How to Virtually Visit a Property

09-12-2020

The Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause widespread disruption resulting in a series of lockdowns in Spain and many other countries around the world. Travel restrictions have prevented people visiting Marbella to look for a beautiful luxury villa or apartment. Yet the property market on the Costa del Sol is eager to continue moving forward. Vendors still want to try and sell their properties and prospective buyers are determined to keep planning for the day when they can relocate to Marbella. However, thanks to technology, you no longer have to wait for months before viewing suitable luxury properties. You can now visit a villa or apartment through a virtual tour on your desktop or smartphone from the safety of your own home.

 

What is a Virtual Tour?

 

A virtual tour is sometimes called a three-dimensional walkthrough or a three-dimensional tour. It consists of a short video that takes you on a guided tour of a home that is for sale. This type of virtual tour has interactive controls that are similar to the street maps supplied by Google. By using the controls on the screen, you can view the property from many different angles and look around an entire room in a 360 degree arc. A virtual tour even lets you move between the rooms as many times as you wish.

 

What is a Listing Tour?

 

A listing tour is also a short video that takes you on a journey through a property. However, this version is not interactive, so you cannot select different angles or look around. You have to rely on the person who made the listing tour to guide you through. The video may include panning or close up images and even an ambient soundtrack, but the tour is generally a straightforward journey from one end of the property to the other.

 

What is a Real-Time Virtual Tour?

 

Some vendors are beginning to use video conference calls on services such as Zoom to conduct live tours of their homes. They take place in real-time, enabling you to ask the vendor questions about the property as you are guided through the rooms. You can even give directions such as asking to be shown the view from a window. However, sometimes the quality of the film is not quite as good as the pre-recorded High Definition virtual tour.

 

Futuristic Virtual Reality Visualization

 

You can even find a virtual tour to view properties that have not yet been built. A Virtual Reality Visualization tour is presented as a three-dimensional walkthrough of an apartment or villa. It is digitally reconstructed from the architect's plans to create a realistic impression of what it would be like to explore the finished property. It can be viewed on any device, but for an even more lifelike viewing, the tour can be undertaken through a VR headset. It provides a realistic, immersive impression of how an unfinished apartment will look.

 

High-Quality Video

 

Many virtual tours are only filmed on a smartphone, but their quality is incredibly impressive. A vendor can use high-powered camera lenses and software that is exclusively designed for 360 degree orientation. It enables them to create a sophisticated video with High Definition quality. The sound can also be of a high standard allowing your host to explain different points of interest as the tour progresses through the property. Surprisingly, it can often take little more than an hour to create a full virtual tour. But what can you, the prospective buyer, expect to see?

 

What does a Virtual Tour Contain?

 

When you view a virtual tour, it should replicate what you might see in a personal viewing. It should begin with the exterior and provide footage of what it is like to walk up to the front door. Inside the property, you should see how the rooms are affected by natural daylight. Detailed filming will even show you inside cupboards to help you gain an impression of how much storage the property has. It enables you to assess the property's size and proportions far more accurately than if you look at still photographs. With 360 degree imaging, you can look around a whole room as if you are standing there in person. It is useful in finding out how the rooms connect to each other and seeing if there are any uncomfortable spaces that interrupt the flow of the property. The best virtual tours will also include views of the exterior and surrounding garden. A virtual tour helps you to understand what it might be like to live there, enabling you to gain a more accurate sense of whether the villa suits your particular requirements.

 

Saves Time

 

When you view a villa or apartment through a virtual tour, it helps you to select your favorite properties more easily. When the lockdown and travel restrictions are finally lifted, you will then be able to visit Marbella to view the villas in person. Visiting properties virtually helps you to make the best use of your time by only personally visiting the homes you believe are the most interesting possibilities.

 

How Effective are Virtual Visits?

 

Searching for properties online has grown in popularity in recent years. Up to 79% of buyers are guided in their selection of villas or apartments to view in person after seeing galleries of online photographs. Almost 30% of prospective buyers now believe that virtual tours are quickly becoming a valuable resource in looking for a dream home. Research indicates that listings of homes with virtual tours generate more than double the amount of interest compared to those that only display photographs.

 

Should You Buy Property after a Virtual Tour?

 

Even though buyers can't travel to Marbella at the present time, some are still putting in bids on luxury homes. But is it wise to buy a property when you have only seen it through a virtual tour? Many buyers still want to plan ahead and look for luxury homes in Marbella. However, any bids that are made on a villa or apartment after watching a virtual tour, should always be subject to a personal viewing. Virtual tours should be regarded as helpful guides in selecting properties and should never replace a physical visit.

 

The Future of Real Estate in Marbella

 

Virtual tours were probably always destined to become an important part of the real estate industry. However, the threat of COVID-19 to our personal safety in recent months has accelerated the use of this fascinating addition to the way we present our real estate information. At Questates, we have more than thirty years of experience in helping buyers who live near and far to find their new home on the Costa del Sol. You can now combine the convenience of a virtual tour with our extensive knowledge of the property market in Marbella and the surrounding districts. We can help to make your virtual search for the luxury home of your dreams on the Costa del Sol become a reality.