Real estate virtual tour services will remain a staple in how teams market, lease and engage with prospective and current residents. If leasing teams haven’t already, they should consider spending time figuring out how virtual home tours will help meet their leasing goals more efficiently.
If teams haven’t started looking into real estate virtual tour services, it is time to start. Let us share just a few reasons why.
Video Is a Medium That Works
Video works at all stages of the funnel, and multifamily real estate professionals know it. Video tours for real estate have exploded in popularity over the last several years. Even before the world went virtual during the pandemic, properties were learning how to capitalize on the virtual tour market.
When it comes to marketing, video tours like 360 tours and 3D virtual tours for real estate are great tools. They can sit on the website’s homepage and are great ways to garner important top-of-funnel interest. Recent marketing research shows that:
- Video marketers get 66% more qualified leads per year and a 54% increase in brand awareness.
- Marketers found that video will be able to grow revenue nearly 50% faster than those who do not.
- Videos excel on social media. They can help generate 1200% more social shares than images and text combined since they are more engaging and more easily shareable than images alone.
Beyond marketing, personalized pre-recorded or live virtual tours are a great way to get a lead to a signed lease. How? It gives prospects what they want quickly and easily.
Prospects Want a Virtual Option
Today’s prospects want leasing agents to offer a personalized tour in the way they want it and when they want it. For many, that includes a virtual offering. That’s why teams need real estate virtual tour services. However, if teams want to make the process even more impactful and efficient, leasing teams should know how to make a virtual tour for real estate themselves and have the software that allows it.
The flip side is that if teams aren’t offering touring options prospects want, the property down the street probably is. In today’s competitive real estate market, teams don’t want to risk losing a potential resident. But, on the other hand, if teams are looking to increase their lead-to-lease conversion rate, virtual tours can be the answer. Or, if teams are looking at how they can do more with the leads and traffic already coming in, then knowing how to do a virtual showing for real estate is the way to go. This is especially true when considering the limited bandwidth of many leasing teams.
Virtual and In-Person Touring Can Work Together
Teams don’t have to overhaul their entire leasing strategy. We want to ensure they’re aware of the benefits of including virtual touring options. After all, it’s what prospects want, and teams need to meet the needs of prospects.
Real estate virtual tour services can work hand-in-hand with their existing in person touring methods. For example, virtual tour software equips leasing teams to provide virtual tours and to accompany their in-person touring strategy.
Virtual tours can help qualify the lead even further, positioning them at a point even further down the funnel. For example, think about how a personalized playlist of pre-recorded videos could save time during the in-person tour. Video allows prospects to preview the community in a personalized way before they even come to tour in person. To take that a step further, this saves teams and the prospect time and energy from touring other apartments that don’t meet prospects’ needs.
Teams can also use personalized virtual tours as a high-impact follow-up tactic. A few potential follow-ups that are great for video include:
- Did the prospect have any follow-up questions?
- Should teams invite prospects to an upcoming event?
- Are there parts of the property that weren’t shown?
- Did prospects enjoy a particular part of the community and should they be reminded?
These are great opportunities to create a video that can make the in-person experience easier and more complete for the prospect.
Teams should look at how real estate virtual tour services can help them achieve their leasing goals, do more with limited resources, and have a more impactful touring and leasing strategy. It is time to start!
Virtual has already made a significant impact on the multifamily real estate market, and it’s only going to continue to grow. Prospects want what they want, the way they want it. For touring options, leasing teams can offer 100% in-person tours, 100% virtual tours, or somewhere in between. Leasing teams need to be equipped with the right real estate virtual tour service to provide it.
Get In Touch!
Close more leases, market more effectively, engage with residents and, as always, keep it real. Do you have a question or suggestion? Or want to learn more about what you read? Email us at contact@realync.com. We’d love to hear from you!
