Would You Buy a Home Sight Unseen? It’s More Common – and Easier – than You Might Think

What would it take for you to buy a home without ever stepping foot in it? Well, as far-fetched as that might sound, it is becoming more and more common. Prospective home buyers are now buying homes without seeing the home in person before hand. With the advancements of new technology and with the use of the modern day smartphone, real estate agents can now show a home and give a buyer all the information they need without the buyer ever being there.

How are they doing it? What technology are they using? As a real estate agent, you too can take advantage of the technology available to make home buying more convenient than ever. Let’s take a look at some of the tools and methods available to you to give this kind of experience.

1. 3D virtual home tours

3D virtual tours are the wave of the future (and present) in real estate marketing. Home shoppers are drawn to high-quality photos and videos of homes and use them to make a lot of the home buying decisions. With 3D virtual tour technology, potential home buyers can now view every nook and cranny of a home from their computer. 3D virtual tour technology like Matterport, gives people a home shopping experience much like the one Google street view offers. You can walk through a home and check out each room as if you were there in-person.

2. FaceTime

Real estate agents are now using apps like FaceTime on the iPhone to show properties to prospective buyers who can’t be present. This is becoming more common especially with foreign home shoppers who can’t fly over on a whim to look at potential homes. While 3D walkthrough technology allows people to get a great look at a home, FaceTime serves as a real-time video experience for the agent to walkthrough a home, explain key features and show other aspects like the yard and surrounding homes. Buyers can say, “Stop! Wait. Go back and look at that one more time at a different angle.”

3. WhatsApp

Much like FaceTime, WhatsApp provides video chat, but it also provides standard messaging as well. This serves as a valuable tool for real estate agents should they use the app for regular correspondence with a potential buyer. They can keep track of all of the messages and communication between them and the prospective buyers can recall information easily. One of the biggest benefits of using WhatsApp is its global usability. With nearly 1 billion users around the world, it provides a high-quality chat and video experience to people anywhere. This becomes especially helpful when dealing with foreign clients.

These technologies are changing the game of real estate marketing. They cater to the busy schedules of many home shoppers – they don’t have to worry about the constant canceling and rescheduling that happens often in real estate showings. Homes can be “shown” very quickly and the buyers can view in a more comfortable setting. They also provide the perfect solution to selling to foreign buyers. Even multi-million dollar homes are being sold with only a virtual tour. The use of these technologies is saving time and money for every party involved in the buying and selling process.

If you are a real estate agent, consider adding these tools to your arsenal. With more and more tech-savvy, internet searching home shoppers entering the market every day, offering these avenues for home buying will be sure to take your business to the next level.

If you want to learn more about adding virtual tours to your listings, check out our 3D virtual tour technology.