Tips to Virtually Showcase your Listing

Social distancing mandates have made it challenging to showcase your listing. But life doesn’t stop. People still need to buy and sell their homes, and you still have a business to run. So, if you weren’t focused on digital marketing before, it’s time to dive in head-first. Don’t worry though. In today’s digital world, there are several ways to highlight all the features and benefits of a home while still staying safe.

Virtual Tour- Walk potential homebuyers through the property room by room with a virtual tour. Whether you stream it live or not is totally up to you and your comfort level. Here are some options when it comes to video tours:

• Use the Zillow Home 3D App. This app allows shoppers to tour the home and choose which path they would like to take through the home (like the street view on Google Maps.)  The shopper is in control and can tour at their own pace and explore as they please. The only equipment that you will need is your smartphone, although Zillow recommends that you use a tripod with a rotating head and a phone mount to make the video as smooth and professional as possible. According to Zillow, it will take about 30 minutes to an hour to create the 3D home tour with your smartphone. If you’re using a 360-degree camera, it only takes about 10-20 minutes. Of course, the time will vary depending on the size of the property.
   
• Livestream. You can take your property live using Facebook live, Instagram TV or other tools, such as the REIN livestream for open houses. You can advertise for a livestream just like you would an open house, through email or social media marketing. When livestreaming, walk your guests through the house just like you would any other open house, and answer questions from participants. Don’t forget to thank your guests for virtually attending the open house and follow up with them afterward. One of the cool things about the REIN livestream is that it allows you to host an “MLS Only Live Stream” that is only accessible to agents within the MLS, like a broker open house.
   
• Use Zoom, WebEx or FaceTime. Whether you want to give a one-on-one tour, or you’re just not comfortable with livestreaming, these video conferencing tools allow you to walk through the home a give a personal tour.
   
• Leverage photos and videos on social media. Share short videos or photos on your Facebook or Instagram stories to create excitement around your listing. You can advertise for an upcoming virtual tour by sharing some of the property’s best assets. This will help create a buzz around your listing.

If you plan to give a video tour, whether live streaming or not, make sure you do a little prep work:

• Make sure the home is clean
• Open all the interior doors to avoid any interruptions
• Decrease clutter
• If possible, make sure the kids and pets are out of the house or make a plan with them to minimize disruption
• Turn on all the lights and open the blinds.
• Clean your camera lens
• Have an idea of what you are going to say but don’t rely on a script. (After all, you’ve done this in person a million times!)

Create a listing video using your photos. There are tons of tools or websites out there that allow you to easily create real estate listing videos, such as Animoto, a drag and drop video maker that lets you upload your photos to easily create a video with no video making experience necessary.

Digital Advertising. Our loan officers have several tools at their disposal that can help you digitally showcase your listings.

-Single Property Websites- Ask your loan officer how they can help you create a beautifully designed, co-branded landing page for your listing in minutes by pulling information from your MLS listing. You can then share your Single-Property website on social media or through email.

-Social Media Posts- Your loan officer can also leverage that same technology to create co-branded social media listing posts. Share or boost these on your social media platforms to generate buzz around a property before scheduling a virtual open house.