A real estate agent can be a fantastic teammate throughout the process of selling your home, bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience while giving you peace of mind.. But we all know how expensive working with an estate agent can be. And while it’s great if you can afford it, are there any other options available? We decided to take a look at 5 ways you could try and do it yourself to save on estate agency fees. 

Can You Sell a House Without An Estate Agent?

The development of technology and the internet is putting the power in the hands of the individual to do things that wouldn’t be possible in the past. If you know how to do it right, you can save both time and money. Earlier, many of these things were either expensive or consumed too much of your time, but things have changed. 

Real estate agent fees can be one of the most costly parts of selling your home. Can these costs be entirely avoided and can you sell a house without an estate agent?

While selling a house without an estate agent was too much work before, technology and the internet are working to change that, and it’s becoming easier than ever. 

This article has 5 great ideas that could make selling a house without an estate agent a reality. And if you’re here now, chances are you’ve thought about it already. We’re just here to make things easy for you!

So what are these 5 great ideas to sell a house without an estate agent?

Getting The Right Paperwork To Sell a House Without An Estate Agent

Do you get a headache when thinking about all that paperwork? We do, too! Finding all the right paperwork for selling a house without an estate agent can be a struggle. Luckily, thanks to the good ol’ Internet, you can now choose whether to use legal document templates or a pay per document expert. 

Earlier, a real estate agent would provide legal document templates for you. Now, you can do it yourself by choosing some of the vetted options below.

○    Lawdepot

○    Property Road

○    Government UK

○    Legalo

A Solicitor for the Conveyancing stage often isn’t included in the agent’s fees, so it’s possible to hire them yourself. They’ll make sure all your legal documents are good to go, so you don’t have anything to worry about when it comes to paperwork for selling a house without an estate agent.

The Gov.UK website has a helpful guide for selling a home

Researching House Prices in Your Area

You don’t want to sell yourself short, but you also don’t want to overprice your house and lose potential buyers. Roll up your sleeves and dive deeper into the housing market to determine the right price for your property. Use these tools and tricks to be one step ahead:

• Portals such as Zoopla, Right Move, Entwistlegreen, will provide you with all the insights regarding the value and price of your house. Even UK Government provides you with this information.
• It’s rumored that Google will release a new tool that will have information about all the house prices in the area you choose. 
• Free valuations. Real estate agents will value your home for free in the hope of you hiring them. However, you can always change your mind and just get the valuation and do the work yourself. 

After determining the value and price of your house, it’s time to promote it. What are the most efficient ways to do it?

How to Promote the House You’re Selling

With new technologies emerging rapidly, social media has become a crucial part of marketing literally everything. Why couldn’t you promote the property you’re selling there?

Social media is a great free tool to help you reach a wider audience. You can even use paid ads to create more interest – depending on your budget options are basically unlimited. It’s one of the most important steps to selling a house without an estate agent if you fully take advantage of it!

We’d strongly recommend joining local Facebook groups that will allow you to share you’re selling your house and investor groups where you’ll surely reach potential buyers.

Property portals are also a great way for selling without an estate agent. List your house on these portals, because they are designed to help you sell it. There are free portals, as well as paid ones. You can list your property on multiple portals ensuring more people will see it. And one of them will hopefully buy it! 

Be aware however, property portals can be very costly. Many estate agents have negotiated cheaper rates with property portals as they have a larger volume of properties. So if you’re looking into listing your property on some of the most popular property portals an estate agent may be a smart choice.

Presenting Your Home To Take A Buyers Breath Away

The way you present your house is one of the most important parts of making more people interested in buying your home. Details matter and they sell. If you can make people fall in love with your house and imagine the life they could have there – it’s only left for you to close the deal. 

Pintrest is full of amazing interior design inspiration

These 3 tips will inspire you to create a mesmerizing presentation of your house and attract potential buyers: :

• Popular videos on Youtube will teach you tips & tricks to upgrade your house at a low cost.
• Check out popular trends on Pinterest 
• Catch up on current trends by reading interior design magazines or blogs for inspiration

Don’t forget about virtual tours that will definitely catch the attention of everyone. You can go the extra mile and include floorplans, a room-to-room guide, and an overall immersive experience for potential buyers.

