3 Reasons Why Real Estate Businesses Use Virtual Tours in 2019

shutterstock 740284828

Virtual tours have been growing in popularity in recent years. Many people appreciate virtual tours because it allows an interested buyer to get a good picture of a home without having to step foot in it. While professionally-taken photographs have an essential place in the real estate industry, virtual tours are becoming more and more sought-after. Continue reading and discover a few benefits of virtual tours in 2019.

More time spent on your website

It can often be challenging to get people to visit your real estate website. It can be even harder to get people to stay on your site for more than just a few seconds. One of the most significant benefits of virtual tours is that they keep visitors on your site longer. The longer a user spends on a site, the higher the likelihood something on there will pique their interest.

Identifies most interested buyers

Real estate agents receive inquires about property listings all the time. They see photos they like online and then call the agent to schedule a viewing. While property photos are useful, they do not always tell the full story of a home. Virtual tours allow users to see a home from top to bottom. With this, it is safe to assume that a buyer who inquires about a home after seeing a virtual tour is highly interested in the property.

They make it easier to market your website

Virtual tours are still relatively new in the real estate industry. With this, you can make your real estate website stand out from many others on the market if you have virtual tours of your home listings. Since virtuals tours tell the full story of a home, an interested buyer can make an informed decision about a property from behind their computer screen or mobile device.

HUD Foreclosures

HUD foreclosures and VA Foreclosures are some of the best homes to buy when price is part of the equation. As with most Americans, price is always a concern. If not buying the same house for less, why not buy more house for the same dollar invested? When looking for a good deal it is hard to do better than the VA or HUD foreclosures market. The simple truth is that there are just more VA and HUD homes on the market, as they represent such a large number of mortgages that are generated each year. This translates into more foreclosures just by the magnitude of difference between all others comparing to the two largest.

The two largest also being government owned and operated means that they have less time to wait to make money back on the home. The FHA is especially known for selling HUD homes for less than the average sales price in a given area. FHA foreclosures represent a fraction of HUD but they are still a significant number of homes and both should be considered.

VA (Veterans Administration) and HUD (Housing and Urban Development) have different and unique opportunities for the buyer. Both are often forgiven for the local taxes normally associated with the purchase of a home (this is on a county by county basis). Be sure to ask the local title company or escrow company to look into it for you before closing as this is often missed due to their are not used to dealing with the 2 to 3 percent of the market that VA and HUD foreclosures represent.

Foreclosure Listings Increasing

As the market settled after the mortgage meltdown foreclosure listings also settled and fewer homes were on the market with a placard reading “Bank Foreclosure” in big red lettering. This was a good thing for the entire real estate market. Having an abundance of foreclosures brings the entire market down and it makes it harder for home owners, who would like to move, to get the appropriate price for their home as a similar home down the same street was sold for substantially less and the appraiser is using the foreclosure as a comparable sale.

This is just one of the problems when there are too many foreclosure listings in any area. Another issue is the television set that sits in everyone’s living room harping about the price of homes based on the number of foreclosures and this constant barrage of negative information makes most people sit on the sidelines waiting for the market to either implode completely or to correct itself. Meanwhile while they wait, others are buying foreclosure listings and making great investments.

Whatever the reason, a market can only handle so many foreclosure listings at any given time. The more foreclosures, the lower the market gets and this is a lesson the banks that were foreclosing and selling off realized too late. The market and their investments would have been better off if there had not been a rush to divest themselves of the toxic assets made more toxic by their own actions.