The Top 3D Home Tour Platforms That Help Bring More Traffic To Your Listing

With so many options out there, what's the best platform for a realtor to use?

We've broken down the top platforms we've come across to help you make an informed decision on which to use. So read on to learn more!

What Are 3D Home Tour Platforms And How Do They Work?

3D home virtual tour platforms are tools that allow users to create virtual tours of homes or other properties. We even did one for an art gallery once! These tours can be created using panoramic images taken by a specialized 3D camera or even your cell phone, and they can be viewed by anyone with an internet connection and a computer or phone. These panoramas are then stitched together into a virtual world recreating the home. You can move usually move around these 3D spaces as well. Most of these virtual tours work by creating "hot-spots" or places that you can move from one point to another within the 3D space. This captures the space and can really engage your clients with a super easy way to move around the property. Most of these platforms work through apps on your phone so the software requirement is pretty simple.

The virtual tours can then be embedded into your website for your listing. It can be viewed and shared separately with its own link. A realtor can usually put it into the description of the MLS listing. It's a very versatile tool and is a self-contained site. A buyer would then click on the link and be able to take a virtual tour of the property by clicking from one spot to the next. We recommend spreading the link across multiple social media websites to increase your visitors like Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

The Top Three 3D Home Tour Platforms For Real Estate Experts

Matterport

- This is one of the most well-known brands in 3D virtual tours and one of the best-developed systems out there. When you search for ways to capture homes in 3D, they're usually one of the first to pop up on Google. They have a great quality product with a wide range of features. You can use their 3D camera to scan the property and create a 3D model of the property to get their famous "dollhouse view". Their images are some of the highest quality you can get for using a 3D virtual tour platform. The Matterport software also comes with some great system features such as guided virtual tours, tags, measurement modes, and the ability to show notes throughout the property. You can customize the virtual tours with your business logos and clients can explore a curated video experience as well. The Matterport can also provide a schematic floor plan with square footage. Of course, everything is done through an app nowadays and the Matterport App is no exception. You can download it on your phone or Ipad (yes it works with Android users) and rest assured it is a pretty simple system to use. The link is embeddable into your virtual tour and can enhance your presentation. The 3D scans are high enough quality that you can pull photos directly off them and use them on the MLS.

The Matterport system has been used by companies from Netflix to Baseball teams to capture their spaces and events. People can explore your business if you have an office space and it's great for restaurants to use. It helps people capture, explore and discover new spaces from museums to your average home for sale. However in my opinion it's a bit overkill if you're trying to get good results selling a home on the MLS.

The biggest drawback to using the Matterport is the cost and time it takes to scan a room. I've seen Matterport 3D virtual tours take 3-4 hours sometimes at different listings I was photographing. Especially if you get to the location and have to go floor by floor. The realtor had Matterport devices they owned in-house and wanted to make the most use of them. Understandable! But I always felt bad for the poor office staffer who was stuck moving a big clunky camera from one point to the next and taking scan after scan to make sure the 3D model was syncing correctly and that there was no data loss in the room capture. It also didn't help the seller who had to be out of their home for most of the time the scan was being completed.

Another drawback is that it's kind of price prohibitive for the average sales agent. The Matterport is a subscription-based model so even if you bought the 3D camera - you still have to pay monthly hosting fees for any listings or 3D models that you have active. Their latest and greatest camera at the time of writing this article is the Pro3 and it's a really fancy piece of tech that weighs in at $5,955. That's a hefty price tag. And unless we're trying to do the Louvre justice in Paris, there's no point in having such an advanced camera for your average real estate listings. I would personally avoid this purchase and look into some of the other platforms that can provide some free services.

Zillow 3D Home Tours

The Zillow 3D Platform is one of the better apps out there for showcasing your listing in a 3D space. The camera that it uses is the Ricoh Theta V or the Ricoh Theta Z - you can also use your Apple or Android phone with it to capture the room. The images that you get from the camera's are comparable to the Matterport, maybe slightly lower image quality but good enough to showcase the room and the views in your listings.

