The multifamily real estate industry is constantly looking for ways to make touring and leasing convenient for prospects. Today, there’s the need to consider how to make touring properties safe for both leasing teams and prospects. What’s our answer? Video tours.

Whether you use a virtual tour app or a different virtual tour creator, providing the safest, most convenient way to tour a multifamily property means virtual tours. Let’s take a look at each type of tour overall and you’ll quickly see what we mean.

Guided Tours

Guided tours have been around for a while. A prospect selects a property, contacts the office, and meets with the agent to walk the property. While this is the least safe in terms of health, it’s also not the most convenient. While seeing the property live and in-person has its benefits, it’s not something that’s always easy to make time for. Luckily, there are safer and more convenient options!

Self-Guided Touring

Self-guided touring has risen in popularity over the last few years. There are now a number of different platforms available to help make the self-guided tour process as safe and secure as possible. However, there is still no leasing agent involved and that can create a level of risk properties and residents might not be comfortable with. After all, a prospect is letting themselves onto the property and touring alone with no one else involved.

While technology has come a long way to make that as secure of a process as possible, there are still risks. Having guests on the property who aren’t escorted throughout the building is potentially a risk to the residents and community. The residents, in particular, maybe unnerved seeing an unknown person walking around their home for smaller communities.

Virtual tours

Today, nearly all multifamily teams know how to create a virtual tour. Even before a global pandemic required us to limit human contact, virtual tours were far and away from the safest and most convenient way of touring. However, while all virtual tours can provide safe and convenient ways to tour a property, they certainly don’t all provide the same type of experience.

  • 360 and 3D virtual tours. These tours are common and what most prospects think of when they consider how to take a virtual tour. They are safe, yes, but they aren’t the most convenient. This tour style rarely shows a prospect exactly what they want to see. Prospects can see a glimpse of what they are looking for, or a representation, but not the actual unit and amenities that prospect wants to see, engage with, and otherwise experience.
  • Live and pre-recorded virtual tours. If you layer in the concept of most convenient on top of safety, that’s where live video and pre-recorded videos have risen to the top in terms of providing a safe, convenient and transparent way of touring a multifamily property.
  • Live video tours. These are virtual tours – prospects can experience from whenever and wherever works best for them. But, it’s also live with a leasing agent. If the agent knows how to make a virtual tour with an iPhone or virtual tour app, they are with the prospect from the start of the tour through the end. That agent can build the relationship, answer questions, personalize the tour, and show the prospect what they want and need to see.
    • This ultimately streamlines the touring process in a safe and secure way. It doesn’t require that the prospect travel to the site as the live virtual tours can be queued up on the spot. Prospects also don’t have to wait for an appointment the following day or week. If they have a quick break in their day, the agent can set up the live virtual tour through their virtual tour app in a matter of minutes.
  • Pre-recorded video tours. These tours include many of those same benefits as we discussed before. They are also very safe and convenient for both the prospect and the leasing agent. Add in the voice of the leasing agent through a voice-over to personalize the experience. Plus, there is the added convenience of it being pre-recorded. That means the prospect can watch and engage with those videos on their own time – whenever works for them and as many times.
    • The agent will know when prospects have watched the videos, as well as knowing what within those videos prospects engaged with. These insights allow the agent to cater their follow-up and move the leasing process forward in a quick and efficient way.

There is no match for the convenience and safety of virtual tours. With built-for multifamily virtual touring platforms, like Realync, 1:1 live and pre-recorded virtual tours are the most effective and safe way for prospects to tour your community. Realync’s platform makes creating, sharing, and storing virtual tour videos easy and effective!

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