Why Virtual Tours Will Strengthen Your Property's Website

By Julia Dunn on July 3, 2015

In the world of student housing, property appearances are incredibly important for a successful and efficient tenant search — especially if you’re looking to rent to college students.

As a main priority in their search for housing spaces, college students want to live somewhere that looks pleasant and feels inviting, such that all of their college adventures can be spent somewhere they are proud to call home. In our web-based world, students are almost always connected to the internet somehow, and when students begin to research complexes and houses that mainly house college students, visuals are key.

This is why it helps immensely to feature a virtual tour of your property on your housing websites if you’re a property manager hoping to attract college students.

Image Via: blog.chegg.com

Since virtual tours are the closest thing to physically touring a house or apartment complex, you want your tour to be of the highest possible quality, since this can be the deciding factor for a possible tenant deciding between a few complexes, houses, or apartments to pursue. Posting virtual tours of your property will lead to more views on your website, and many of these will be from college students if your property is appealing enough and seems to suit their needs when they view the virtual tour.

If all your website has to offer is a few sentences about your property location, local amenities, and maybe a bit of contact information, potential tenants are going to look the other way and likely not give your property a second thought. Property managers who feature a virtual tour that adequately showcases the perks of their property are better off finding tenants overall—even more so if their website offers information through multiple types of media (i.e. video, photo, text) and a well-crafted virtual tour!

Image Via: www.sphericalimages.com

If you do decide to add a virtual tour/virtual open house to your housing website, make sure to create your tour with a few goals in mind to enhance your property’s appearance.

Before creating your virtual property tour, wander around the interior of your property and note which parts of the house or complex you’d like to focus on in the tour. While you don’t want to hide much from your viewers, you also don’t want to make a virtual tour showing areas that don’t represent the best features of your property.

You also don’t want to leave out key features that may be a real draw for college students, like a spacious backyard or a newly-remodeled kitchen. The best use of your time before actually making your virtual tour is to plan it out the way you might plan a commercial or advertisement of sorts—after all, it essentially is an advertisement of your property, but mostly focused on the housing itself.

Experiment with cool angles you could take on presenting your property, and don’t forget to go outside and get an idea of how you want to include the property’s exterior in your virtual tour. Planning what to include in your virtual tour is the most essential step before grabbing a camera!

Image Via: www.coloradocollege.edu

When compiling your virtual tour, ensure that your photos and video clips are clearly executed. If you’re not as technologically gifted as you’d like to be, it may be smart to hire someone who knows how to use a video camera for a day or two to help you create a powerful and professional virtual tour.

If you’d rather do it yourself, however, practice using a video camera to pan over your property slowly and evenly, almost as though you were twirling around in the middle of a room (tripods can be a lifesaver when trying to film as smoothly as possible); this gives a 360-degree view to your tour! 360-degree views of your property are crucial to attracting college students, as the completeness of the visuals makes it easier for students to picture themselves occupying the space in the future, should they decide to rent it out.

Image Via: www.housing.ucsb.edu

Once you’ve got your video clips in order using programs such as MovieMaker (for PC) or iMovie (for Mac), you’ll have the opportunity to add narration/voice-overs to accompany your visuals. Speak about each visual as though you were giving a tour of your property in real life. Don’t sound too rehearsed or fake while doing this–be personable and friendly in your tone.

When narrating outdoor shots and clips showing off the exterior of your property, mention any local attractions such as shopping centers, swimming pools, or popular restaurants (remember that the main audience for your virtual tour is college students—adjust your dialogue accordingly!) Mention the convenience of your property and the positive aspects of the surrounding community. If your tour isn’t too heavily narrated, you may want to have music play softly in the background of the virtual tour, so long as it isn’t too distracting. College students love music!

The benefits of having a polished virtual tour on your housing website are plentiful. As a student housing property manager, virtual tours will be an asset especially when you can’t always give physical tours of your property to interested renters. Even if you are able to give in-person tours of your property, college students doing preliminary research online will become immediately engaged if a website features a comprehensive virtual tour that answers their first few questions about the property. Don’t let your websites go tour-less, housing managers—a great virtual tour will kickstart your college-student tenant search like nothing else.

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