One of the most important features that you get using this platform is the powerful boost that you get to your traffic because it's integrated directly into the Zillow website. Homes with Zillow 3D tours receive on average twice as many visitors. Zillow and Trulia are the most popular real estate websites in the country, receiving 1.9 billion monthly visits from 195 million unique users. This is 2/3rd of all real estate web traffic.

Zillow 3D Tours maximize your exposure on both Zillow and Trulia, catching the interest of serious buyers and making it easier for them to fall in love with a home before they even step inside.

Just recently, Zillow has started to automatically be syndicated to Redfin - without manually entering the link! One of the best parts of Zillow 3D Home Tours is that the hosting is free so you only pay for the services of the photographer and not a monthly cost to upkeep the site. The app is easy to use and gives the user control over white balance and timer to help with the capture.

The drawback to Zillow 3D Home Tours is that the virtual tours themselves are not as customizable as other platforms. You can't put tags into your 3D world or create video walkthrough tours. It does have the option to create a floor plan but those are considered to be less accurate than some other platforms out there.

iGuide 3D Tours

The iGuide system is a great middle choice and we see this one used as an alternative to the Matterport system quite a bit. Its setup is not quite as expensive as other systems and its software is pretty simple to use. The iGuide is integrated into its floor plan system so it's a good option for those that wish to highlight more floor plans with their business. Every iGuide is delivered with an interactive floor plan and the scans themselves go pretty quick.

Another attractive feature is that there is no subscription to use the app. The services are a pay-as-you-go sales model. You can also download a copy of the 3D virtual tour for free. The square footage for the properties is based on ANSI-Z765-2021 standards.

The iGuide platform is a good balance between expense and image quality. The one drawback that I see is that it's not internally supported by a top site like Zillow. It's still a great way to have your clients explore your listings but if want the most visitors to discover your listing, you can't beat the Zillow app.

How to use a 3D home tour platform to increase traffic to your listing

In the real estate business, one of the most important factors in selling a home is generating interest and traffic. The more people that are interested in your listing, the more likely you are to find a buyer. One way to increase traffic to your listings is to use a 3D home tour platform. By using 3D Virtual Tours, you can give buyers a realistic view of your property without them having to physically visit the property. This is especially helpful if your property is located in a different state or country from the potential buyer. In addition, 3D virtual tours are an excellent way to increase interest in your listing by giving potential buyers a unique and immersive experience. If you are looking for ways to increase web visits to your real estate listing, using a 3D home tour platform is an excellent solution.

The Biggest Benefits of using 3D Virtual Tours - Stand Out Online

There are many benefits to using a 3D home tour platform. In addition to increasing visitors to your listing, 3D home tours also offer a number of other benefits. First, 3D home tours give buyers a realistic view of your property. This is especially helpful if your property is located in a different state or country from the buyer. In addition, 3D home tours are an excellent way to increase interest in you as a realtor because sellers want someone to use the latest and greatest tech to sell their home. Data has consistently shown that more and more people want to see and explore the space they'll be buying in a 3D world. If you start using 3D tours, your sales numbers will reflect the increased visitors

Which 3D home tour platform is the best for you

The best 3D home tour platform that we found is the Zillow 3D Home Tour. It strikes a really good balance between its features, affordability and audience reach. Despite some of Zillow’s misguided attempts at actually being realtors and it’s foray into the iBuyers model - the Zillow platform is still the #1 go to platform for your average homebuyer for looking at homes - and that’s where your marketing should be. Until Zillow’s prominence is eclipsed by another aggregator site that pulls data from MLS’s all over the country - we won’t see a 3D tour as effective as it’s own homegrown platform.

We are excited to be offering 3D Zillow Home Tours as an additional package add-on to any service. We are always looking for ways to improve our agents marketing and Zillow is a huge platform that is central to many of our client's businesses.

Need a Zillow 3D Home Tour? PixVid is your solution! In addition to providing photos, videos and floor plans - we’re also a Zillow 3D tour provider as well.

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