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Free Toolkit: How to Create a Virtual Tour

Inside the toolkit:

  • Learn how to record an apartment tour that converts.
  • Watch our step-by-step unit recording best practices video.
  • Download our 9-point cheatsheet for future reference.

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About Your Resource

Curious how to create a virtual tour in minutes? You can capture a video tour with our step-by-step checklist. If you prefer a video tutorial (like us), we also provide an instructional video on how to create a virtual tour.

This downloadable resource will explain exactly how you can use pre-recorded video tours to promote your property in an authentic way. Now go capture those videos so you can win over prospective renters!

How to Create a Virtual Tour

Most virtual tours will require you to take dozens or even hundreds of panoramic photos, then upload them, edit them, and use photo-stitching software to create a seamless view from every angle of the unit. Not all virtual software is compatible with all phones or cameras, so it’s a good idea to look up “how to make a virtual tour with iPhone” or “how to create virtual tours with Android” before you commit to a specific brand of software.

For those who may be a novice at how to create virtual tours for real estate, the process of getting all the pictures you need and then putting them together can be incredibly time-consuming. And even for those with a few virtual tours under their belts, starting from scratch with each new property can be too daunting to begin.

If you miss covering a certain spot in a room, the final product may wind up disjointed, and it’s often not until you’ve finished making your virtual tour that you realize where the gaps are. When it comes to how to make a real estate video tour, practice makes perfect, and many busy real estate professionals simply don’t have the time for this.

Furthermore, creating virtual tours for real estate isn’t the best way to show off a property to prospective renters. While these tours were once seen as high-tech, today’s renters demand more—and with social media’s emphasis on live broadcasts, live video tours that explore every nook and cranny of a property are becoming essential to lease-up success.

Live property tours have many advantages that may appeal to those who, until now, have just been researching how to create virtual tours for real estate. If this describes you, read on to learn more about live tours and how to make a real estate video tour with ease.

Renters Prefer Video Tours

The Realync team is here to turn the leasing tide for all of their users. They are making serious inroads in the industry and are shaking up the world with proven numbers. Virtual tours provide a one-time 3D snapshot into how an apartment or condo looks. But in the rental context, these tours can quickly become outdated—frequent tenant turnover may necessitate repairs and changes that won’t be accurately reflected in the virtual tour unless you redo it after each vacancy, which is extremely time-intensive and therefore costly.

Aside from this, to prospective renters, virtual tours in real estate can feel artificial or overly edited. Tenants have no way to know whether the edited photos used to create the virtual tour still accurately reflect the property’s appearance and condition—for example, does that gorgeously-landscaped patio captured in a summer virtual tour look like a barren wasteland for the other nine months of the year?

A live tour is not only easier and less expensive to produce than a traditional virtual walkthrough, but it also provides leads with a far more authentic viewing experience. By capturing a property in real time, you can show prospective tenants exactly what they’re interested in and assure them that no filters or editing magic are at play. In today’s competitive real estate market, this directly translates to quicker unit rentals and a far more favorable site-unseen leasing rate.

Live Tour Software

Prior to Realync, it was a smart move to hire the best virtual tour company with specialized talent who could create virtual tours and videos that offered the highest possible level of impact. Live tours can be created and shared by using just about any video-capable device or app available—from point-and-shoot cameras to FaceTime, Facebook, or Snapchat. But using virtual tour software like Realync can provide you with dozens of tour-specific features these other apps don’t and won’t offer.

The best virtual tour software will include features like automatic video and audio editing, a one-time branding setup, and easy text overlay editing. These features allow you to create a sleek, professional-looking live tour and share it with a wide audience just by entering a few pieces of information on the front end and then capturing each room through video. The best virtual tour app or virtual tour creator will offer these same software features on every device, as Realync does.

Branding setup will place your property’s name in the video. And the ability to place text over the video allows you to call attention to certain property features and amenities even for those who may have muted the audio commentary.

Once you’ve used a real estate virtual tour app on your phone just once, you’re likely to find any virtual tour creator that requires another camera and desktop application too clunky and inefficient to be an effective way to capture the videos you need.