Sell Your House With A Virtual Tour

While before you had to spend hours and hours showing property in person, with 3D virtual tours, potential buyers will be able to see your house without limitations. The best part is that dozens of people can see it simultaneously and share it with one click. This increases both the number of people and your chances to sell your house for the asking price faster. You’ll also pre-qualify people, and save time because only the most qualified potential buyers will come and see it. 

What are the main advantages of real estate virtual tour services?

•     Virtual tours take a lot of hassle out of selling your home by eliminating time wasters by sharing the tour before arranging an in-person viewing.
•   You get the full bank of high-resolution, wide-angle images generated from the tour.
•     Allow potential buyers to get a real feeling for the size and shape of the space, let them feel the atmosphere, and imagine themselves living there.
•   Create an immersive viewing experience. Focus on selling the experience, their future in the house, rather than plain pictures. With 3d virtual tours, they can easily imagine how it would be to live there and create new memories with those closest to their heart. 
• The best part of 3d virtual tours is that potential buyers can view them 24/7!

At the end of the day many agents use real estate virtual tour services to sell properties, why wouldn’t you?

And how much will a 3d virtual tour cost you? Approximately £300 depending on the size of your property, but for detailed cost check out How Much Is My Virtual Tour Really Going To Cost?

Bonus Tip: Organize Your Time With Scheduling Apps

Nowadays, there’s an app for almost everything, right? Selling a house without an estate agent (or even with one) can be really stressful. But with scheduling apps, you’ll take control of your time and easily organize potential viewings.

Calendars and scheduling apps are extremely easy to use. You’ll often only need to add the email of the potential buyer to the event. But that’s not everything! 

Include the address that’s linked directly to the maps app and don’t waste time on directions and explanations!

What Can’t You Do Without a Real Estate Agent?

Is there anything that can’t be done? Of course, real estate agents bring a wealth of experience and expertise to the table. At the end of the day, it’s their job, and selling your house is in their best interest. What are the advantages of hiring a real estate agent?

• They have deep knowledge about the market, prices, what works and what doesn’t. 
• Realtors sell houses for a living, so they know the ins and outs of every process, including legal. 
• In their career, they’ve networked with many people so they have the access to the wider market such as overseas investors. 
• Hiring a real estate agent will save you a lot of time and stress. You can be sure they’ll do all the heavy lifting. 
• You can always ask your realtor for advice and tell them about any issues that emerge along the way. 

Selling your own home is a great way to save some money but you can’t deny the great benefits of using a trusted estate agent to help handle the workload and make sure everything runs smoothly. 

We hope you’ve found this article about selling a house without an estate agent useful.

Whether you’re an estate agent or a private seller, a virtual tour would be the perfect tool to help market your property. Save money on marketing costs with an all-in-one package including real estate virtual tour services, floorplans, promotional videos, and high-resolution images.

Get in touch with our team today for more info.

The post Is It Possible To Sell A House Without An Estate Agent? appeared first on Scene3D.

One of the biggest misconceptions around a property virtual tour is that a 3D virtual tour is just that –  a simple, virtual walk-through of a space. 360 tours can be so much more than that, and with the right virtual tour software can become top marketing tools for your property sales portfolio. 

A 3D virtual tour can actually be as simple, or as complex as you need them to be. Many still don’t realise it’s possible to add data points to different areas of our 3D virtual tours and these data points can contain text, audio, links or video to really illustrate any information you’d like to share. When used correctly, multimedia data points can elevate a 3D virtual tour from a simple walk-through to an immersive and engaging experience. 

If you’re considering investing in a 3D virtual tour, it’s important to know the ways in which you can really make the most of such a fantastic and multi-functional digital medium. 

In today’s blog post, we’re going to take you through 3 ways you can make the most out of your 3D virtual tour.

1) Adding additional text

Adding additional text to different data points within your virtual tour allows you to convey important information to potential customers. 

When selling a home for example, there are a lot of USPs that a property virtual tour can capture but by using additional text within data points, you can quickly communicate other information that may not be immediately obvious from the tour.

For example, you could give potential home buyers ideas about what each room could be used for, add in the square ft diameter and share additional information about the area such as local schools and crime rates.

Text used to highlight features that wouldn’t be visible in pictures or video

Similarly, if you are marketing a wedding venue for example, little tips and tricks on how best to use the space can really help potential customers to imagine their wedding there. Using additional text also gives you the opportunity to add in important information such as venue capacity, wheelchair accessibility, or typical menus for the reception meal.

