Many agents wonder about the the value of virtual tours to market their listings. Obviously they add yet another cost and it's money right out of the agent's pocket.When I'm house hunting (which I do often, I bought 6 houses in about 9 years) I like virtual tours because it really gives me a better sense of the home and whether I want to go see it. In most cases, they help me rule out visiting the property, whereas excellent still shots might have drawn me in!
Clearly there's an expense to having a virtual tour made and you'd have to weigh that versus the benefits. If I were a realtor I'd ONLY use them in large, open and very well staged houses! I don't think the average listing would benefit greatly from a virtual tour versus properly composed and well-lit stills.
Many agents do a poor job of photographing their properties. There aren't enough shots or the ones they have don't show the rooms well. Or they haven't taken the time to have someone photoshop (retouch) the images before using them in a feature sheet or putting them up on the web.
Don't let anyone try and convince you that such retouching is a big deal. Anyone that knows what they're doing could spend under 3 minutes per shot and make them look a whole lot better by straightening the images, improving the brightness/contrast, fixing the cropping and even blurring out distracting bits (eg: all those unsightly dish towels hanging over the oven door).
Another pet peeve of mine is shots taken without anyone bothering to move distracting clutter out of the way for a better shot (how many photos have you seen with the toilet seat up?!).
I staged a house and when the realtor showed up to take his photos, he dumped all his paperwork on the dining room table (for a meeting he was going to have with the homeowner) and his coat over the living room chair and THEN took his photos! In other words, he actually messed up my perfectly arranged rooms and then shot them for his feature sheets! Clearly not all agents are guilty of this, but if you visit enough realtor's sites, you'll see it happens more than it should!
These problems would only be worse in a virtual tour. You can't shoot 360 degrees in a room unless ALL 360 degrees are immaculate!
In summary the realtors that do a good job with stills, probably don't need virtual tours unless they want to go "over and above" for that really special (expensive) listing.
Debra Gould, The Staging Diva
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging
Internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould, also known as The Staging Diva, has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, CNNMoney, Reader's Digest, Woman's Day, MoneySense, National Post, Globe & Mail, and HGTV, CityTV, GlobalTV, among others. She created the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program and has over 300 graduates across the US, Canada and in Australia, Wales and South Africa. Contact sales@stagingdiva.com for help finding a home stager in your area. For more information on home staging and training, visit: stagingdiva.com and sixelements.com
I agree with Carolyn on the scope of the tour she describes. However, the Northwest Multiple Listing Service does not allow any pictorial material that's outside the subject property. While that's unfortunate, their reasons must have to do with anticipating less then truthful depictions.
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