26July

The Benefits of Virtual Viewings

The pandemic has had a major impact on the way we are able to experience a property before we decide on whether to buy or rent it. In place of regular property viewings, many estate agents now provide online meetings and virtual viewings in order to minimise contact between people.

While virtual viewings may not offer the same experience as actually going to a property to experiencing it, they do have their own set of benefits which indicate that they may become a mainstay in the property market even post-lockdown.

Comfortability

Going out and experiencing a property that you’re interested in is exciting, you find yourself starting to plan where to put your furniture and how you can set up the living room, planning for inviting your friends and family over and where you can put that spare bed.

But at the same time, the sofa you’re currently sitting on is very comfortable and human nature dictates that sometimes, we don’t really feel like doing anything and travelling down to a property viewing can be laborious. A virtual viewing on the other hand can be carried out from the comfort of your home without having to worry about travelling expenses, travel time, and is just more convenient overall.

Narrowing Down Your Options

The key to finding your dream home is to experience the ones you’ve shortlisted to get an idea of what you’re looking for, which is often a task that can become lengthy when paired with travelling through separate areas. Virtual viewings allow you to experience the home without the hassle of clearing your schedule to attend a viewing or having to travel there, something that can become a massive task when done with many homes.

The very nature of virtual viewing allows you to experience more homes in a shorter span of time enabling you to cut down to the ones that fit your criteria without feeling like you’ve wasted a lot of time looking at houses that don’t have the right feel for you. The virtual viewing will likely be a pre-recorded video removing any pressure to like the property you may feel when an estate agent is present.

Vendor Convenience

Just as a virtual viewing can save time for the potential buyer it can also do so for the estate agents, rather than having to offer individual tours they can create a pre-recorded video available to interested parties. This process also has the potential to limit down the number of enquiries but increase buying intent streamlining the process of interacting with the estate agents.

Virtual viewings have their own set of benefits which earn them a place in the property market and while many potential buyers will be reluctant to purchase a property before they see it and get to experience it personally, virtual viewings when used in tandem with physical viewings can be utilised to save the buyer and vendor time before deciding on which property is the right one.