It’s an age old story that everyone will have come across in their rental journey irrespective of being a landlord or tenant. The way in person property viewings are conducted has yet to deviate from its linear approach in decades, with the process proving to be a headache for all involved to say the least.
The issue of showcasing your rental property in its best possible light is something landlords have always contested over, yet despite how radically where rental property advertisements are hosted has changed in recent years, the way the potential future homes for so many are depicted has hardly seen the same innovation.
The importance of professional photography when advertising your rental property online is difficult to understate, however to say that this is also a contentious issue in the rental space would be a disservice to many searching for their next rental. Wide angle lenses, colour correction and generous amounts of editing have all not only been a monumental waste of time for aspiring renters, but only worked to further bolster the distrust commonly seen between property owners and renters.
3D virtual tours are so much more than the latest way for tenants to see their next rental opportunity. This new media empowers renters to have a more independent, self-sufficient viewing experience, that they give complete confidence to. This ultimately reshapes the landscape of the rental property market, allowing renters to have an undiluted and pure perspective of new opportunities whilst giving landlords the space and resources to streamline their investments.
Here we discuss how 3D virtual property tours not only address the longstanding shortfalls of in person property viewings, but why virtual property tours are essential moving forward.
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Avoid the Risk of COVID-19
In recent times virtual tours have changed from an industry leading form of new wave media, to an integral component of successfully marketing a rental property online.
The UK government insists that virtual viewings must take place prior to an in person look around the property takes place. This significantly reduces the potential risks of infection for the members of either household. It should also be noted that the public spaces that have somewhat remained open over the lockdown period have implemented a series of protective measures to enforce social distancing, with months to refine each precautionary measure. Private households have not had to abide by such measures, not to mention how difficult it would be to consistently abide by social distancing guidelines when in a smaller property.
Virtual viewings have proven to not only be the safest possible alternative to in person viewings, revolutionising the way we advertise rental properties online, but also prevent the need for the property to undergo a rigorous cleaning procedure prior to each new viewing taking place.
With those currently searching for their next rental accommodation predominantly doing so online, virtual viewings have become an essential part of marketing your property; offering a way for potential tenants to engage with the physical space in your property from the safety of their home. The value of this cannot be understated for those currently relocating where a few hundred mile round trip is not only in a legal grey area, but certainly breaches any safety isolation would otherwise have provided, without a guarantee the property will even live up to expectations.
Saves Landlords and Renters Time
Virtual tours are the upmost in convenience and practicality, currently offered throughout the renting industry. Whereas through a traditional high street letting agents the experience of finding a new rental is synonymous with a long and tedious back and forth with the agent, multiple visits to lacklustre properties and too much time being wasted on the road, virtual property viewings look to change this.
In this out dated and laborious procedure tenants visit far more properties than should be necessary. It’s safe to say that all renters wish the first property they viewed was exactly what they are looking for. This of course, is not the reality for many, with those searching for a new rental property having to do so at a massive expense and inconvenience; only being able to view their possible new home within strict timeframes that neither the tenant or landlord really believe is “convenient”.
To this end virtual tours ensure that tenants are always able to explore their future home, in a setting and time most convenient to them. This also keeps the doors of your rental property open to far wider array of interested renters, as those that wouldn’t want to make the long commute to your rental can now enjoy it too, potentially persuading them to make that next step towards finalising the tenancy agreement.
Given that tenants are able to obtain such a rich insight into any rental property this means that not only will the renters you engage with have a higher intent to proceed with the tenancy, but ultimately this will mean landlords will have far less tenants to vet. Traditionally this would have been seen as a bad thing, after all less tenants to reference could be seen as lower interest. But, it is important to keep in mind that through these virtual tours tenants will be able to make a far more informed decision about the property that they wish to rent, with our findings showing that 25% of rentals that were advertised online with a virtual tour, found a new tenant without an in person viewing taking place before moving in. This is also makes the referencing process far cheaper for landlords with the costs of running a reference check on each tenant quickly and easily getting out of hand. This again is another area in which PropertyLoop aims to deviate from the expectations brought about by other letting agents. When advertising a rental opportunity through PropertyLoop landlords do not have to pay a fee for each tenant that they wish to reference. This allows for landlords and property owners to enjoy an unrestricted search for their ideal tenant, without worrying about mounting costs.
An Immersive Property Viewing Experience
As clarifying as high quality photography is, there is no comparison to a 3D tour when trying to fully immerse potential tenants in your rental property. Virtual property tours give prospective tenants unparalleled control over their property viewing experience, providing full freedom when navigating the property and allowing tenants to chart their own path towards a new tenancy.
