How do virtual home showings work?
Virtual showings and online transactions have seen a dramatic increase in 2020 due to the COVID-19-related restrictions and general safety precautions.
It’s incredible how resilient this industry has been this year, adapting to the needs and finding new ways to accomplish these transactions - it’s quite possible we will see the impacts of the experiences we shared this year spill over into the next years to come, and I believe that is due to a couple of reasons. One, a very substantial population will keep safety concerns top of mind for awhile to come still - as we all should. But, second - these new measures we’ve put in place to buy and sell real estate safely during this pandemic actually work, and for some people, save a lot of time and energy.
In 2020, I had a client making a long-distance move to Seattle. She needed to both list and sell her out-of-town home while purchasing her new Seattle home - and everything in between (packing, moving, etc.). In preparation for the virtual showings, we utilized all of my agent resources to vet different properties online to weigh her options - value of the home, layout, neighborhood, market trends, schools, and more. Once we found the homes my client was interested in, I scheduled a showing (a mandatory step with NWMLS) and then we used FaceTime to connect and tour the properties virtually. This technique works really well for long-distance or not!
Personally, I have a background in home building, so during these virtual tours, I was able to point out what I saw, suggest how my client might consider handling repairs or improvements down the line, and ultimately help the client build a pros and cons list for each property we vetted.
More Q&A on virtual home tours >>
How are people showing homes virtually?
The goal of a virtual home tour is to give home buyers a remote, video-enabled tour of a property they are interested in, in such a way that they will actually feel like they can envision being there in person. With Ryan Leyva Homes, these tours happen live so that homebuyers can ask questions of me while I am on-site at the property they are interested in. Before COVID-19, realtors used video tours as a marketing tool, but over this past year, these tours have often become a way for homebuyers to view a property without having to be on-site for safety purposes relating to the pandemic.
Do these virtual home tours happen as group showings or are they private?
I schedule these tours privately with buyers I am working with. Sometimes realtors, including myself, will schedule virtual open houses for their listings, but for homebuyers, these personal more in-depth tours are private. You can schedule a personal virtual or live tour of any property that is listed within the MLS with me anytime.