Steps to a Successful Virtual Home Inspection During Covid-19

3 SIMPLE STEPS TO CONDUCTING A VIRTUAL HOME INSPECTION

With today’s focus on social distancing, some sellers are intuitively leaning towards technology to show prospective buyers their property.  From Zoom to FaceTime and Facebook Live, buyers can be guided through a property from the remote safety and convenience of their own home.

For those of you feeling a little uncertain and intimidated about the prospect of a virtual inspection, we’ve put together 3 simple steps to provide helpful guidance.

1. CHOOSE YOUR MEDIUM

Due to exploded demand, the market is flooding with open house apps and software allowing prospective buyers to have a virtual peak at every nook and cranny of your property.

Virtual Inspections are offering huge discounts off their 3D Virtual Tours. According to realestate.com.au, people looking for homes are spending 52% longer on properties offering 3D tours than those without. This option involves a technician coming to your home to scan your property (for about an hour), shortly after which you will have a professional tour to add to your listing. You can arrange this service as an addon to a listing with PropertyNow.

If you’re not so keen on the technician concept and you’d prefer a more informal option, you can use communication tools such as Skype, Zoom, FaceTime or even Facebook Live. All these tools offer advice and tips about how to use their technology on their websites. The beautiful thing about them, is they offer a more intimate and direct connection with your buyers. Buyers get the opportunity to ask you questions and you get to upsell features within your home as you take them through.

You may choose to conduct single viewings, or schedule a group viewing. Our recommendation would be single viewings because it keeps the process simpler allowing you to focus on one buyer at a time.

2. PREPARE YOUR PROPERTY

You need to treat a virtual property inspection the same way you would a traditional open house inspection and that means presenting your property well.

Assume that buyers will want you to show them all your private places; cupboards, draws etc – because they often do. With this in mind, a last minute gather up of all the loose items that have made their way to your floor and shovelling them in the nearest wardrobe probably isn’t the best solution.

Clean, declutter, tidy-up and present your home the best you can.

3. PREPARE YOURSELF

If you’ve never used live communication tools like FaceTime before, you may need a practice run before delving straight in with a prospective buyer. Doing anything for the first time can be daunting. Putting yourself and your home in the virtual limelight can be even more daunting. There are a few things you can do to make sure you present confidently to buyers:

1. 1. Practice using your chosen communication tool on your mum or a close friend. It’s important to feel comfortable in front of the camera, but equally important you understand how it all works. Take them on a tour of your house as you would a buyer. This will give you confidence talking about your property as well as highlight any problem Wi-Fi spots where your communication drops out.
2. 2. Prepare a list of questions buyers might ask you and make sure you know how to answer them in a confident, positive manner.
3. 3. Dress for the occasion. During isolation – if you’re anything like us – you’ve been wallowing about in PJs and tracky dacks. But if you want to look professional, you’re going to need to raise the bar. While it’s probably not necessary pulling out your best suit and wiping off the cobwebs, we do recommend formal casual attire.