Are you planning to use real estate virtual tours as part of your selling process?

Did you know that over 5 million pre-existing homes were sold in 2018? That's a lot of people finding and purchasing their dream homes!

If you're getting ready to sell your home, you may be interested in purchasing a virtual home tour. This will allow people browsing for homes online to "walk" through your home, making it easier for them to see themselves there forever.

While this is a great idea and can make your home stand out from the other homes in your price range, it only works if you do everything correctly and it is all too easy to make mistakes. Knowing what these common mistakes are, and how to avoid them, can even help you sell your home faster, which of course is a good thing.

So what are the common errors made when dealing with real estate virtual tours? And how can you make sure that your virtual tour is the best that it can be?

If you're asking yourself these kinds of questions, wonder no longer, because we're here to help! In this article, we'll give you a few tips and tricks to make your virtual home tour that much better, so you can sell your home faster! 

Now then, let's get started!

Poor Home Staging

Without a doubt, one of the biggest issues with virtual home tours and even home listings in general is a poorly staged home. Think of it like this. You can get everything right, from a lightning and technical standpoint, but if the image that you're capturing is bad, the picture or video will be bad, too.

So if you're planning to stage your home, let a professional handle that for you. And if you're still living in the home, remove all of the clutter and personalized items out of the home before recording the tour. This will make it that much easier for potential buyers to see themselves in your home.

Also, if you can, try to avoid capturing the home completely empty.  Nothing feels as cold or uninviting as an empty home, and that's not the vibe you want to send potential buyers.

With that being said, an empty home is better than a messy one. So take the time needed to clean and organize your home, and remove all personal items like family pictures and wall decor. It'll go a long way in helping you get the results you're looking for.

Picking the Wrong View Points

Remember, the goal of a virtual home tour is to give the person taking the tour the feeling that they're actually walking through the home in real life. You want them to be able to see themselves and their family in the home for the foreseeable future. And a virtual home tour makes it easy for them to do so without actually having to visit the home, which is ideal.

That's why it's important to capture your home from the right viewpoints and angles. You want it to feel natural when users scroll through your home, and in order to do that, you need to shoot your home from the right spots.

The last thing you want is for potential home buyers to feel like they're a fly on the wall looking at your house. So putting forth an effort to make sure that the home is captured naturally can go a long way in preventing your virtual tour from being a failure.

Also, be sure to capture all of the areas of your home that make it special to you. Remember, you fell in love with your home at some point, just like the person who ends up buying your house eventually will.

Try to capture those areas and features with your virtual home tour that made you love it and want to live there, so others can hopefully fall in love with it, too.

Failure to Capture Curb Appeal

As we just covered, it's important to capture all of the aspects and areas of your home that make it appealing to potential buyers. And one of those areas that often gets skipped with virtual tours is the front yard.

Curb appeal is real and actually more important than you might think. One of the best ways to help you sell your home quickly is to focus on curb appeal and clean up your home's exterior and the surrounding area. And once you've done that, take the time to capture it and make it available to browse via your home's virtual tour.

Don't be afraid to capture your backyard, too, if you think that's a strong point of your home. Got a pool? Show potential buyers what it would be like to walk around that pool every day if it was their own.

Of course, you want to be sure that everything is presentable before you create the tour, so you get the best results possible. Again, any space of your home that could be appealing to buyers should be focused on and that includes a well-maintained yard and any additional features it might have.

Not Using the Proper Lighting

Nothing can ruin a picture or video the way that poor lighting can. That's why professional photographers and videographers work tirelessly to create the right lighting for their shots. And virtual home tours and listing photos should be approached the exact same way.

Because not only does poor lighting appear unprofessional, if people taking the virtual tour can't clearly see what it is they're looking at, they're going to close out of the browser window and move on to the next house. That means someone else's home has a better chance of getting purchased than yours, which of course isn't the goal.

So take the time to figure out what needs to be done to get the best lighting possible for your tour. A pro tip is to figure out what time of day your home has the best natural lighting and try to record your virtual tour then, if at all possible.

Be sure to have the blinds open as well so you can maximize the amount of natural lighting in the home. If you have to, turn on some lights to brighten things up. 

Tours That Aren't Mobile-Friendly

Did you know that over 50% of all web traffic comes from mobile devices? That's a number that is only going to rise over time as more people increase their usage of smart devices.

That's why it's important to make sure that your virtual tour works well on all mobile devices. Not having a mobile-friendly virtual tour could mean that half of the people looking at your home can't see your tour, which isn't ideal to say the least.

Also, some features like motion control allow for virtual tours on mobile devices to be an even more immersive experience. This, of course, makes it that much easier for potential buyers to see themselves in your home, leading to them booking an appointment to see it in person.

So if you're going to get a virtual tour for your home, make sure the company that is doing it for you has the ability to make it friendly for mobile users. This is pretty standard in 2019, but it's still something you should confirm before spending any money.

Common Mistakes with Real Estate Virtual Tours

Well, there you have it! Those are a few commonly made mistakes when it comes to real estate virtual tours that should do your best to avoid.

Virtual tours work and can help you sell your home faster if done properly. First, you're going to want to make sure your home is staged well. Remove all of the personalization from your home, and try to avoid shooting an empty house, if you can.

Capture all of the areas of your home that make it special to you, and don't forget about your front and backyard, especially if you have a nice lawn that's worth showing off.

Finally, be sure to focus on lighting and camera angles, so you can get the best results possible. Because if potential buyers can't see your home or if it's shot from a weird angle, they're going to quickly close out of the browser window and move on to another home.

Getting ready to sell your home? Don't have a real estate agent yet? Don't panic, we can help you find a real estate agent that will help you sell your home fast today!