Property owners, are you looking to increase your profitability? Discover how 3D virtual tours can significantly impact your business. For more in-depth information, read more in our comprehensive guide.

You lose money each day your rental property remains vacant. If you’re like most investors, you’ve been using traditional methods to fill your vacancies.

For example, you’ve likely posted ads to Facebook, Craigslist, and other publications that have a classified section. You might even have posted vacancy notices on your local church or community center bulletin boards.

Although these traditional methods can be an effective way to fill vacancies, 3D tours will speed up the process to a degree you cannot imagine. Property management companies have been recommending 3D tours to their clients for a while now.

However, the technology didn’t become truly popular until the coronavirus pandemic required all investors to give up in-person tours.

What is a 3D virtual tour and how does it differ from traditional video promotion?

A 3D virtual tour combines multiple video recordings of a property to create a three-dimensional view of every room from floor to ceiling. These artifacts can be run like a video or controlled by the user much the way Google Maps operates in Street View.

By comparison, a standard video tour is filmed from the videographer’s point of view and surveys the property at the pace the camera travels through the home. Thus, a standard virtual tour entails the following multiple limitations:

  • Poor video quality. Any time an amateur records video or takes photographs, the quality will almost inevitably be poor. When the person isn’t trained to work with lighting, he or she won’t capture compelling imagery. High-quality imagery makes a huge difference, whether in a still photograph or a video. For example, Green Residential in Katy, Texas provides professional photography for their clients, and that fills vacancies fast.
  • Shaky video and motion blurs. Amateur video can be shaky or move too swiftly around corners because the videographer must hold the camera and walk through the home.
  • Missing details. Some details will be skipped if the videographer doesn’t focus with intention on those elements. For example, if the property has vaulted ceilings and several light fixtures hang from the ceiling, it’s hard for a videographer to capture the complete view from below without specifically shooting those light fixtures in a 360-degree circle from directly below them.
  • Poor narration. The videographer might narrate the tour, which isn’t necessarily as helpful as it might seem.
  • Bad lighting. If the lighting isn’t expertly managed throughout the house, some areas of the property will be underrepresented in the resulting video.

3D virtual tours are more effective than photos and videos

Every effort you make to market a vacancy should be as effective as possible. 3D virtual tours give you the best leverage for finding the right tenants.

A 3D virtual tour will generate more applications by making your property look more appealing to potential applicants. When you generate a larger pool of appropriate applicants to choose from, you won’t be forced to make snap decisions and approve tenants about whom you have doubts.

For example, if you’re not attracting many leads, you might be tempted to rent to an applicant who has a lower credit score or someone with an eviction on his record.

3D virtual tours create engagement

It’s well known that when marketers can get people to interact with an advertisement or product, they become more interested and engaged. Direct mail marketers have been using lumpy envelopes to initiate engagement for decades because it works.

The same is the case when people click repeatedly to navigate a 3D virtual tour: they grow more involved and become more likely to make an appointment to visit the property.

3D virtual tours will generate a larger pool of leads

Creating a larger pool of leads to choose from makes it easier to find high-quality tenants. Though it’s possible a tenant with a low credit score or eviction could make a good tenant, you won’t know until he or she moves into your property.

However, if you choose the wrong individual, you could be stuck with them for a while. The pandemic has made it even more difficult to evict a tenant, even if he or she doesn’t qualify for protection under the national eviction moratorium.

When you need the money, you still oughtn’t to take any chances by allowing an unqualified tenant to move into your rental property. Getting as many leads as you possibly can will help to avoid that nightmare.

3D virtual tours are the future of real estate

If you already work with a property management company, they may already be using 3D virtual tours to fill your vacancies. If you’re managing your properties solo, it’s not that hard to obtain a software program that will enable you to create stunning tours of your vacant properties.

The day you start using 3D virtual tours, you’ll get more responses from potential tenants, and that will help you rent the property sooner.