The Legal Aspects of Free Virtual Tours

The Fair Housing Act (FHA) was enacted by the federal government to protect buyers and renters from discrimination on the part of sellers and landlords. It’s important for any virtual tour to be Fair Housing compliant—even seemingly minor oversights can leave you wide-open to an FHA complaint. But the FHA is such a comprehensive law, it can be tough to make sure that all its protections are incorporated when you make your own DIY virtual tour.

Realync offers you the only way to be Fair Housing Compliant in your live real estate video tours. By adding the Equal Housing logo to every video, you can assure prospective renters and Housing and Urban Development officials that your agency is committed to following the FHA’s guidelines. If you use any other free virtual tour app or open source virtual tour software, you will be vulnerable to legal risk.

Free virtual tour hosting platforms may offer instructions on how to create a virtual tour for free, but as the adage goes, “you get what you pay for”—and in the real estate virtual tour pricing context, Realync stands out as the most comprehensive and secure software, saving you from potentially extensive legal fees.

The Future of Real Estate Video Tours

Technology continues to advance by leaps and bounds, making it easier than ever to bring an in-person experience to those viewing an apartment or condo online. You’re no longer limited to flat photos or even 3D virtual tours of real estate—you can also create a live video tour on the phone you have in your pocket.

Consider how live video tours can appeal to a broader audience and make your property seem more genuine and approachable. Real estate may have the option to be higher-tech these days, but the foundation and fundamentals of these transactions remain steeped in trust and relationships.

If 360 Video is a fit for your community, check out Real360!

Use Virtual Tours to Your Advantage

Get creative with how you use your virtual tours! A live Open House is a great way to lease multiple apartments in a short amount of time. Check out how this team secured NINE leases in 16 minutes.

You can engage top-of-funnel prospects and those that need an extra reminder of how much they loved your community during their in-person visit. Host a follow-up tour and let them visualize their furniture in the space. Helping them envision themselves in their future home can help secure the lease.

Try out a new resident orientation once a month for any upcoming lease start dates. You can familiarize them with the process for their move-in date and help them get to know the community. Answering frequently asked questions in a group setting will prevent double work, help build community with new neighbors, and provide excitement for their upcoming move. The options for virtual tours are endless. Realync offers multifamily’s complete virtual touring platform to host them with consistent branding, compliance, and tracking.

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Ready to Get Real?

Accelerate Leasing

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    Speed Up Lease Up

    by providing construction updates and showcase your space without having to do hard hat tours.

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    PRE-LEASE OCCUPIED UNITS

    by ‘showing’ them without having to physically tour the space by sending pre-recorded videos.

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    CONVERT A HIGHER PERCENTAGE OF YOUR LEADS INTO LEASES

    when you receive notifications when prospects are viewing videos to cater your follow up.

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    SPEND LESS TIME TO CLOSE EACH LEASE

    by removing roadblocks and barriers in the leasing process.

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    INCREASE SIGHT-UNSEEN LEASING

    by making it a breeze for out-of-market leads to choose your community.

Improve Community Engagement

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    PROMOTE YOUR PROGRAMS BETTER

    via pre-recorded videos by linking via social media or internal apps.

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    DECREASE MAINTENANCE REQUESTS

    by creating maintenance videos.

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    REINFORCE COMMUNITY RULES

    by receiving notifications when residents are viewing videos to know who has seen a message and who hasn’t.

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    REDUCE REPETITIVE QUESTIONS

    because consumers retain 10% of a message when reading it via text, but 90% of a message when viewed in a video.

More Than Software

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    Virtual Training

    is available for every property utilizing Realync.

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    Make your video efforts consistent

    with one set, standardized process and platform.

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    TRACK ENGAGEMENT And Usage

    across your entire portfolio.

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    Partner with the Realync Team

    to create a personalized training program to be rolled out across all properties.

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    Are you Ready to Get Real?

    Talk with us today to see how Realync’s platform can 4X your lead-to-lease conversion!

    Request a Demo