Video chats via Google Hangouts, FaceTime and Skype allow real estate agents to show homes to busy or faraway clients – virtual home showing.
Buyers can see enough of the property and surrounding area to make an offer without ever setting foot in the door. They can talk to the agent as he or she walks through, and they can ask that the camera focus more closely on anything they particularly enjoy or dislike.
“They can see everything that is in the surroundings, not just the home itself … the neighborhood, the neighbors, and what’s across the street and things like that,” says Katie Barbato of Fayetteville, N.C.-based ERA Strother Real Estate, who has helped four clients purchase homes they visited only via FaceTime.
The apps not only offer convenience, they also make it easier for buyers in fast-paced markets to beat the competition.
“We are in such a low-inventory and competitive market these days, that sometimes we don’t have time to wait a day or two,” says Greg Geilman of Manhattan Beach, Calif.-based South Bay Residential. Barbato says that live video walk-throughs and virtual open houses can also be used to help local buyers save time by weeding out listings that might not be a good match.
A new Realync app hopes to land more real estate agents who show homes virtually. With Realync, all video footage is saved to the cloud so buyers can review it later; and it also allows them to take notes, send instant messages to agents, and share the tours via email and social media. The app can also allow more than 100 people to view the home in real time.
Source: Inman News (08/05/14) Wiggin, Teke
http://www.floridarealtors.org/NewsAndEvents/article.cfm?id=312130
