360 Virtual Tours for Real Estate - Part 1

Why Use Virtual Tours in Real Estate?

Why spend time & budget on creating 360 virtual tours? To follow the latest trend? To match your competitors?
 

In this series of articles, we will be examining the different aspects of virtual tours, and discover that this can not only increase your revenue, but also reduce the costs involved in promoting your properties. In this first article, we explain why using 360 virtual tours has become mandatory for any serious professional in the real estate sector.
 

An increasingly competitive market
 

As a professional in real estate, you will have noticed the tightening of the market in recent years. The time is long gone by when all you needed to sell a property was a poster in your agency's window and a few photos on your website.

These days, the number of actors in the market has increased, as well as their level of communication targeting prospects. Real estate professionals wanting to be successful not only need to have attractive content to showcase their properties, but need to ensure this content is distributed throughout many channels.

This communication must be seen by many potential clients, through a good search engine optimisation of their websites and promotions on various web platforms. What's the point creating great content to promote your products on your website and on social media if you're not highly visible?
 

New behaviours
 

The current situation is complexified by the increasing attractivity of small ad sites such as LeBonCoin (who currently displays 950'000 properties for sale or rental in France). These channels totally bypass real estate agents, which makes it increasingly important for them to improve their communication using attractive new solutions, such as the virtual tour.

All is not bleak however in the sector and some socioeconomic evolutions have had a positive effect. It is for example the case with the increase in professional mobility, which has involved people having to move more often, thereby increasing the number of transactions.

Families in this situation often must change regions or even countries, and must therefore seek a new home to purchase or rent without being physically present in their new destination. Virtual tours provide a strong added value in such a situation, helping people discover the properties on the market in a region and only organising property visits when they find one which perfectly fits their requirements.
 

An asset for your activity
 

Beyond the necessity for professionals to react proactively to changes in their sector, 360 virtual tours provide further benefits.

First of all, adopting this promotional tool improves the way clients perceive their brand, giving it a dynamic image, one of a company having adopted a modern and efficient solution to inform its clients. Furthermore, the interactive and playful aspect of virtual tours result in visitors spending more time on real estate websites and researching a greater number of properties.

360-degree virtual tours therefore provide true added value for real-estate professionals. This is now possible with the rapid evolution of 360 technologies, making it increasingly easier to produce the required images and by a growing ecosystem of specialised photographers, capable of providing high-quality 360 shots at a reasonable price.

In our next article in this series, we will identity the main benefits of virtual tours for the real estate sector. Stay tuned!