In-person contact restrictions due to Covid-19 changed how real estate agents approached marketing. Products such as 3D home tours, virtual tours, and panoramic images have become the new marketing standard in the real estate industry. Here are a few ways you can tap into the digital marketing age with minimal production cost!
Video Tours vs. In-Person Showings
In-person showings have been the industry norm for many years. However, expanding your marketing to include virtual tours and virtual showings can expand your reach to buyers. As a result, potential clients who are not currently in the home area or who would prefer to avoid in-person contact can view the property. With the correct sequence, a virtual tour will feel like the person viewing it is walking through the home. This makes it an excellent option for maintaining social distancing practices. A video tour can go one of two ways. First, you can host a one-on-one personal walkthrough showing of the house with one prospective buyer. Additionally, the tour can be a pre-recorded video that prospective buyers can view via email. You can also upload the tour to a landing page for your property, or through social media channels!
Video Conferencing
One way to recreate the open house setting in a virtual format is to use video conferencing methods that multiple people can attend! These are typically real-time events done through live streaming methods such as Facebook Live, Instagram Live, or Zoom. Once you have chosen your strategy, you can advertise for your virtual event set a few weeks in the future to give your marketing enough time to reach the largest audience. After your live event, please contact anyone who left a comment or asked questions during the virtual open house by offering personal house tours or answering any questions about the listing they had.
Social Media Channels
Social media can be a potent tool for marketing and making multi-point contact with your leads. Platforms like Instagram and Facebook offer the option to post a short video and share it with a caption about the property viewed quickly from mobile devices. Using short clips from either a pre-recorded walk-through, a video about yourself, your company, or brokerage and how to contact you, or a clip from a live event will give potential buyers a quick overview of your listings and services.
Sample Script for Virtual Home Tours
- State your name, company, and any relevant brokerage information
- Make a “Welcome Home” statement. You can include the property address here, or if you’d like to omit that, welcome them to the property (i.e., “Welcome to this San Diego ranch style home in Old Town San Diego”)
- The middle of your video can be information about the property, such as significant features, floor plan, the neighborhood, etc. but avoid mentioning price to account for a price change while the house is on the market.
- End your video by thanking them for watching and providing information on how they can contact you with questions or learn about other properties you are listing!
Intro put together:
“Hi, my name is (NAME). I am with (BROKERAGE). Welcome to (ADDRESS OR PROPERTY INTRO). This home is part of the (NEIGHBORHOOD) neighborhood, close to (PROMINENT LANDMARK OR AREA)….”
Outro put together:
“Thank you for watching the tour of this property. If you would like to contact me with any questions regarding this property or to schedule a private tour, please email/call/ me at (CONTACT INFO), or you can go to the website at (LIST WEBSITE).”
