homes sold in Southern California and his team found that virtual tours make agents look more professional. In an interview with radioiowa.com, Professor Pant said:

“Sellers of desirable homes who are more likely to get a higher price are more likely to choose a broker who uses virtual tours in their marketing package” — Professor Gautam Pant, University of Iowa

Pant's team found that homes with virtual tours sold approximately 6% faster and 3% more sales compared to similar offerings without virtual tours. The 2020 survey also found that agents who organized more online virtual tours and open houses sold more properties than those who didn't use those tools.

The behavior of home buyers is changing, they are demanding more convenience and using more technology to buy houses. Agents who will continue to perform are the ones who will adapt and embrace new technologies such as virtual tours.

Source: https://www.snappr.com/enterprise-blog/the-rise-of-virtual-tours-for-real-estate