If you have ever created a virtual tour,
I bet the way you did it is — simply heading over to the property, taking out your camera, and starting the recording. Then you probably moved around the property until you’ve covered major areas.
Well, that’s a terrible way of creating a virtual tour.
While a few potential customers might be okay with such a poorly-created tour, it is very unprofessional not to know how the best agents do theirs. And for the sake of the companies and agents who can’t seem to create great tours.
I’ll be discussing how to do so in this content.
The style of this content
Note, this content won’t be a step-by-step guide.
The process of creating an excellent tour is similar to the mediocre process I just mentioned above.
However, rather than just following the steps to create an excellent tour, there are some things you also have to take into consideration – You should also take into consideration are what I’ll be discussing in this content.
In short, this article isn’t providing a step-by-step set of instructions; it is rather providing tips.
Tips in Creating an Excellent Virtual Tour
Work with a plan
One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen agents make when creating a virtual tour is — starting the tour without a plan.
When you want to build a house, you don’t just start constructing the house without a plan. When Marvel wants to shoot a movie, they don’t just create the film without a plan.
In other words,
When people are trying to do serious and complex things, they often have a plan. But why is it that people don’t always have a plan for something as serious and as complex as a virtual tour?
Well, this isn’t right. And the next time you’re creating a tour, having a plan is a thing you should take seriously.
What does creating a typical plan look like?
Let’s assume I’m about to sell a 3-bedroom apartment to a potential customer, and the customer says, I will like to see what I’m buying, before proceeding with the payment. I’ll first sit down to ask myself questions like —
What will this person be interested in?
What are the key features to show them on the tour?
Where should I start the tour from?
What are all the important places that must appear in the video? And so on.
Based on the answers gathered during self intelligence thought I can decide that:
Okay, let me start the tour from the veranda.
When on the veranda, I’ll try to give him a 360-degree view of it. I’ll like to show him that space for a generator is available in the veranda. I’ll also like to show him that the rain doesn’t wet the place when rain is falling.
Then after that, we’ll go into the living room.
When I’m in the living room, I’ll give him a clear 360-degree view of the living room. I’ll show him the tiles are of high quality. I’ll show him the sockets are all working. I’ll show him the asbestos ceilings are of high quality.
I may even bring along a thermometer to show him that the living room always remains cool during the sunny seasons. And so on
In short,
If you sit down to plan a tour, before even starting it, the chances of creating a great tour will be pretty high. Because you took the time to sit down and think about the tour, you’re less likely to miss out on important things that will get the buyer very excited about the house
In the video, highlight the primary features and also the excellent features.
Another mistake many agents and companies make when creating a virtual tour is that they always fail to highlight the primary features and the nice features of the property.
Even though you may have already told the potential customer what the house features, it still pays to add a “features highlight” in the video. Including a “features highlight” will make the potential customer flow better with the video. So take this point seriously.
By primary features, I mean those things that matter to a potential customer. And by nice features, I mean those things the customer may not have in mind but will be glad to hear about.
So, before sending any tour video to a potential customer, you ought to do some video editing. Firstly, create an image like this — an image that highlights the primary and the nice (secondary) features of the property.
This kind of image can be created with a tool like Canva. For those who have never heard of Canva, consider taking some minutes to read an article I dedicated to the software.
After creating an image like the one above, use a video editor to make this image displayed for the first 20 seconds of the video.
There are many good video editors out there. Ordinarily, I should recommend you one. But because the editor which will be the most suitable for you, will also depend on some factors only you can tell, it won’t be best if I’m the one who makes the suggestion.
You should rather be the one to research the best video editors we have out there, then select based on what you find the most suitable.
I should also state that — it doesn’t really matter if you’re using an Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, or Linux, you will find a good video editor for your platform.
Also note, the 20 seconds stated above is for situations where your property’s number of features is close to the number of features listed in the sample image above. If your property’s number of features is significantly higher, you also ought to raise the number of seconds for which your “feature highlight” image will be displayed.
Focus on the primary features and also the nice features
Another mistake I’ve seen many agents and companies make is — creating a tour whose main focus isn’t the primary features and the nice features of the property. For instance, many agents and companies create videos talking about so many things, including relevant and irrelevant information. And at the end of the day, the potential customer gets overwhelmed with so much irrelevant info that they become unable to focus on the things that truly matter.
In other words,
Rather than just featuring anything into the tour video, pick the primary features and the nice features (the primary ones first, then the secondary ones) one-after-the-other.
Then spend some minutes showing and discussing things about the current feature.
And everything you should mention during that session should be about the current feature.
For instance,
Don’t start discussing the living room then suddenly jump to the house’s garage, then suddenly jump to the light bill, then jump to the back door, etc.
