As a Santa Ana rental property owner, you understand marketing is the critical key to attracting suitable renters. And if you’re not using virtual tours yet, you’re missing out! Providing potential tenants the opportunity to take a virtual tour of your rental properties is an efficient way to show them what they’re gaining before they even walk through the door. In succeeding paragraphs, we’ll speak of the gains of opting to offer virtual tours for your rental property marketing and indicate why every rental property owner should be using them.
Virtual Tour Basics
By definition, a virtual tour is a digitally rendered walk-through of a rental property. Dissimilar to photographs, which portray the property based on the photographer’s point of view, virtual tours can provide an in-depth viewing of each room of a property. Virtual tours can at the same time grant potential renters to measure spaces and areas of the home and even digitally place their furnishings to see how they would fit.
Prevailing studies have disclosed that renters desire virtual tours of rental properties. According to results compiled by Zumper, better than 70% of renters say they would be open and willing to rent an apartment without seeing it in person if they could review it through a 3D virtual tour.
Types of Virtual Tours
Virtual tours are an immersive way for potential tenants to examine your rental properties. They impart a shot for potential renters to get a feel for the space and ascertain if it meets their needs without having to stop by the property physically.
There are three main types of virtual tours: a 360 virtual tour, a 3D virtual tour, and a virtual reality tour.
- 360 Virtual Tour. A 360 virtual tour is a single panoramic image joined together from lots of photographs. These tours enable probable tenants to look at an entire room in one image, then click and drag to look around. 360 virtual tours are manageable and low-cost to set up, making them a suitable option for Santa Ana property managers just starting with virtual tours.
- 3D Virtual Tour. A more immersive variation than a 360 virtual tour, a three-dimensional (or “true”) virtual tour grants prospective tenants to walk through the property as if they were there. These tours are built by taking multiple photographs of a rental property and then piecing them together putting to use special software. Given the time and effort involved in setting them up, high-end rental properties usually only use three-dimensional virtual tours.
- Virtual Reality Tour. The most recent and most immersive type of virtual tour is the virtual reality (VR) tour. These tours attract prospective tenants by putting on a VR headset and exploring the property as if they were walking through it. While VR tours are still rather unconventional, they are indeed becoming more and more popular as VR technology becomes more accessible.
What are the benefits of virtual tours?
- Convenience. Definitely, the major benefit of virtual tours is that they are exceedingly convenient. Would-be tenants can tour your rental properties without having to leave their homes or work schedules. This is useful for out-of-state or international renters who might have problems arranging a time to tour the property physically.
- 24/Hour Availability. Virtual tours are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This indicates potential tenants can tour your rental properties on their own schedule, without having to work around your availability.
- Increased Engagement. Virtual tours are also proven to increase engagement. A study by Inman News discovered that properties with virtual tours receive, on average, 42% more website views than those without virtual tours.
- Improved SEO. Not just great engagement, virtual tours can furthermore enhance your rental property’s SEO. Google delights in really fresh content, and including a virtual tour of your property listing is an efficient way to add new content and strengthen your ranking in search results.
How to Optimize Your Virtual Tours
Quality Matters. Bear in mind to use high-quality images and videos, and refrain from using low-resolution or blurry photos. You desire potential tenants to get a clear sense of your rental properties, so see to it you use quality virtual tour content.
Include a Call to Action. Make it a point to include a call to action (CTA) at the end of your virtual tour. A CTA is a statement or button prompting potential tenants to take the next step, similar to scheduling a showing or contacting you for more information. By adding a CTA, prospective tenants are more likely to rent from you.
Virtual tours are the best solution to offer would-be tenants a feel for your rental properties without having to physically visit the property. If you’re not already capitalizing on virtual tours in your rental property marketing, now is the best time to start. Ready to learn more about how to create and put to use virtual tours in your rental property marketing? Contact us online today!
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.
