With the emergence of the digital era, the rental real estate industry has adopted many user-friendly tools to help rental property owners and tenants. Property management software has streamlined operations for landlords, smart home features have brought convenience for tenants, and now virtual tours for rentals are becoming increasingly popular among property owners.
What Are Virtual Tours?
Also known as virtual reality tours, it serves as a digital simulation of your property's physical space. It allows potential tenants to explore the unit remotely, providing a realistic and immersive experience for them wherever they are. It can be used to show any type of property listing, making it a versatile tool for marketing strategies.
How Will This Benefit Your Rental Business?
Lower Marketing Costs
Virtual tours offer cost and time savings for landlords since they reduce the need for physical visits. Incorporating virtual tours in your campaign can allow you to significantly lower the need for open-house viewings since quality virtual tour content will make it feel like potential tenants are physically in the property.
Equal Housing Opportunity
Not all prospective tenants have the opportunity to participate in property tours, so virtual tours for rental properties are the next best thing. They can view three-dimensional virtual tours without leaving the comfort of their home or traveling to the physical property. Rental property owners or managers won't have to take time out of their schedule to do physical tours as well.
Increased Engagement
Engagement from potential renters is the key to successful rental property marketing, and having 3D virtual tours lets potential tenants explore interactive features as opposed to just reading its descriptions and relying on photos. Unlike photos, virtual tours provide a more realistic view of the property listing, which helps drive up clicks and views.
Competitive Edge
Although virtual reality tours are becoming more popular in the rental industry, not all rental property owners have adopted the technology yet, and this could give your rental property an edge in the rental market. It lets potential renters assess the space with crucial factors in mind since virtual tours provide a feel of the space, its dimensions, and even the potential for furniture arrangements.
Types of Virtual Tours for Rental Property Marketing
360-Degree Virtual Tours
The point of view of the virtual tour is from a fixed point in the middle of an area allowing potential tenants to view the space entirely. All you have to do is learn the virtual tour basics and use a 360-degree camera to capture the area. This can be the fastest way for prospective renters to get a comprehensive look at the rental property.
3D Virtual Tours
This option can be more complicated since you will need to use special software like Matterport, CloudPano, or 3DVista to achieve the desired digital construction of the rental property. Three-dimensional virtual tours allow prospective tenants to "walk around" the rental property as if they are actually there, creating an immersive experience for them.
Video Walkthrough
While it's not as tech-savvy as the previously mentioned virtual tour types, video walkthroughs offer guided tours, which helps with enhancing rental property marketing strategies. The speaker in the video can highlight key features in the entire room and explain aspects that cannot be comprehended without being physically present such as wall textures, furniture materials, and more.
What Should Your Virtual Tours Have?
View of Every Room
Prospective tenants will want to see every space when they view properties through 3D virtual tours, which means that a tour of every room or area is necessary. Use specialized software to ensure that every corner can be seen on the VR tours, just as they would in traditional methods such as physical tours.
Good Lighting
Quality matters when creating a virtual tour, and having a good view of your rental home with proper lighting can make a huge difference. In a single panoramic image, for instance, some areas may appear darker than others. You can set up proper lighting to set the stage when you take photos or videos of the property for virtual reality tours.
Interactive Elements
Some platforms help you create a more extensive virtual reality view, depending on the type of virtual tour. You can create an interactive experience by providing options such as floor plan views, dimensions, elevations, and more details to help potential residents make informed decisions when considering rental properties.
Highlights of Amenities
If you have a high-end rental property, you should take advantage of your amenities and furnishings by highlighting them during property tours. Potential tenants will appreciate your virtual tours more if you cover all the bases of your rental property as opposed to simply posting high-quality photos.
SEO-Optimized Content
Since VR technology leaves little to read about, be sure to optimize your virtual tours by using important keywords on your titles to boost your rental property's SEO search ranking. Virtual tours offer fresh content, but you still need to ensure that potential tenants can find them in search engines and social media platforms.
Virtual Tours FAQs
What kind of camera should I use to create virtual tours?
You can use a regular camera when creating a virtual tour, but it is not ideal. You would be better off using 360-degree cameras to enable potential tenants to see a panoramic view of your property.
Are virtual tours expensive to make?
Compared to in-person tours of rental properties, virtual tours are relatively cheaper. It can also depend on what kind of virtual tour you intend to make, or if you decide to hire professionals like property managers to make that happen.
Are virtual tour software user-friendly?
Creating VR tours may not be as simple. Other landlords tend to hire professionals with the expertise to make virtual tours as interactive as possible. It can even help you save time as you provide equal housing opportunities for prospective renters.
Let Wave Property Management Create One For You
Hiring property managers like Wave Property Management relieves you of the responsibility to create a virtual tour for potential renters. We can get professional videos of your property done and use the virtual tours to boost engagement and get it rented much faster.
Our company stays up to date as technology continues to provide the industry with better tools, and multiple properties under our care have benefited from that. Let us help you make your business thrive.
Schedule a free consultation to discover what we can do for your rental business!
