A successful open house is an integral part of selling or renting a property. However, your most promising clients can’t always do it themselves. Fortunately, that’s not necessary.
Video technology now makes selling real estate easier than ever. When live viewing was discontinued due to the Corona 19 pandemic, the real estate industry embraced this new technology. In fact, in 2020, 63% of buyers made an offer to buy a home they had never seen in person.
A virtual open house may be necessary to attract the attention of enthusiastic buyers. Having access to a broader market will help your real estate company offer more offers and sell your home faster.
With video conferencing tools, this trend seems to be continuing. In this guide, we’ll discuss what a virtual open house is, the benefits of a virtual open house, and how to organize and leverage the potential of a virtual open house.
Why a Virtual Open House is a good idea
Before the blockade, the lifestyle stuff broadcast to virtual open houses and large audiences has been sustainable for quite some time. It has many advantages for everyone involved – it saves time and money, and in the current situation, it’s the safest choice. There are other benefits to allowing virtualization.
Real estate agency – geographically covers a much larger area and reaches out to a much larger audience through contacts, social media and a wider network of connections. In addition, recordings of virtual open houses become valuable digital content that agents can publish and share on social media, and potential viewers can participate. Lead generation increases during and after a virtual open house, and if you know how to maximize your potential, you can increase secondary interest in other assets in your portfolio.
Buyers – More than 95% of buyers first start their search for their next home online. Virtual tours and open houses provide an additional opportunity to learn more about the property you’re interested in than just a few regular photos. You can take full advantage of an in-person open house, and even if you miss an event, 360 tours can be seen anytime thereafter.
What is a virtual open house (and when should I hold an open house?
Virtual open houses are similar to an in-person meeting. The only difference is that participants participate through a screen. (You may have seen a virtual open house in the form of a campus tour, where prospective students can talk to current students before they enroll and get a better idea of campus life.)
For real estate agents, a virtual open house is a place where you can use video conferencing facilities (or other real estate software) to view a property on a screen and answer any questions a potential buyer may have.
There are two basic types of virtual open houses: pre-recorded and live.
Pre-recorded open houses allow you to pre-record content and hold events at any location, such as your home or office. Live open houses are streamed from the hotel and watched by potential customers in real time.
You can take almost any virtual tour of a property for sale, but there are a few cases that are especially useful, especially if:
Interest from buyers in other states
High volume of online searches
Multiple interested parties
Sellers who are still staying in their properties and prefer low traffic
Benefits of Virtual Open Houses
The main advantage of virtual open houses is that their reach extends to a broader audience. In a competitive market, you need to make your properties as visible and accessible as possible.
Reducing interruptions for salespeople.
Holding a virtual open house for sellers is much less disruptive. Only sellers and agents should be home for a real live session without visiting dozens of people in person.
The pre-booking option means that the salesperson can conveniently sign up. For example, if you don’t want your family to be disturbed between 2:00 and 4:00, you can record the appointment in the morning and then have the session at the buyer’s convenience.
More cost-effective in terms of time and energy.
No matter what type of virtual tour you choose, it will save you time and energy. You don’t have to prepare snacks or prepare other materials such as brochures, floor plans and flyers. Also, you will no longer be limited by the size of your audience, so you can take fewer steps.
Save time editing and uploading videos with Live sessions. However, you can reuse the video at any event during a pre-recording session until the house is sold.
Real estate agents can stay safe with fewer contacts.
Virtual open houses are the ultimate form of social distance. Real estate agents can feel at home with a small team, offering properties to a much larger audience than themselves.
Tips and tricks for creating the perfect virtual open house
Internet connectivity varies from buyer to buyer.
If you’re hosting a live session, you should rely on buyers who have reliable Wi-Fi access to ensure high quality calls. However, you can use pre-recorded content to download sessions, making it easier to access the content.
Traditional shoppers still prefer to see the space directly.
Traditional buyers may feel they can’t get a true view of a property purely virtually, but live open houses still introduce these buyers to the space, which can make their viewing process efficient.
Virtual open houses cannot be held asynchronously.
It’s difficult to hold a virtual open house asynchronously. You can upload pre-recorded content to your website, but you can’t interact with potential customers and answer important questions in real time.
How to host a Virtual Open House
Choose the best platform and features for a virtual hosting Open house
There are many options on the market for participating in a 360 VR live tour, so you should choose according to your taste, previous experience and equipment.
If you want to use video conferencing, the choices are enormous. You can go to Skype, Google Mitt, Microsoft Team, Zoom or online and share it on Facebook Live or Persicorp.
There is a lot of information to learn about each item, so here’s a quick overview of how you can take advantage of the features Zoom offers.
Zoom
This is the solution that you think is best for a virtual open house and other solutions that allow you to share your screen with good quality for end users or viewers.
This is a very popular and user-friendly tool that provides all the features you need to organize and schedule meetings. You can share links via email, instant messaging or post them on social media pages. Screen sharing is one of the benefits of zoom, as well as a great chat feature that allows attendees to leave comments and questions. Meeting organizers can turn participants off and on, avoiding background noise or users talking at the same time.
Zoom offers a free option that sets a limit of 40 minutes and a maximum number of participants of 100, which will apply in most cases. We recommend that you log in from your desktop device or laptop, because you can see the chat and all other features in the best possible way. However, participants can also register through the mobile app.
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