Immersive technologies, such as virtual tours, have revolutionized the way prospective property buyers view built and unbuilt properties. These days, real estate agents and developers can attract more qualified leads by providing buyers with an interactive online experience that is more engaging than pictures or videos.
Realtor.com statistics report that listings with virtual tours receive 87% more views than those without. Another study found that web visitors tend to remain on a site with virtual tours five to 10 times longer than sites without them. It’s no stretch of the imagination to say that the longer a visitor stays on a page, the more likely they are to contact the agent or the seller for more information.
Virtual tours have many forms but usually fall into three categories for property marketing:
1. Virtual Tours for Built Property
Virtual tours of the built properties consist of a series of scans or 360 photos of a physical location. Special software then “stitches” these 3D scans together to create a digital version of a real-life space — from the smallest flat to the largest homes, this immersive technology can create a 4D virtual tour that is accessible from anywhere in the world.
Viewers can click through various points in a house with each point offering a 360-degree perspective of the property. These virtual tours are captured in high-quality photography and are so accurate, you are even able to take measurements from the model without having to revisit the site. Real estate agents can showcase any key selling points of the house by adding all the information they want in the virtual tour via information labels, images, videos, and voice-over narration.
Using any computer or mobile device, customers can immerse themselves in an easy-to-use simulated property showroom experience as they discover 720° views of beautifully designed properties of all different types. Real estate companies and developers can also personalize their virtual showings with custom designs, 3D floorplans, and messaging capabilities to interact with their customers through live chat.
2. Virtual Tours for Off-Plan or Unbuilt Property Developments
A 360-degree virtual tour can also be designed to help property developers, home builders, and real estate agents showcase an off-plan home design to future potential buyers. It is a rendered virtual environment that gives users a fully interactive experience and is designed to a photorealistic standard.
Custom-built virtual tours allow users to move through future planned space from point to point of internal and external areas. These can be viewed in the browser on any device. Along with virtual staging, off-plan virtual tour is a cost-effective way to engage an emotional connection to a property that hasn’t been built to completion.
Professional virtual stagers know how to provide context, add smooth retouches, and stage the surrounding neighborhood to set the life of someone who could live there. You can personalize the design depending on the style and preference of your target market — allowing you to make the home look rustic, contemporary, minimalist, or mid-century modern, you name it.
3. Hybrid Virtual Tours
Hybrid virtual tour is a combination of 360 photos of built spaces and 3D renders where both can co-exist and interact within a virtual tour. Users can navigate seamlessly through the built and virtual world at the same time within one tour.
Within hybrid virtual tours, the exteriors are typically full CGI while the interiors can be 360 photos. These 360 photos can be taken from completed show units from identical or similar schemes by the same developer. This technology enables you to add an exterior virtual staging, showing how a house looks by day or night or surrounded by lush greenery versus the white sandy beach.
Hybrid virtual tours allow developers and agents to bring their show units to the market ahead of completion to secure pre-sales. They unlock your listing’s true potential, and turn empty, uninviting spaces into fully immersive walkthrough experiences.
Silversea Media Group leverages its in-house immersive technology to provide a range of unique virtual solutions for the property sector. These include 4D virtual tours, ultra-realistic virtual staging, virtual showrooms, and other solutions that enable companies to market property listings with much lower costs and shorter closing times.
