Is a Virtual Tour worth the price when selling through an agent?

Ramouth

I’m looking at the moment and find that both video and 360 walkthroughs very useful for deciding not to view a house.  So it might save you getting ready for viewings for people who are not going to buy in the end anyway.

As others have said, a floor plan is essential and I will often move on from a property without a floor plan without a proper look.

edgex

Make sure the basics are right first; good photos, in a logical order floor plan with compass!

bex2012 said:

The matterport videos are really detailed, you see EVERYTHING! by having to request the video from the agents, it reduces the chances of a burglar using the video to case the joint. If youve got a posh tv or top of the range stereo, it will be shown unless you move it out for the video.

It's not the 1980's, nearly every house has a 'posh' tv, & good luck spotting a 'top of the range' stereo.

Loza2016

I recently sold my house with an agent who used this as part of the service. I thought it was fantastic and highly recommend it. 

davidmcn

edgex said:

bex2012 said:

The matterport videos are really detailed, you see EVERYTHING! by having to request the video from the agents, it reduces the chances of a burglar using the video to case the joint. If youve got a posh tv or top of the range stereo, it will be shown unless you move it out for the video.

It's not the 1980's, nearly every house has a 'posh' tv, & good luck spotting a 'top of the range' stereo.

Indeed, if anybody wants to nick your high value electronics they'll just mug you for your phone or laptop, they don't need to get into your house. To the extent that any burglary is still going on, it's mostly opportunists looking for something easy to get into there and then, I doubt there's a significant risk from anybody casing joints using estate agent listings.

amandacat

I paid £150 to my EA for the 360 virtual tour. It was worth the money for me as photos can only show so much. I think you can get a much better idea of the house layout and rooms.  My buyer actually paid full asking price without even physically viewing the property. He was happy with the tour. I felt all the way through that he might pull out as he didn’t physically view but we completed and who knows if he would’ve offered without the virtual tour, as he seemed reluctant to do a physical viewing due to covid. 

davilown

The virtual tours are really good - we have one on our house, and we always look for them in houses we have viewed to go back over details.
we weren’t charged for it though as the EA did it himself.

niceguyed

moneysavinghero said:

niceguyed said:

I've mixed feelings. I recently sold and the agent gave the video tour the hard sell, was £240 with enchanced photos. Afterwards we asked the agent to conduct  a walk through as if we were a buyer and overall I was impressed and thought because of lockdown and having tenants in the property it was a no brainer. You know what, not a single viewer requested it, they all wanted the physical viewing straight away which I must admit surprised me. Feels a waste now but at the time seemed a sound decision, for £180 it only needs to attract one buyer to make it worthwhile.

Don't make people have to request it. Make sure it is up on Rightmove so they can view it without having to beg for it.

I honestly get that, the EAs perspective was the video tour was in lieu of the physical tour so they treated it with the seriousness of a face to face and an opportunity to sell and add value. Of course there's a large dose of EA guff with that statement which is why I insisted they did the tour with me first. My view is if you're a serious buyer and based on the pics you want to find out more then a requested video tour isn't commiting much time from the comfort of your own home if you can't do a physical viewing. 

Mutton_Geoff

I think it is important the agent filters the recipients of the more detailed video links so that they have more information on prospects rather than just leave the link open on Rightmove but I had a "virtual viewing" booked with an agent yesterday on a property I was interested in and the agent simply invited me to a screen sharing meeting where they moved me around a matterport equivalent presentation rather than send me the link and allow me to proceed at my own pace.

Mahsroh

Personally I think they're useful. As a potential buyer I find them very helpful.

Generally it either increases my interest in a property, or makes my mind up that it's not quite right. The latter may seem like a negative thing, but it must help reduce the number of unsuccessful viewings, which isn't a bad thing in my opinion (COVID or no COVID). 

NinjaTune

It's definitely worth it for a large and/or quirky house like the one in the linked Matterport video.  Too many photos of the same room makes me lose interest but a 360 allows you to properly 'inspect' the place.

I like them for sheer nosiness value but also found them helpful to filter out properties I didn't want to view just as much as for those I did want to view.  One flat looked nice in the photos but the 360 view made me realise the property was actually a bit cramped and dark.