In this virtual tour we created of Sheffield boutique hotel: Brocco On The Park, data points with text were added to share additional information about the restaurant, terrace and guest rooms.

For example, a data point was added to one of the heaters in the outside area of the restaurant that says “Thanks to heaters and cosy blankets, guests can enjoy our landscaped terrace all year round.” and another on the ground floor shared how all cakes are freshly baked each morning on the premises.

The possibilities really are endless when it comes to the amount of text you can add to your virtual tour, but it’s best to keep entries short and engaging to keep the viewers’ attention.

2) Showcasing the potential of a space using pictures and video

You also have the option of adding images and video to data points around your virtual tour. 

For example, an estate agent could record videos of themselves talking about the kitchen or living room and add these into the data points. This would create an immersive, in-depth experience, similar to that of a physical viewing – but from the ease and comfort of a viewer’s own home.

Use pictures to show features in more detail

Similarly, when it comes to virtual tours of venues, it can be difficult for people to envision what they can do with an empty space. Adding photos or a video completely changes the dynamic – imagine if you were able to see how other people have used the space, from baby showers to engagement parties, comedy club shows and more?

When using a property virtual tour as a sales tool, the ability to add photos and video becomes an incredibly important asset and one that many industries can benefit from. 3D virtual tours could even become a “digital hub” when potential customers can view your video and photos in one place.

3) Adding audio for that extra twist

If you want to try something a little different, why not add an audio clip or podcast to a data point within your 3D virtual tour? 

Audio is becoming an increasingly popular form of content and it’s a great way to be able to speak directly to your audience within your virtual tour. For example, a museum or art gallery could use audio to explain the history of a piece of particular piece of art or exhibition.

As a bar or restaurant, why not add a spotify playlist of your favourite songs? This will give potential customers a flavour of the ambience and vibe of your venue.

Upload a playlist to give potential customers a feel for your venue

The sky really is the limit when it comes to your virtual tour. Remember, we’re the 3D scanning experts and are here to help, support and advise you on how you can really make the most from your tour.

If you have any questions about any of the content in this blog or you have any questions about 3D virtual tours, we’d absolutely love to hear from you.

Get in touch with us today to find out more.

The post 3 Easy ways to use a property virtual tour and get sales. appeared first on Scene3D.

So how can you make sure that you really maximise the potential value in your home and speed up the sales process? We looked at how some of the top local property investors and agents prepare their homes before being photographed, put on the market & viewed by potential buyers.

Make Sure The Home Is Clutter Free But Still Has Some Personality

After living in a property for some time it is normal to accumulate an assortment of all kinds of junk, especially if it is a family home. So clearing away items that usually cover kitchen sides, living room carpets & children’s bedrooms not only showcases the available space of the property in much clearer way, it also offers potential buyers a semi blank canvas to then imagine turning into their own home. Sheffield’s pro sellers will even go as far as to remove bulky pieces of furniture and replace them with smaller more lightweight items to help key rooms appear bigger.

People need to be able to envisage what the property would look like if they were living there

However, it is possible to go too far and turn what was once a warm and inviting family home into feeling like South Yorkshire’s most drab and soulless bed and breakfast. So don’t be afraid to leave some personal touches around the house that help the property feel lived in, if nothing else this will help spur the imaginations of less creative potential buyers. Fresh flowers or a fruit bowl displayed in key parts of the house such as the kitchen are an easy way to inject some life into a property.

Little details can make a big difference

Sell The Lifestyle As Well As The Home

One of the greatest assets available when selling a property in South Yorkshire, is the abundance of cultural history available. Finding out some information about local museums, heritage sites and attractions along with recommendations of nearby delis, restaurants and cafés can help a potential buyer picture the life they could lead by living in your property.

Understanding more about the wider area in general is also another great way to showcase the benefits of a home beyond it’s four walls and roof. For example, Sheffield has recently been voted one of the happiest places to work in the UK thanks to the range of tech, sport, green, cultural and research businesses that have set up centres in the city.

South Yorkshire also boasts the peak district, arguably the most beautiful national park in the north. With its range of walking trails, country pubs, scenic roads and climbing routes, the peak district offers something for all those looking to move to Sheffield and being located in a relatively close proximity to this stunning natural landscape is an asset that Sheffield’s top property sellers are keen to highlight. Some will even make sure to have photographs or paintings of the peak district around a property as a talking point and organic way of bringing this into conversation while showing potential buyers around during a viewing.

