Not that long ago, having a virtual gave your online listing "wow" value. Today, virtual tours have become a routine—and even expected—element of property marketing. It’s just common knowledge that listings with virtual tours sell faster and for a higher price…..right? This weekend I put this assumption to the test, and you might be surprised by the results
I was working on a marketing piece and I wanted to include some statistics about how much faster homes with virtual tours sold then those without. My first stop was visualtours.com, a leading provider of virtual tours, and a product we’ve used for several years. Surely they’d have some statistics to promote their product about how fast homes with virtual tours sold – nothing. Next Realtor.com, I always see headlines about the effectiveness of virtual tours in their magazine – lot’s of talk, but I couldn’t find any concreted numbers. Next stop, Google, again, lot’s of references, but no numbers.
Finally I turned to our MLS and ran a CMA for areas 61, 62 & 63 to compare the cumulative days on market of homes with virtual tours to those without tours.
As the numbers came up, the results weren’t at all what I expected– the homes WITHOUT virtual tours sold significantly faster then those with tours. I thought maybe I’d just selected an unrepresentative population, so I tried it again with a different range – same results. This can’t be. Maybe it’s because lesser priced homes sell faster, but the commission paid is less, so realtors don’t spend money on virtual tours. So I narrowed the price range.
My next search I looked at homes priced between $180K - $350K – again, homes with virtual tours were on the market longer then those without? More queries – same results – with only a few exceptions, regardless of the criteria, homes without Virtual Tours were selling about 20% faster then those without. However, homes with virtual tours did tend to sell slightly closer to their asking price – about .3% closer-- then those with tours. I even tried eliminating the top and bottom 16% (leaving one sigma of the standard deviation) – same results.
While I was Goggling I came across a blog entry posted by Kelley Koehler, a Tucson Realtor, who came up with very similar results - << Click Here >>
While I’m not ready to kick virtual tours to the curb, it does make me wonder.
I’ll be the first to admit, it’s been a long time since my last college statistics class. But are the numbers telling us something.
Any comments from recent home buyers? Is there something about virtual tours that created a negative opinion about the properties. Realtors, try running some inquires, see if you get the same results, I like to see your comments. Doug Holmes, our Carolina One statistician – are you out there? Is there something I’m overlooking, any explanation?
the realm of deal or no deal. With an estimated 80% of home buyers starting their search on the internet, photos are to home sales today what curb appeal used to be: the place where first impressions are made ... Increasingly, agents and sellers are turning to professional photographers to do what they themselves cannot: Take those jaw-dropping glamour shots even when the home isn't a mansion or an architectural gem."
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