How To Create a Virtual Home Tour for Real Estate

Interested in harnessing the power of virtual home tours but not sure where to start? Virtual tours let buyers explore every corner of a property without ever stepping inside, making your listings more accessible, more attractive, and more competitive. 

By pairing these tools with online real estate courses, you can sharpen your skills, stay ahead of industry trends, and deliver the kind of modern experience today’s buyers expect. Below, we’re looking at the options for creating real estate virtual tours, the benefits of doing so, and tips for creating successful virtual property tours.

What Are Real Estate Virtual Tours?

Virtual home tours are dynamic visual property simulations that allow prospective buyers to do a remote version of a walkthrough.

There are a number of ways you can approach creating a virtual home tour, including: 

• Video walkthroughs

• Interactive 360-degree photos

• Floor plans with pins that provide context for regular photos

The Benefits Of Virtual Home Tours For Property Listings

There are many potential benefits of real estate virtual tours, but three stand out: higher online listing traffic for home sellers, convenience for home buyers, and increased efficiency for everyone.

More Attention On The Listing

The 2025 NAR® Generational Trends report suggests that only 16% of real estate listings include a virtual home tour, but 41% of buyers rank the feature as “very useful” in their home search.

This disparity means that if you offer a virtual tour, you’ll be fulfilling an underserved need and attracting more eyeballs to your listing than you would otherwise.

Convenience & Accessibility for Shoppers

Real estate virtual tours make home browsing more convenient and accessible to everyone. This has a few benefits. 

First, it allows buyers to scout the market on their own in a more casual way so that they have more realistic expectations for what they can get for their money. This can make your duties as a buyer’s agent less killjoy and more advisor.

Second, serious house hunters can better hone in on the properties that do meet their needs even if they have obstacles to the accessibility of in-person walkthroughs. Busy professionals, parents of small children, and long-distance home buyers are just a few of the people who benefit. 

Time Savings For Everyone

No one – real estate agent, home seller, or potential buyer – benefits from walking into a home and being immediately disappointed. Real estate virtual tours prevent this situation by allowing buyers to strike a property off the list if it’s missing any must-haves or contains any dealbreakers. 

Virtual home tours can make house hunting much more efficient for potential buyers because they’re able to screen out homes with dealbreakers from the comfort of home.

This also leads to time savings for real estate agents because they’re less likely to waste time with in-person walkthroughs for house hunters who are certain to be disappointed. Each walkthrough they schedule is more likely to make an offer.

Real Estate Virtual Tour Do’s and Don’ts

The details of learning how to create virtual home tours will vary based on the software you use. The most effective way to give you tips for successful virtual property tours is to provide some general pointers and best practices in the form of do’s and don’ts.

DO Prioritize High-Quality Photos and an Excellent Description

Recent Harvard research has suggested that most listings that have a virtual tour also feature high-quality photos and detailed descriptions. When researchers controlled for the effect of those assets, they found that the home tour itself made a more negligible impact. 

In other words, the first step you should take to enable self-screening for more committed in-person walkthroughs is to concentrate on the basics first. Improve the quality and thoroughness of both your 2D photography and your descriptions, and see how far that gets you.

The good news is that you may be able to get better results with less financial investment. 

DON’T Discount the Strategic Value of Virtual Walkthroughs

Despite the research findings above, virtual home tours have strategic benefits for certain audiences and circumstances.

For example, the study itself found that virtual walkthroughs can increase the interest in homes that sit in or near less sought-after neighborhoods. This may be due to the relative rarity of virtual walkthroughs in those areas, or it may be that the 3D media helps mitigate any uncertainty about property values and reassure potential buyers of the home’s quality.

Real estate virtual tours also provide an immersive experience that benefits interested parties who can’t experience an in-person walkthrough. This covers everyone from those moving across the country, those with busy schedules or small children, and disabled or chronically ill house hunters.

DO: Pick One Method and Master It

There are so many options when it comes to virtual tour software for real estate agents that trying to pick the “best” can be overwhelming. Options range from DIYing by taking 360º photos on your smartphone to using a high-end Matterport camera to automatically generate a 3D environment.

Luckily, you don’t need to pick the best. You just need to pick one that works for you and then master using it to make effective virtual home tours.

DON’T Skimp On Equipment Quality

Whatever method of real estate virtual tour you end up choosing, make sure you have high-quality equipment and all the necessary tools to make it a good experience for the potential buyer.

High-quality cameras – in whatever form – are a must, as well as using the highest-quality image settings available. 

Invest in a tripod and bubble level to ensure that photos are level and even. Recording by hand, even if yours are the steadiest, is a gamble in terms of quality. If you’re choosing to go with a video walkthrough, look into a gimbal to stabilize the image as you move. It’s possible to find selfie sticks with this feature now if you’ll be using your cell phone.

Finally, whether you’re using specialized software or going DIY, make sure you edit the media together in a way that looks smooth and professional. Make sure you’re providing extra detail on home features that will attract the right buyer.

DO Take Your Time To Make The Best Virtual Home Tours

High-quality equipment is useless if you rush through the tour-filming process.

Before you even pull out the cameras, you need to stage the home to make it appealing. The good news is that you can take a budget approach by borrowing or renting staging assets for a fairly short period of time – just long enough to record your virtual walkthrough. An empty home for an in-person walkthrough is less problematic when guests have a well-staged real estate virtual tour to help them visualize the potential use of space. 

You’ll also want to take time to plan camera placement, take test shots, assess the results, and adjust your lighting, camera settings, and staging to get the best final results.

DON’T Forget to Set Seller Expectations

Since virtual walkthroughs will reduce the number of unlikely buyers tromping through the house, home sellers can sometimes become alarmed that their house isn’t generating the kind of interest they expected.

Before you commit to a virtual walkthrough, you’ll want to reset your seller’s expectations of how much in-person traffic will be reduced by having a better screening process. By tempering their expectations ahead of time, you’ll avoid any unhappiness or misunderstanding.

Continue Learning and Growing with Online Training

Staying at the top of your real estate game is about constant learning and growth, starting with quality pre-license education and continuing through formal training and casual self-education, like reading this blog.

We offer a large catalog of real estate continuing education (CE) approved by various state real estate commissions for meeting your license renewal requirements. These courses are online and self-paced, so you can study whenever it’s most convenient for you and take your time to get the most out of the material.

Check out the options and enroll today!