Virtual open houses are exactly what they sound like: videos of your home. These range from simple to elaborate productions, complete with voice-overs and interactive links to reference materials like community report cards, floor plans and more photographs. Although most virtual open houses are posted on a company’s website or a video hosting site such as YouTube.com, some innovative Realtors are adding true interaction to the process by bringing in instant messaging and voice chat. While there are no official statistics on how many homes are marketing this way, it is a trend experts say is catching on—especially in the high-end market.

Both buyers and sellers are asking for virtual tours. The National Association of Realtors says 60 percent of homebuyers consider virtual tours extremely valuable. As for homeowners, it gives them a bit of privacy since some are skittish about putting their possessions and valuables on display to perfect strangers. Besides, it cuts down on the time they need to be home to let prospective buyers in—an issue if you have a busy work schedule or are trying to sell a second home out of the area.

"One of the biggest complaints homeowners have is people poking around in their private things. With a virtual open house the control of your home is in the hands of a Realtor," explains Vic Bilson, the author of Virtual Open House, an eBook. "You don’t have to worry that someone is going to carry off or damage anything, and you know that the people who come in to see your house are serious buyers, as opposed to those people who just want a tour of your home."

Jonathan Nicholas, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Obeo, a company that provides online home tour technology to real estate professionals, can attest to this firsthand. Nicholas is currently selling a home in an upscale Indianapolis lake community. "My wife is Southern and loves to decorate and use color, so the first thing we ask people before we’ll schedule a showing is, ‘Have you seen our house online?’" he says. "We’re telling all the Realtors to please take buyers online before we let them into the house."

Privacy aside, there are several great reasons to make sure your agent adds an avalanche of visuals to your listing, Nicholas says. "Once you have more than six photos of an online property, it gets 600 times the amount of traffic than it would otherwise," he explains. "You’ve got more people looking at the property, and that leads to a faster sale. Virtual tours are just as important. We did a study with Coldwell Banker Utah and found that homes with virtual tours sold 20 percent quicker."

Another way of showcasing your house is with a 360-degree virtual tour. These tours, available from companies such as iPix and iLOOKAbout, can be created with a digital camera and software that stitches together overlapping photos, allowing virtual visitors to pan and zoom around a room."A 360-degree virtual tour gives you a total view of specific rooms—not just a limited area, as a flat photo would," says Sue Aguirre, a managing partner with Imagemaker360, based in British Columbia. "You can shoot areas like the kitchen and the bathrooms, which are important for people to see. And you can show the grounds beautifully." Imagemaker360 has a special process of capturing a home’s surroundings through a window, virtually eliminating an overexposed, "blown-out" look, so you can effectively show off a pool, spa area or an especially breathtaking view.

The next step in virtual real estate may boost sales even more. Later this year Obeo is adding a feature that will let people alter colors, textures and materials in a photograph with the click of a mouse. "If a home buyer doesn’t like the countertops, they can change them to granite. They can virtually remodel," Nicholas says. "They will be able to better visualize living in your home."

iLOOKAbout, www.ilookabout.com
Imagemaker360, www.imagemaker360.com
iPix, www.ipix.com
Obeo, www.obeo.com