A 3D tour of the rental gives tenants a far greater appreciation for the layout and character of a property than a simple floor plan. Instead of pouring through pages of drawings and dimensions tenants are welcomed into the space your property provides allowing them to discover the personality of their property in an authentic and fully realised environment.
Reduce the Environmental Impact of Renting
It’s not hard to see how the traditional model for choosing a rental property can contribute to excessive carbon emissions. With emissions from road transport accounting for over 20% of the nation’s carbon footprint, we all share the responsibility of combatting this longstanding, yet increasingly critical, issue. The rental industry has yet to see a more radically accepted and needed solution than virtual property viewings.
These online property showcases have proven to have the potential to remove over 50,000 vehicles from UK roads each year, causing the number of miles driven annual to plummet by 410,000,000. But reducing the number of journeys tenants and property owners have to make is of huge benefit to both parties. Tenants no longer have to make dozens of arduous journeys to properties that only vaguely resemble what was promised in the advertisement for the let; and landlords no longer need to juggle hours of administrative work, frequently disturbing current tenants to show tenants round that ultimately don’t move forward with the tenancy agreement.
Across the years 2017 and 2018 an astonishing 26.8 million property viewings took place, it’s safe to say that at a very minimum the overwhelming majority of these could have been achieved with a virtual viewing; and with 95% of people admitting that they would be more likely to enquire about a rental property if the listing had a 3D tour, the incentives for all parties involved in the rental process are clear.
Find Great Tenants With a 3D Virtual Tour From PropertyLoop
As ever PropertyLoop is well placed at the forefront of the rental industries digital revolution. We are not simply stopping at creating a trusted network of tenants and property owners to uphold clarity and communication across a new rental industry dynamic; but this mantra of authenticity is carried through into how to advertise your rental property online. With every listing we host across Rightmove, Zoopla and the PropertyLoop portal, the rental property can be advertised alongside a suite of intuitive property media.
Our photorealistic 3D tours provide potential tenants with an incredible viewing experience, giving them uncompromised access to the property, allowing tenants to take in the true character and personality of each property in a fully immersive viewing service. Powered through cutting edge AI technology, billions of reference points are collected from around the property meaning that tenants are given a completely dimensionally accurate replication of the property to explore. These points also have a wonderfully practical function of allowing those viewing the property to measure the distance between any selections of points within the property. Why is this important? Well if the property is unfurnished, or the tenant withes to bring a few furnishings of large homely items along with them on moving day, they can do so with the full confidence that their new home will have the space to accommodate their finishing touches.
But these 3D tours don’t just stop at proving the most realistic and engaging virtual viewing available, but offer a like for like recreation of the property from multiple perspectives, allowing interested parties to explore every room and corner of the property in a floor plan, walk through or doll house view.
Each rental property listed through PropertyLoop is also hosted with a cinematic 4K HD videography tour, showcasing the defining characteristics of each rental property in magnificent detail. We understand the importance of finding the ideal tenant quickly; helping landlords to prevent void periods, to this end these stunning video tours are professionally curated by experienced directors. PropertyLoop’s cinematic 4K video tours welcome tenants into each rental, giving them a rich understanding of the flow of the properties space that can be watched and shared over and over again.
Over our decades of experience within the rental market we recognise common frustrations potential tenants’ display, with inaccurate and misleading photography being a thing of the past on our platform. Renters can place full trust in the rental opportunities that we exhibit as our interior HDR photography services ensure that all images are unedited and verified as 100% authentic. Every property that we showcase also enjoys updated photos every 90 days alongside a current 2D floor plan, instilling absolute certainty that your property is the clear choice for renters.
Why continue paying thousands each year in commission to let your property? With 97% of landlords recommending our services, and with over 50,000 tenants joining our rental community in the last year alone PropertyLoop is welcoming a new era of renting.
The PropertyLoop platform establishes the trust, transparency and personal service that has been lost from the renting sector. We are anything but another faceless corporation looking to profit from your investment, but a community founded on expertise and ambition.
We offer landlords complete clarity on available specialists through a landlord controlled rating and review system, giving users complete confidence of your PropertyPro’s proven results in finding owner’s ideal tenants faster.
With PropertyLoop landlords will have everything they need to let out their rental from start to finish, with no hidden fees, financial barriers or catches; only a revolutionary new way to let.
