Virtual leasing and, particularly, virtual apartment tours are a must-have for any multifamily community looking to compete in today’s aggressive real estate market. It takes more than offering just any type of tour to convert a prospect to a signed lease. For virtual leasing to work effectively and improve the property’s bottom line, teams need to be equipped to tour online a prospect online and one that sells.
Apartment video tours can encompass a wide range of things. They can mean anything from 3D and 360 virtual tours that sit on a website homepage to in-person tours, self-guided tours, pre-recorded tours, or virtual live tours. Each of these types of virtual tours has its own place in the apartment leasing funnel.
However, knowing how to give an apartment tour online that sells means giving a tour that is authentic, transparent, and personalized to the prospective resident.
Personalize
When giving a virtual apartment tour that sells, that tour must be personalized to that specific prospective resident. 3D virtual apartment tours and 360 virtual tours have a place at the top of the lead-to-lease funnel, but they won’t be the type of tour that sells the property. They provide a nice interest garnering marketing tool, but they don’t provide the level of personalization today’s prospects need and want.
To easily and efficiently provide that level of personalization requires the right technology. That means investing in a virtual tour creator that gives a prospect more insight than a 3D apartment tour. It also means technology that can allow leasing agents to show the specific aspects of the property a prospect is interested in.
For example, a leasing agent can pull together a playlist of pre-recorded videos showing amenities that matter most to that prospect. If they are a huge fitness fanatic, use the opportunity to showcase your property’s top-of-the-line gym and pool. Or, if they are an at-home chef in the making, it could mean taking the time to record every appliance and cabinet in their hopefully new kitchen. It also means not wasting time taking prospects through a 2-bedroom apartment virtual tour when looking for a studio.
Prospects can then watch these videos in their own time and comfort. It doesn’t get more personalized than that!
Creating a customized online tour that sells can also mean hosting a live tour. Live tours offer even more personalization, and they can also increase the authenticity factor – another critical part of giving a tour that sells.
Keep it Real
With the right technology, prospective residents can take a live video tour with their leasing agent. These tours allow prospects to see what they really want to see in a truly authentic way. There are no photoshopping chances in a live virtual tour – it’s the online version of an in-person apartment visit.
Leasing agents can show the prospect the exact unit they’ll be living in. That gives them the real-life feeling of what it would be like to live there. From the moment they walk in the door to the bedroom and bathroom, they’ll get the real-life view of living in that unit. Prospects will have the chance to see exactly what they want to see. That means everything from where the outlets are placed and exactly what the natural light in their living room looks like.
Prospects can ask their questions and get answers in a real, authentic way by the leasing agent. That sort of back-and-forth starts to create the trust needed, the human-to-human element, to give a virtual apartment tour that will convert a prospect to a resident.
To close a deal online, agents need to be equipped with a virtual tool or technology. The technology needs to be there, whether they are connecting live or sending a curated list of pre-recorded videos for prospective residents to look at and engage with.
Signing a lease is a huge investment for some people. To make that sort of sale in an online environment will take a concentrated effort of personalization, interaction, and engagement to instill the necessary trust and transparency into the process. Those are the most important factors in knowing how to give an online apartment tour that sells.
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