360° virtual tours have recently exploded in popularity, especially during the COVID-19 crisis. During the lockdown, realtors had to rely on virtual tours to show and sell homes. But what about property management companies and rental property owners? If they are not taking advantage of this virtual reality technology, then they must rely on self-access showings. But, self-access showings do not benefit the out-of-town prospective tenants and that is a large market being overlooked, especially people looking to move to the fast growing, “Rocket City” of Huntsville, Alabama! What Is A 360° Virtual Tour? If you are familiar with Google Maps’ Street View feature, then you know what a 360° virtual tour is and how cool they are! 360° virtual tours allow resident leads to take a self-guided walkthrough of your rental property 24x7, and, they can even do it from the convenience of their own couch. Virtual tours consist of a series of immersive 360° panoramic photographs with “hotspots” that allow one to move from room-to-room. These 360° tours can even come with floor plans so prospective tenants can gauge if their furniture will fit and where it will go! For out-of-towners, this helps eliminate the stress of renting “site unseen”. How Can My Rental Benefit From A 360° Virtual Tour? The two main benefits to a 360° virtual tour for your rental is to increase leads (especially to those out-of-town) and to decrease unneeded showings. Choosing a home is a very important decision and people want all the information they can find when doing their research. Virtual tours allow them to spend more time viewing the details of you home. So it’s no wonder potential tenants gravitate to listings that offer an engaging 360° tour, which increases the chances of them inquiring about your property. 1. Boost your listings. Virtual tours help boost your listing and generate more resident leads by creating the opportunity and convenience of viewing your rental home at any time, day or night. This helps eliminate the scheduling of in-person showings or giving strangers self-access and hoping they remember to lock-up when they’re done. 2. Catch ‘em While They’re Hot! We live in a very demanding world and listings that can provide instant viewability anytime with a 360° virtual tour eliminate leads having to wait to see your property. 3. Cast A Wider Net For Your Lead Pool. 360° virtual tours not only make showings more convenient for both prospective tenants and home owners, but they make it possible for prospective renters with limited mobility to view to property. You can even get views from out-of-town prospects looking to move to your town. That expands your lead pool by a lot! When you expand access with virtual tours, you will certainly get more eyes and interest in your property and bring more leads to your funnel. 4. Decrease In-person Showings. Video walkthroughs and 360° virtual tours provide tenant leads with as much information as possible before scheduling an in-person showing. And a 360° virtual tour increases engagement by giving the viewer a good feel of the layout and flow of the home. So you know those prospective renters that call you for a showing have already viewed the video walkthrough and/or virtual tour and like what they have seen. Here are some stats: According to Apartments.com reports people spend 3 times more time on a page that has a video or interactive 360° virtual tour. Matterport states that listings with a virtual tour see a 49% increase in the number of leads ! Recent research by Zillow shows that 41% of millennials prefer and find a virtual tour or video walkthrough very important when searching for their next home. Get The Most Out of Your Virtual Tours 360° virtual tours come with many benefits, but your return on investment is quickly recovered at an estimated four weeks or less according to LCP360 . For the longest time, Matterport was the “go to” virtual tour platform in the market and it was costly. Today, virtual tours are booming and have become extremely popular. As a result, you now have options for virtual tour hosting, cameras, and tour options. Here are the best ways to get the most out of your virtual tour: Google Street View. For apartment and condo complexes, a Google Street View would greatly benefit your business if you don’t already have one. Google favors businesses with virtual imaging by 2:1 over flat digital imagery and businesses that have a Google Street View tied to their Google My Business page see a 12% increase in user engagement which leads to more exposure and more interest! Zillow 3D Tour. Zillow 3D tours are fairly new in the home leasing market, so this is a great way to have your listing stand out! In fact, homes with a Zillow 3D home virtual tour have 15% more views and get clicked on 40% more than listings without virtual tours! Embed your virtual tour on your website. If you have a website for your rental listings, embedding your 360° virtual tour is a must! For apartment and condo complexes, a 360° virtual tour for every floor plan will give potential tenants the opportunity to find the best size and layout for their needs. And, because virtual tours provide interactive online engagement, this keeps visitors on your website longer and, thus increases your Google rankings.  Take advantage of Infospots. A 360° virtual tour can provide additional options for you to tell viewers about your property. You can do this in the form of “infospots”. An infospot is a type of hotspot that triggers the user to click on it. A pop-up window appears and you have a variety of options on what you can display in that window. Perhaps you want to embed a video that welcomes the viewer to “their new home” or maybe you want to showcase the “hidden” door for the secret passage to the pool house. You can embed video, music, photos, interactive photos, URLs to websites and more with infospots. Is A 360° Virtual Tour Worth It For My Rental? In a nutshell? Absolutely! With ROI’s estimated at less than 4 months, you can’t go wrong. And, unless you remodel or change features within the home (e.g. repaint the walls a different color or remove the carpet and place hard flooring), you can use your virtual tour in your advertising tool kit over and over again! Statistics show that 360° virtual tours are extremely beneficial to add to your marketing plan since they have proven to provide significant impact to rental properties and their online presence. 360° virtual tours provide a powerful, unique and engaging display that allows potential tenants to walkthrough your rental home 24x7 and helps you stand out above the rest! Are your ready for your 360° virtual tour? Contact us and let us tell your visual story!