Propertymark Industry Supplier, Made Snappy discusses the different uses of virtual tours and the positive impact they will have on the property industry over the next five years.
Conversions and maintenance
Virtual tours are a time-saving tool for conversions. Property developers use virtual tours to get rough quotes from contractors without booking appointments to meet on site. This is especially useful if they haven’t purchased the property, or don’t have access before completion.
Once a refurbishment or conversion is underway, tours are used to update offsite parties. At the end of the conversion, a before and after virtual tour can show off the project.
View a virtual tour of a 9-flat conversion in Plymouth, that is being submitted by the council for a national building award. The tour also helped the developer win a dispute with a surveyor and get a mortgage approved with an underwriter.
Another use of virtual tours is for maintenance and helping contractors understand what needs to be fixed in a property before having to assess in person.
Inventories
Virtual tours provide fast inventories. Before and after tours record the check-in and check-out of a property, allowing them to be quickly compared for issues. This will become more widespread as inventory comparison features of virtual tour software continues to be developed.
Virtual tours could reduce a check-in inventory to less than 30 minutes, even for large properties, and the tour can be repurposed for use the next time the property is advertised.
This technology has already been used in deposit disputes with DPS and we will see an increase in its use as the technology adapts and improves.
View an example of a refurb with photos before and mid-project to show how easy it is to see changes in a property with this technology here.
Agents
Agents use virtual tours to qualify viewings, ensuring viewings are made with serious buyers and renters only. Agents use virtual tours to rent properties with no in-person viewings, to help people who are moving long-distance to see local property listings, to reduce their viewing-to-offer ratio, and to win instructions by impressing vendors.
Virtual tours get properties out to a much wider audience online. Check out a virtual tour of a property for sale here.
Building control and licensing
Virtual tours allow councils to inspect properties remotely and keep records of properties such as listed buildings.
Some councils have passed licenses on HMOs just off the back of a virtual tour and without an in-person inspection of the property, view an example here.
Tourism and historical preservation
Virtual tours can preserve historical sites and properties of interest so that people can view them online while preserving the site. Virtual tours have been created of famous castles and islands around the UK.
Here’s a virtual tour of the famous Drakes Island in Plymouth that has been closed to the public for decades.
FIND OUT MORE
Virtual tours are incredibly versatile and have huge benefits for the property industry. If you would like to know more about virtual tours, check out our website.