Give them the grand tour Part 3 Your customers are online. That’s why your business has a Web site. It’s why you have increased email communications. It’s also why virtual tours are an effective way to market yourself and your properties. In this, part three of our four part series, you’ll glimpse why virtual tour technology is something you’d be crazy to overlook.
11. Broker Networking For each of your new listings, send an e-mail containing a link to its virtual tour to office and company colleagues as well as top area brokers in your “First Alert” network. Be sure to have their advance permission for you to e-mail new listings (to avoid annoying associates who may get lots of e-mail and consider unrequested e-mail to be spam).
12. Home-Showing Tours Take digital photos of properties as you show them to buyers. After the showings, put together a quick virtual tour of the properties. Link to it in your follow-up email to the buyers, asking, “Which house can you picture calling home?” Especially effective with relocation buyers or when half of a couple doesn’t come on a home-finding trip, the virtual home tour can help win over a voting partner and gain approval to make a purchase offer.
13. Corporate Relocation Corporate relocation specialists can use virtual tours to show a third party or long-distance manager what current comparables look like and support authorization for a revised broker price opinion.
During a premarketing phone call, a Web-linked tour can also be a mutual reference, especially when discussing features that need to be neutralized or repaired. If damage occurs to an unoccupied property, a virtual tour of water damage, broken windows or pipes, or vandalism can be an effective tool for getting permission to make repairs.
14. Kid Tours When you have buyers with children, whether out of town or across town, make a slideshow of life around the new home from a kid’s viewpoint. Tour the home, especially the kids’ bedrooms. Show back yard equipment, neighborhood kids, schools (what fashions kids are wearing), parks and playgrounds, sports, activities, seasons and attractions. Add stock photos of local events oriented to children (parades, festivals, tournaments, ballgames, recitals, etc.). Consider having parents do a voiceover with information on the new home and neighborhood.
15. Official Record A virtual tour can be used as a historical record to remind buyers about features they can’t remember. Use it to show the condition of property before agreed-upon repairs were made. Such a tour can be used for verification at walk-through. Photos can also reduce extensive note taking during a prelisting inspection.
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