Selling Your Home? 5 Steps to Create a Virtual Tour
One of the best ways to save money when selling your home is to do more of the work yourself and supplement with a flat fee listing agent. But with modern technology and some professional tips, homeowners today can do many things that once were the purview solely of real estate agents.
Consider, for example, creating a virtual home tour. How can anyone do this for themselves? Here are a few key steps to take for a professional result.
1. Stage the Home
Before you take out your camera, spend some time staging the house properly. Staging is the process of removing, adding, and rearranging decor to make the home look its best. Some owners use off-site storage to help curate the home’s look.
Start by clearing any clutter from day-to-day life. Many experts recommend removing many of the personal items and decorations. You might even do well to remove furniture, signs of pets, and any potentially controversial items. The goal is to make the home feel light, airy, large, and minimalist. You want potential buyers to see themselves living in the space rather than your family living there.
2. Practice Walking Through
Once you’ve staged the house to give it the best appearance possible, perform a test walk-through. Take a logical route, from public spaces to private ones, that mimics the way a real visitor would navigate through the home.
Avoid backtracking or moving hesitantly. Ensure that there are no obstacles — real or perceived — that could distract viewers. Don’t go too fast, but don’t linger on unnecessary features either.
3. Find the Right Details
As you plan the virtual tour, think about the selling points and strengths of the house. Write them down so you don’t miss any.
These include large elements, like a recently remodeled bathroom or a beautiful back deck. But it should also include stops to highlight smaller details, like a great view, updated appliances, or an energy efficient feature. Plan the tour so that you organically come across these features and show them off.
4. Test Your Tour
Once you’ve planned out the tour and decided where to stop and how to smoothly glide around the property, it’s time to test it out. Make a video recording, narrating it with prearranged scripts. Then, show your tour to others.
This test group should include both people who know your home well and those who may never have even seen it before. Ask them for honest feedback.
Where did they want to see more? Were they confused at any point? How did the staging appear? What impression did the property give? What might turn them off or make them more interested as a buyer? Make adjustments until you’re happy with the result.
5. Complement the Tour
Finally, once you hand off your virtual tour to the listing agent, complement it with other materials to show off the home. This includes a number of still photographs to provide more detail and overall pictures of spaces. Post these photos in the order in which they show up in the tour.
Add a floor plan so the prospective buyer can familiarize themselves with the property. You may even refer to the floor plan during the tour.
Where to Learn More
Ready to save money and get great results by partnering with a flat fee real estate listing agent? Flat Fees Agent can help. We provide a wide array of listing services to help you sell your property fast and easily. Call today to learn how we can help you with everything from selecting photos and planning a virtual tour to holding open houses and doing market analyses.