What is a virtual tour app and how can it help you find your dream home? Read here for nine ways you haven't thought of.
Did you know that in 1981, more than a fifth of U.S. home buyers used newspaper ads to find a home? Then almost four decades later (2018), 44% of home buyers used the Internet to search for a home.
In fact, in 2017, 47% of home buyers found the property they bought through the World Wide Web!
That's how big a role the Internet now plays in the home buying process. After all, it lets buyers browse potential houses with only a few clicks (or taps) of the keyboard.
And today, the use of real estate 3D Interactive Tours has made home shopping even easier and more convenient. Because as helpful as real estate photos and videos are, they can still be quite limited.
Ready to learn how 3D Interactive Tours work and help home buyers like you find their dream home? Let's dive right into it then!
1. A 3D Interactive Tour Gives You A First-Hand Look into Prospective Homes
3D Interactive Tours take you on a 3-dimensional tour of a home's interior. You can "walk through" a house and see what the rooms look like. These tours give you a first-hand look into rooms and home layouts.
With a 3D Interactive Tour of a house, you can see how far the master bedroom is from other rooms. If there are stairs, you’ll see their position and location, and you can move up the stairs to the second floor. You’ll also see how ideal each room’s location is for your family.
You can do all this without being there in person.
2. Interactive, Interesting, and Informative
Until now, the typical online tour has been a still photo tour or video tour. New cutting edge technology enables agents to take their tours to the next level with 3D Interactive Tours. These are tours that let you see and "interact" with the entire home.
For instance, you can click to move through the home just as you would if you were actually there. You can view each room and see it at various angles. You can move throughout the space and look all around. You can zoom in on portions of rooms so you can see the details of the room better.
This “interactive” feature is what makes 3D Interactive Tours more fun, interesting and informative.
3. Convenient Way to Explore the Details of a Home without Time Constraints
Since you can zoom in on each room, you'll get a better idea of the details of the home. You can zoom in on fixtures, counter tops, or whatever area of the home you want to see closer. You will be able to see how the finishes look and visualize how they will work with your furnishings.
With the help of a 3D Interactive Tour, buyers can check out each room, without actually being there in person.
Since you can access 3D Interactive Tours online, you can go through them as many times as you want. You can take your sweet time exploring each room in the home without worrying about time.
4. Visit the Home as Many Times as You Want
Since a 3D Interactive Tour is accessible any time online, you can tour the home as often as you need to. This can be very helpful in better understanding the layout of the home. Plus, it'll give your entire family an opportunity to discuss who's getting which room in the home!
5. Everyone in Your Family Can Get a Look at the House
Home shoppers with children still make up a large share of the market -- 37% of 2018 buyers had kids under the age of 18. If you’re one such buyer, it pays to get insight and opinions from your little ones too.
But with them having school, it can be hard to bring them with you during your home hunting expeditions.
3D Interactive Tours are a great solution to this issue since you can take them once your kids get home from school! 3D Interactive Tours are easy to use and that means adolescents will have no problem using them.
Plus, it's an excellent way to have your children, especially teenagers, prepare for the move too. It may help ease their nerves if they see what the new home looks like. They may even get excited once they see their new room!
6. Better Imagine How It Feels to Walk Throughout That Home
Did you know that around 40% of U.S. home buyers consider home buying "the most stressful event in modern life"? Especially for first-time shoppers since they lack experience. This can make them focus more on the financial side rather than what makes that home the best choice for them.
While it's vital to stay on budget, you shouldn't buy a house based on price alone. You want a home that you can imagine yourself living in for many years to come. You want a home where you can picture your family making great memories.
3D Interactive Tours can give you exactly that - a way to better imagine yourself and your family living in that home. They help you visualize how it feels entering the front door and walking through the hallway. You can envision yourself puttering about the kitchen as the kids run around the garden or the yard.
You can even start conceptualizing interior designs and room decor with 3D Interactive Tours. You can begin planning where you'll hang art and display trophies. A 3D Interactive Tour of the kitchen can even give you ideas on where you can put all those potted herbs you want to grow.
Since a 3D Interactive Tour lets you imagine all these things, you can better gauge how fitting a house is for your family. This can then make you feel more at ease, which in turn can make the buying process less stressful.
7. Get a Bird’s Eye View of Prospective Homes
Want to know what a house looks like from above? Then an online tour that includes aerial video can give you what you want! Aerial video tours take house exploration to a whole new level with bird’s eye views of properties. You can view the yard and surrounding areas of a property before you see it in person.
8. Save Both Time and Money from Looking at Several Properties
17 weeks -- that's the average time house shoppers spend looking for their future home. That doesn't even include the time spent on closing a house, which now averages 50 days.
That means on average, it takes about six months to complete the home buying process.
While you may not have control of the closing process, you can cut the time needed to shop around. 3D Interactive Tours give you that chance, as you can do most of your initial searches online.
You can also save gas or commute money by using these innovations in real estate tech! Since you can explore houses right from your couch or office chair, you can take fewer trips to each of them.
9. Great Solution for Buyers of Out-of-State Properties
Every year, around 40 million Americans move at least once. Now, let's say you'll be part of this group this year, but you're moving outside of your current state of residence. This can make home buying tricky and expensive, since you may have to take flights to shop around.
3D Interactive Tours are perfect tools if you're planning to buy a house you can't always drive to.
Find Your New Home Now with through the Help of a 3D Interactive Tour
There you have it, the many ways a 3D Interactive Tour can help you find your dream home. Not only will it help you find the perfect home, but it'll also make the searching and buying process easier. Every cent that you can keep matters, so all those gas or commute savings you can get with virtual tours can help!
Ready to start exploring houses for sale using 3D Interactive Tours? If so, get started now by checking our extensive list of 3D Interactive house tours! You can even house hunt on the go by downloading our free real estate mobile app.