How effective are virtual tours?
Statistics from Realtor.com state that listings with virtual
tours get clicked on 40% more than listings without. Other portals
report similar results, with one stating that listings with virtual
tours received 70% more viewers. More buyers looking at the home
looking at the home online means a faster sale and a higher sales
price.
Why Do Buyers and Sellers like Virtual Tours?
What do buyers think of Virtual Tours? In the 2003 NAR survey,
47% of buyers rated Virtual Tours as very important to a listing,
second only to photos and listing information. Realtor.com has
designated a special section for houses with Virtual Tours, and has
the ability to rank houses with Virtual Tours 1st in search order.
Don't you want to be at the top of everyone's search list?
Buyers can research as many homes as they like, in their
timeframes and at their pace. Virtual Tours are both a selection and
elimination tool, helping buyers focus on a small group of homes
they are seriously interested in. Buyers are able to eliminate a
substantial number of walk-throughs just by taking the virtual
tours.
Research shows that Internet buyers research more homes, and take
a longer time doing so than non-Internet buyers. The 2003 National
Association of Realtors study showed that Internet shoppers studied
an average of 12 homes before making purchases versus 7 homes for
non-internet users. Internet users took longer to complete their
searches, averaging 8 weeks versus 5 weeks for non-internet users.
Virtual tours facilitate the nationwide trend to move to
"adjacent markets". In Southern Wisconsin we see people moving from
Madison to Dodge and Columbia counties. But the same phenomena is
happening across the country. One example: New Yorkers are no longer
moving to the Sun Belt. Instead the trend to move to New Jersey and
Connecticut has eclipsed the Sun Belt exodus.
Virtual Tours are critical enablers for this. Imagine if a
Madison resident had to drive to Beaver Dam every time they wanted
to see a prospective house.
Southern Wisconsin continues to see nationwide relocations.
Virtual tours are almost a necessity for these people. Imagine if
you live in Arkansas, and are moving up here, and only have a 3 day
weekend to find your new home? Virtual tours quickly become your
lifeline.
But perhaps most important: The ability to see many homes via
virtual tours provides buyers with greater comfort and less anxiety
when making a life changing decision.
Sellers like virtual tours because they can now "clean once, show
many times". Better yet, the house can be shown 24 x 7, avoiding the
always problematic scheduling dilemma's.
But most significant: Sellers like virtual tours because buyers
do!
Why do Realtors like Virtual Tours?
Virtual tours are a much more cost effective way to generate
prospects. The combination of digital photos and virtual tours
allows buyers to get much deeper into the home evaluation process
prior to contacting a realtor. This reduces the amount of early
sales-cycle hand holding a realtor must do.
Virtual tours also reduce the time realtors must spend with Look-i-loo's.
These folks can look and evaluate to as much as they want, without
requiring a realtor's assistance. Better yet, the virtual tour acts
as a branding agent. If look-i-loo's convert to prospects, they tend
to call the realtor they saw on the virtual tours.
Virtual Tours reduce the number of "wasted" walk-throughs an
agent must do. Visiting homes can be very unproductive. Particularly
when a buyer walks in the front door, and immediately does a 180,
saying simply "I hate it"! They can also be very frustrating,
especially when young children are involved.
Buyers will self qualify by viewing virtual tours. In fact, they
are very qualified by the time they request a real walk-through.
Which makes everyone happy - buyer, seller and agent!
Realtors will get more listing referrals from happy sellers. By
using virtual tours, you are branded as "getting the Internet".
Realtors that use virtual tours benefit from a number of
intangibles. They are great differentiators for a website. Buyers
will come back more often - listings with virtual tours get more
clicks than those without. More traffic generally means more
visibility for your website in the from of links and search engine
rankings. (The more links you have, the higher search engines rank
you.) And agents with virtual tours tend to get more listing
referrals from happy sellers.
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