Usually, home sellers and buyers would host or attend open houses to get a good idea of a prospective property. Cookies would be set out, doors would be open, conversation would ensue. But due to the novel coronavirus, open houses simply can’t happen anymore. How do you sell or buy a house without ever stepping inside it? The process may seem daunting at first, but 21st-century technology has now made it easier than ever to connect with others not physically close to us. Using video technology, you now don’t have to worry about your real estate plans. They can still go on as scheduled, if you follow and implement the following tips and practices.

General Overview of the Safe Distance Real Estate Plan

HER, REALTORS® has associates trained in virtual transactions that can help you every step of the way

The Safe Distance Plan has five major steps. We’ll go into more detail about each step further below, but here is a basic overview.

How to Host a Virtual Tour

The most important step on the Safe Distance Plan is definitely the tour- but how do I host a video tour of my entire house, you ask? Not to fear- it’s not difficult at all!

Hosting a virtual tour for your whole house can seem like a lot. There are, after all, so many rooms, so many nooks and crannies! With a simple computer, phone, and/or video camera, you can host a virtual tour of your house with no problems.

1. The first virtual tour option is home staging. You know how, before the coronavirus, you would stage a house by tidying it up and making it appear as inviting and open as possible? Virtual staging is much the same, except even easier- you take pictures of your rooms without even having to move anything. You heard that right- you don’t have to change anything! With virtual staging software, designers can take your pictures and remove objects or add objects, change a room’s lighting, and adjust the style of a room to better suit potential buyers’ interests. It’s like SIMS, but with your actual house! Virtual home staging allows buyers to imagine themselves living in your spaces, a necessary step towards them signing for your space.
   

2. Another virtual tour option is an interactive listing. This is where you have your agent host a video call with prospective buyers. You can escape to your backyard or another room to maintain social distancing while your agent “walks” the buyers through your home. With video-calling so easy nowadays, a virtual tour is something most buyers have the technology to do. They can ask your agent any questions. They can have your agent open a window, or a door, to get a better view of things even though they aren’t physically there. The possibilities are endless with virtual tours, and they allow for as close to a walkthrough of the house as prospective buyers can get right now.
   

3. A third option for virtual touring is through using virtual reality. If the agency you are using has access to this type of technology for your specific house, virtual reality tours can be great because they don’t have to be live. Prospective buyers can go online any time they like and click through animations of your house, going through each room as slow or fast as they want to. Not every agency provides this kind of technology, as it’s relatively new to the real estate industry, but its popularity is rising and will likely continue to rise during the course of this pandemic. It’s a safe and easy way for buyers and sellers to show off and interact with a space, respectively, from a safe distance.
   

4. A final option is an online neighborhood tour, or more broadly, the use of Google Maps. Using Google Maps on a phone, tablet, or computer, you can virtually “walk” around a house and down your prospective new street! The technology is fairly easy to use, once you get a hang on the controls. You can zoom in and out to survey the entire area, useful for finding what roads or restaurants you’ll be near. You can view houses and streets in birds eye view from the air, or also from a walking view.
   

Every neighborhood should be on Google Maps, so wherever you are searching for should be incredibly easy to find. Google Maps may not be your first thought when it comes to virtually touring, but it can give you a broader view of a house’s outer landscape and the area it’s in than many other virtual tour options.

What CDC Guidelines Mean for You

Still want to have a private open house? Be cautious and careful.

If the area you reside in is currently under Stay at Home orders, it is important to know that real estate is considered an essential business. That being said, there are steps that home buyers, home sellers, and the real estate community can take to reduce everyone's risk of infection while showing houses during this time. The CDC recommends staying at least six feet apart at all times, sanitizing hands and commonly touched surfaces, and washing your hands for 20 seconds with soap and water as much as possible.

Conducting realty business online, as you’ve seen above, is not hard at all. Why not stay safe and conduct tours and other realty business at home? Most prospective buyers and clients will understand completely and won’t mind at all, given the accessible nature of new technology. As more and more people come to own computers and phones, hosting real estate tours for prospective buyers will become more and more popular. Who doesn’t want to conduct business from their couch, in their pajama pants?

How the Use This New Tech

While it might be scary at first, this technology is not hard to use, though there is a learning curve.

Virtual touring systems and platforms are all unique to one another. Dependent on what your real estate agency uses, you can call or contact your real estate agent with any questions. They are here to help guide you through this new technology in any way you need.

In terms of virtual agent tours, that’s all in the hands of your agent! Your agent will know how to video call prospective clients and use any needed technology- if you go this route, just sit back and relax.

For learning Google Maps, the internet is full of resources. If you’re a do-it-yourself kinda person, you can always head straight to the site and putter around until you figure it out. The controls may or may not be self-explanatory based on your past technology experience, but don’t worry, whatever level you’re at, it won’t take long to figure out. Google Maps is designed for ease of customer use.

If you are trying to buy or sell a home during this pandemic, don’t panic! Real estate agencies across the United States are quickly adapting to changes in business and life due to CDC social distancing guidelines and new rules and regulations. Your real estate agency will help you in any way they can to assure the process of buying or selling a home is as easy as possible for you. All transactions can be done online, or if needed, in person following proper social distancing guidelines. Your agent is here to help, and so is technology! Everything you need to buy or sell a house right now may be currently sitting in your lap- your computer has it all. Get on out there and sell!