Make The Outside Is As Nice As The Inside

The first “real life” impression of your property a potential buyer will have is the walk up to the property, so ensuring that your home is looking as attractive as possible will give a powerfully positive first reaction. Top agents in Sheffield strongly recommend trimming back unruly vines & plants, cutting the grass, killing weeds and giving any outside furniture a wipe to help present an idyllic picture. Giving windows a good clean, both inside and out, will not only make the property look nicer from the outside but will also help more natural light enter the home.

Help give your home the best first impression

Present Your Home Correctly Online

With the majority of potential home buyers starting their property search online it is now more important than ever to make sure that your home is displayed properly on property portals and agency websites.

The first and arguably most important part to get right are photographs of the property, images taken on your smartphone will not do the property justice. Make sure to use a high quality camera with a wide angle lense that will make each room appear as large as possible. Lighting also requires careful consideration, ensure the property appears flooded with natural light by opening all blinds & curtains. One of Sheffield’s pro agents claims he will even replace bulbs in lamps to bulbs that simulate natural light in an attempt to make a property appear as open and breezy as possible.

With more than 98 percent of buyers clicking on to the internet to search for their new homes, the first few seconds’ viewing has become make or break.

It is also very important to make sure that your property has a well written and in depth description highlighting key features, important considerations & surrounding attractions that may not be visible with still images. This will not only answer many potential home buyer’s questions prior to any viewings but will also help your property “rank” better on property portals.
Some of South Yorkshire’s best property investors & sellers will employ the use of a 3D virtual tour as a powerful way to properly display their properties to a digital audience. 3D virtual tours allow a potential buyer to explore the property, room by room, from a smartphone, tablet or computer (read more about virtual tours click here). This type of content has been proven to substantially decrease the amount of time a property spends on the market, although do often require an additional cost.

Quote 01 – Home Owners Alliance

Quote 02 – The Telegraph

The post Add more value to your estate agent portfolio with innovative virtual tour marketing. appeared first on Scene3D.

Imagine if there is a way for people to view your property while you’re sleeping, doing errands, and spending time with your kids. Virtual house tours offer you exactly that! It’s just one of many ways to market your house, but a strongly efficient one. 

Recent studies show that 97% of people start the search for a new house online, and if yours isn’t there, you’re missing out a lot. But do virtual tours help sell houses? The answer is yes! There is hardly a better way to market your house and create an immersive experience for potential buyers. Let’s dive deeper and show you how.

How Do Virtual House Tours Work?

The main benefit of 3D house tours is to allow potential buyers to explore a property in a full 360-degree view, simply by using their favorite device – smartphone, laptop or a tablet. The best 3D home tours are interactive. They allow visitors to click through from room to room, and get a true sense of how the property looks and feels.

Take it to the next level and amaze your potential buyers by including interactive data points that feature all kinds of useful information. You can highlight the key features of the property (such as amazing view, peaceful neighborhood, and lots of natural light) and not let them wonder if the property is the right fit for them.

Most 3D virtual house tours are compatible with VR which creates an unrivalled view of a property that is second only to real-life visits.

Get Quicker Property Sale With 3D Home Tours

3D home tours are rising in popularity and there is a good reason for that. 

When you allow your potential buyer to virtually walk through a property they’ll get a true sense of how it would feel to live there. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then 3D home tours are worth millions! 

3D virtual house tours leave no question unanswered. They showcase the property in cohesive way photographs could never achieve. Potential buyers get a real insight into the “flow” of a property and how each room harmonizes with the previous.

Properties featured with 3D virtual tours get 95% more phone inquiries

They’ll have all the time they need to explore your property, without having to move from their couch. This will drive high levels of online engagement, especially if you share your 3D home tours on portals such as Rightmove and Zoopla. The more time they spend looking at the 3D virtual house tours, the more likely they’ll make an inquiry.

Because of that, it’s of utmost importance to make 3D home tours of your properties as mesmerizing as possible!

Dollhouse View Of 3D Virtual Tour

How Do You Build a Virtual Tour of a House?

With new technologies emerging and advancing each day, virtual house tours are becoming a standard when selling a property. There are multiple ways to get your own 3D home tours and here are some of them:

Create 3D virtual house tours yourself –

If you want to play around and see the power of 3D virtual house tours by creating one yourself, there are many relatively cheap & user-friendly 360 cameras. You can use them to capture the interior of your home, but the resolution will be of lower quality. Potential buyers will have fewer options, especially when it comes to interacting with the 3D home tours, but you’ll still offer them a better experience than still photography alone. 