You should rather do something like this — when discussing the living room, talk about the size of the living room, then talk about the kind of paint used for the living room, then talk about how much natural lightning can come in, then talk about how easy it is to clean the tiles of the living room, etc.
When you feel you have said enough about the living room, you can then move on to another feature and discuss it in the same manner.
When you are done with all the primary features and all the nice features, you can then address those other things you’ll also like to mention. But make sure you don’t spend too much time discussing these additional things, to avoid taking away the viewer’s attention from what matters the most.
Indicate the beginning of every single feature
If you plan to create an excellent virtual tour, one of the mistakes you should also avoid is refusing to indicate the beginning of each feature of the property.
For instance, some agents will be discussing the living room then subtly transition to the rooms’ discussion, without the customer being aware of this transition. When the customer isn’t really aware of such a transition from one feature to another, it’s very easy for them to take little from everything you say.
In other words,
When transitioning from one feature to another, always say things like “Now, let’s move on to the dining room”, etc.
And after making such a statement, remain silent for a few seconds before starting your discussion on the next feature.
This way, when your potential customer is done with the video, it will be much easier for them to navigate through everything you’ve said, in their head. They’ll also get to remember most of the things you say.
Spend enough time on the primary features and some reasonable time of the nice features
You should also note when creating your virtual tour is that — you should spend as much time as possible on the primary features and the nice features of your property.
Some agents are fond of rushing things.
You shouldn’t be like them.
Treat each part until you are sure you’ve addressed everything the customer will like to know. Don’t worry about the video being too long, as creating a short video that isn’t impressive doesn’t help anyone.
However, this isn’t to mean your video should be unnecessarily long.
That’s not what I’m saying. If there’s nothing much to show or discuss about a feature, then it’s not compulsory to spend much time on it.
Ensure the visual is of very high quality
Do you realize that people don’t always buy based on logic alone? When people buy things, emotions are often involved. In other words, if you understand how to stir up people’s emotions, you increase your chances of closing your real estate deals.
For instance,
One of the reasons why we’ll often prefer a Samsung over a Tecno is because of design.
Even though the Tecno may have the same hardware as a Samsung, people often prefer buying the more expensive Samsung, all because the Samsung phone is more appealing. Similarly, if you can create a virtual tour that excellently shows the beauty of a property, you can make the potential customer get attracted to the property and end up buying it, without the property being the best deal they can get.
And when it comes to creating tours that will excellently capture the beauty of a property, one of the things you have to ensure is — the video quality of the tour has to be of pretty high quality. And to create a high-quality video, one of the things needed is a good camera. By “camera”, I’m not necessarily saying you have to get a standalone camera.
You can actually use the camera on your phone.
But when using a phone to take the video, ensure that whatever phone you use has a great camera.
Talk slowly
To create an excellent virtual tour, one of the things you also have to ensure is that you talk slowly during the recording of the video.
A virtual tour is a thing meant to give a potential customer a feel of the property, without being physically present. In other words, this is not a thing that should ever be rushed. But when you talk fast, you’re subconsciously rushing your customer, which can leave the customer displeased.
In short, when creating your virtual tour, talk slowly.
It will also be a nice idea to pause from time-to-time to give the potential customer enough time to process things.
Eliminate unwanted background sounds
When creating a video for a virtual tour, there may be noise in the background.
For instance, the video may capture the sound of a car passing by or the noise of a mother shouting at her son; this kind of thing shouldn’t be present in a good virtual tour. So after creating your video, if you notice some background noise, use a video editor to remove the background noise.
There are many editors which support this feature, so finding a suitable one should be no problem.
Add a cool background music.
Earlier on, I stated that people do not only buy things based on logic, emotions also often play a big part. And another way to leverage this fact is by adding a piece of cool background music to the tour.
However,
Don’t get this wrong.
When I say add background music, I’m not asking you to add a piece of hip-hop music or a religious song as the background music. Here, the songs I’m talking about are those composed of only musical instruments.
If you’ve used a lot of ATMs, you should have an idea of what I’m talking about.
Find a piece of good music with Google
For those who don’t know where to find this kind of music, you can use Google to find a song suitable as background music. And after finding a suitable song, use a video editor to add the song as a background song.
Please, don’t make the mistake of thinking you can play the song in the background while taking the actual recording. If you add the background music this way, it’s almost certain you’ll end up with a terrible video.
Rather use a video editor, as suggested.
It’s also important to warn that the volume of the background video shouldn’t be too high. The volume of the music should be adjusted in such a way that it doesn’t overpower your own voice. But when everything is quiet, the viewer should be able to hear it.
Final words
If you use all the tips I’ve discussed above, I’m confident you’ll come out with something significantly better.
However, even though the 9 tips provided should be enough, there are definitely still more tips that can possibly improve the quality of a virtual tour. So do not limit yourself to just the tips above.
You can also take some time to think about other ways creatively to improve the quality of your tour further.
