Pandemic or not, hosting open houses or home tours of the property you’re selling isn’t only unsafe and unsanitary, but it can also be intrusive. Constantly having to maintain a home you’re living in for potential pop-bys, opening your possessions up to being touched or taken, and cleaning after recurring foot traffic can be stressful. There’s also the concern as to whether all who tour are truly serious potential buyers. Consider these tips for making a virtual real estate tour in order to save yourself the hassle and maintain your home’s cleanliness and security.
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What the Audience Wants
Before making your video, you’ll want to establish who your target audience is. This will help you tailor your footage properly. You may go slightly more in-depth in your filming of certain areas, like highlighting the features in a kitchen much more if the video is for the homebuyer rather than a real estate agent. This is where you decide on the most valued assets to communicate to your viewers. If you are selling luxury property, you’ll want to seriously highlight its special features and offered amenities.
What You Should Leave Out
As you film, you need to remain mindful of what’s important to show, and leave out irrelevant material that can distract your viewers from the big picture. Unwanted imagery can negatively influence your audience, even if only subconsciously. Leave pet-related items, clutter and mess, and visually displeasing areas where you have storage issues out of frame. Hide anything you don’t want seen before filming, even if it’s only reflected in a mirror.
Becoming Camera-Ready
Take some time to prepare your home or stage it. Take out an abundance of toys, work papers, or anything else unnecessary. This can make the virtual tour much more attractive, and also make it easier to shoot as you’ve spent the time arranging. Decluttering will allow prospective buyers to more easily identify the key features of the home that they’re looking for without unwanted distractions.
Making for Easy Navigation
Struggling to look at images in panoramic view or in order of the flow of the house may deter viewers. People lose their attention easily, so you want to make navigation as easy as possible. Ensure that you used a tripod for steadiness, in addition to a continuous camera angle. Edit out anything unnecessary that makes viewing more difficult. You can create a floorplan navigation (viewer clicks on a floor plan to be taken to room images), or a visual navigation where the viewer moves through each room as if they were walking, depending on how immersive you want the tour to be.
By creating a virtual tour, you are in charge of how your property is presented to potential buyers. Pending a positive outcome with a serious offer, you may have a prospective house hunter that would like to tour the home in person. This way, at least you’ve narrowed the number of people to only those most likely to purchase. With just a few tips for making a virtual real estate tour, you’re using the power of the digital age to your advantage.
