If you’re a real estate agent, offering virtual tours can be an excellent way to broaden your reach and improve the client experience. However, even if potential buyers won’t be visiting in person, you’ll still need to do some virtual home staging.
In addition to classic home staging preparation like decluttering and decorating, you’ll also need to adapt to the virtual format. You’ll want to consider what type of virtual tour you want to offer and make sure that you’re presenting the home accurately.
In this post, we’ll discuss why staging virtual home tours is a good idea. Then, we’ll share some tips for virtual home staging. Finally, we’ll offer some useful marketing materials to boost your advertising efforts for virtual open houses. Let’s get started!
Why Stage Virtual Home Tours in Real Estate
Before we discuss how to stage a home for a virtual tour, let’s talk about why you might want to do it.
First of all, staging homes in general has tons of benefits. Studies show that home that are staged spend 73 percent less time on the market. Meaning, they sell way faster than homes that aren’t staged. Similarly, staged homes sell for more money.
So, staging your clients’ homes can help boost your bottom line in multiple ways. It can lead to faster (and more) conversions. Plus, higher commissions on each sale.
When it comes to virtual home tours, they have one main additional advantage – convenience. In today’s busy world, home buyers who are planning to move larger distances may not have the time or the budget to attend an in-person open house.
On top of that, virtual home tours can also be a lot easier for sellers. That’s because most virtual open houses will require less time and energy from the client, as they’ll likely only have to deal with staging for a short period of time.
How to Stage a Home for a Virtual Tour in Real Estate (4 Tips)
Now, let’s go over four virtual home staging tips!
1. Declutter, Clean, and Decorate
While a virtual home tour is different than an in-person event, you’ll need to take virtual home tours just as seriously. With this in mind, you’ll want to make sure to do the following:
- Declutter
- Clean
- Decorate
If you have experience with in-person open houses, you’ll likely be familiar with this process.
However, if this is your first staging ever, don’t worry. Just make sure that the homeowners thoroughly clean and declutter. You might even recommend they hire professional cleaning services.
In terms of decoration, you’ll want to be sure to consider your target audience and the “vibe” you’re trying to sell. For example, if you’re selling a vacation home in the mountains, you might utilize decorations of a cozy winter style.
2. Use Proper Lighting and Start at the Entrance
When it comes to staging, proper lighting is always important. But, with virtual home staging, it’s critical.
So, it’s best to record or take photos when there is strong natural light, or you’re able to produce flattering artificial lighting. This can also be a good opportunity to showcase eye-catching or unique light fixtures.
Additionally, you’ll want to make sure that important home features such as fireplaces and high ceilings. As always, you’ll want to play up a house’s best qualities.
It’s also a good idea to start any virtual tour at the front door or entrance of the property. For apartments or smaller homes, it might not be the most glamorous shot, but virtual visitors will appreciate it since they aren’t crossing the threshold physically.
3. Consider the Type of Virtual Tour
When staging, you should also consider the type of virtual tour that you’re planning. Here are some of the most common types:
- Still photographs
- Video tour
- 360 virtual tour
If you’re a new real estate agent you might have the budget to pay for the software or services required for video or 360 tours.
However, that shouldn’t discourage you. A carefully staged virtual tour comprised of only photographs can still be effective.
4. Prioritize Accuracy
Lastly, when it comes to virtual home staging, you’ll want to ensure you’re always prioritizing accuracy. Basically, your aim should be for the images or videos to be true to the reality.
Otherwise, you could end up with unhappy clients. Of course, you’ll want to avoid this, thereby protecting your real estate agency’s reputation.
How to Market a Virtual Tour Using Jigglar Templates
Staging a virtual home tour for your client can take a lot of time, but the good news is that marketing it can be a breeze with Jigglar. When you sign up for the tool, you’ll get access to hundreds of real estate templates, including plenty for virtual open houses.
For instance, you can use a real estate flyer to advertise your virtual home tour:
What’s more, you can use the Jigglar editor to customize your designs.
For example, you can modify any Jigglar template to feature the virtual location of the tour. Plus, you can insert your contact details and your own personal branding such as a logo.
Additionally, Jigglar has plenty of social media templates that you can use to advertise your virtual home tour:
You can choose from designs for Facebook, Instagram, and more. And, when you’re using digital marketing, you can even link to your virtual tour.
This way, you can more efficiently advertise your virtual open houses on multiple channels.
Conclusion
Offering virtual open houses to your real estate clients can be an excellent way to expand your business. It can also be highly convenient for busy buyers. However, you’ll need to make sure you’re properly staging homes for virtual open houses.
To recap, here are four tips for virtual home staging:
- Declutter and decorate.
- Use proper lighting and start at the entrance.
- Consider the type of virtual tour.
- Prioritize accuracy.
Once you’re finished with virtual home staging, you’ll need to market your virtual open houses. Sign up for a Jigglar free trial to get tons of customizable open house templates that can help fast-track the process!