Hire a professional 3D virtual house tours company –

If you’d rather sit back and relax, let the professionals take care of your 3D virtual house tours. Back in the day, only a few people with large budgets had the chance to see the power of 3D scanning technology.

It’s a whole nother story today. 3D virtual house tours are more affordable, and by hiring a professional you’ll have a high-resolution end product with lots of interactive components. Make sure to check their portfolio and talk about their expertise to get a sense of what they can achieve. 

Meanwhile, check out one of many virtual house tours created by Scene3D:

How Do You Prepare Your Home for a 3D Virtual House Tour?

One of the most common misunderstandings we’ve encountered during our career is that the whole property is captured at once. To make sure that virtual tours help sell houses, we’ve prepared some tips to prepare your home for a 3D virtual house tour. 

As the property will be 360 photographed or 3D scanned room by room, it’s important to know that the camera will be capturing everything in all directions. So what can you do?

• Make sure that the property is as clean and clutter-free as possible
• Remove everything you want to keep out of the shot (don’t panic – as we shoot each room one at a time it’s possible to just move items out of the room being captured)
• Think about the key features of your property to include in interactive data-points
• Consider a fresh lick of paint or some new curtains. Decorating the property, even a little, can help make it as appealing as possible

After the 3D scanning is completed, you can easily put everything you’ve removed back where it belongs. 

Pro tip: Kitchen work surfaces such as marble or granite, underfloor heating in bedrooms and bathrooms, and ornate or original design features such as cornices or flooring are some of the features you should definitely highlight in a 3D virtual tour!

3D Virtual Tours Created By Scene3D

How Long Does It Take To Create Your 3D Virtual House Tours?

Most of the work, however, is behind the scenes. After spending 2-3 hours to 3D scan a 3-5 bedroom house, there is a lot more we have to do. 

We take raw materials such as 360 photographs or 3D scans, “stitch” them together, and create the immersive experience of a 3D home tours. It’s one of the most time-consuming tasks, especially for the high-quality end products we deliver. The standard time experienced professionals need to deliver the end product is usually 3-5 working days.

Virtual tours generate 49% more qualified leads

If you’ve decided to do it yourself, the time it will take to get the 3D home tours depends largely on your skill level and software for post-production. If you don’t have the experience, you may encounter a few unforeseen obstacles while creating 3D virtual tours. However, it’s up to you to decide whether it’s worth it or not.

Are Virtual House Tours Worth It?

Finally, the most important questions of all. Are virtual house tours worth it? Do virtual tours help sell houses? If they don’t, what would be the point to go through a struggle to have one created?

3D house viewing is a gold standard in the real estate industry right now. It’s not just that potential buyers love them, it’s the fact that they’re expecting you to have a 3D virtual tours of the house you’re selling. 

If you don’t, chances are they’ll go looking somewhere else. And you don’t want that. What are some of the main benefits you’ll get if you utilize 3D home tours?

• You’ll get more potential buyers

You’re not limited to people in your local community. On the internet, you can reach thousands of potential buyers in a matter of hours. Share 3D virtual house tours of the house you’re selling to various portals, websites, and utilize social media to get the best results!

• The viewer has the complete control without wasting your time

The best 3D virtual house tours create a harmonized experience for the viewer, it engages their senses and has all the information they need to make an inquiry. You’ll save a lot of time by talking only to highly qualified prospects, and by including interactive elements, 3D home tours will motivate potential buyers to call you. 

• First impression matters

It matters in life, and it matters in real estate. If you have professional 3D virtual house tours, it will leave a strong first impression on your potential buyer. If the 3D house viewing is “meh”, they’ll continue browsing other listings. Make it count!

• It’s all about perspective

3D virtual house tours are great because they showcase your house from a human perspective. Not only will viewers see all about the house that interests them, but also feel as if they’re already there, the atmosphere, and picture themselves living there. 

If you want to experience the power of 3D virtual tours, get quicker property sale and great price, get in touch!

Quote 01 – realestate.com.au

Quote 02 – apartments.com

The post Do virtual tours help to sell houses quicker? Yes and here’s why. appeared first on Scene3D.