App Ed Review
It’s not a good idea to buy a house without actually touring the home first, but if that’s the only way homebuyers assess property, both real estate agents and buyers are going to waste a lot of time touring homes that they aren’t actually going to buy.
Instead of filling every spare minute of your day with in-person home tours, help your home buying clients assess properties before they request a showing. There are a lot of innovative programs and apps out there that can help them get a feel for a property without actually being there!
Personalized Real Estate Apps
There are a lot of real estate apps out there. Visiting apps like Zillow and Realtor.com is a great way for homeowners to learn more about the details of each specific property, but if you really want to help them learn everything they can about the properties you’re selling, make sure you connect them to your own personalized app.
There’s no need to worry about what it takes to create a real estate agent app either! Find a pre-built app that enables you to enter all of your specific information so you can call it your own. Then, you can provide information about each property that you want your clients to know about all in one place, without them having to scour other real estate apps looking to learn more about the houses they may want to buy.
3D Virtual Tours
Seeing a list of amenities inside the home is a good start. It’s important to know if there are new appliances, if there is original wood trim, or when the air conditioner was last replaced, but it’s very difficult to get a feel for the house by looking at a bulleted list. Help your clients figure out if they like the flow of each home by helping them locate a 3D home tour.
There are many 3D virtual tours available. You can create a 3D home tour on Zillow, while other platforms actually enable you to create a 3D rendering of all the interior rooms so homeowners can easily see how each room relates to one another. With a virtual tour, homeowners can quickly identify whether they like the flow from the living room to the kitchen, or whether there just isn’t going to be enough room in the master bedroom.
Tour the Neighborhood with Google Maps
When you buy a house, you don’t just buy the house—you’re buying the neighborhood too. It can be very difficult to learn more about a particular neighborhood unless you actually drive down the street. However, touring the neighborhood with Google Maps can help.
Homeowners can simply zoom in on the address of the home they are interested in and virtually drive down the street to learn how close homes are to each other, how well other homes are being kept up, and the condition of the street. As a realtor, you can even consider creating a tour that they can view!
Redecorate Before You Move in With Houzz
Encourage clients to use Houzz to decorate the interior of a home they are interested in. It’s a lot of fun, and it can encourage them to see themselves living there, which can ultimately lead to a faster sale!
It can also help clients determine whether or not they will be able to use their existing furniture in a new space or if they will have to think about buying new furniture. This enables them to create a more accurate budget ahead of their move.
Walk on Property Lines with Homesnap
Don’t forget about the outside! It is always important to know the property lines of any home, and yet, many city- or suburb-dwelling homeowners don’t take this into consideration. For rural buyers, knowing exactly how big (or small) the property is may influence their decision to buy. That’s where Homesnap comes in.
This app allows you to visually walk the boundaries of a property, enabling you to discern just how big the yard really is. It can also be helpful to know just how close your property is to a neighbor’s kitchen window or their driveway.
Homebuyers should always tour a home before they buy, but don’t think that means you have to tour dozens of homes before they choose the right one! Arm them with knowledge about their favorite properties so they can eliminate houses on their list that aren’t right for them before you give them a tour.
