The COVID-19 pandemic has upended modern life in numerous ways. Going to a grocery store or taking a walk along the beach are now suddenly quite complicated tasks. Businesses are hurting as consumers continue to be wary of going outside and risking contracting COVID-19.

As you might imagine, the real estate industry, as a whole, is suffering from this pandemic. A recent RBC report showed that, across Canada, the real estate market suffered from lower sales activity. However, there's good news: with the re-opening of the economy, incredibly low interest rates, and firm housing demand, RBC expects to see the market recover over the next couple of years.

The trick for pre-construction sellers is to get people to view their properties in a safe, efficient, and exciting manner. Fortunately, with virtual tours, developers don't have to worry about risking anyone's health. They can invite people to see their new properties at any time of day or night and bypass the pandemic. Here are three ways virtual tours help pre-construction developers sell their inventory in the middle of an epidemic.

Tour the Property Safely at the Time and Speed You Want

By offering online virtual tours, pre-construction developers can provide a unique, interactive experience that will give prospective buyers a quality example of their desired home. With Nanuk Technologies’ virtual tours, anyone with laptops, phones, or tablets can simulate walking through a house and exploring all that it has to offer. People can see the floorplan, and all the different "scenes," or rooms, that comprise the home. 

Pre-construction developers can offer a virtual tour of a real model home or provide a tour for a hypothetical 3D-rendered property. Of course, what version of the tour you provide depends heavily on the stage of construction.

A recent study in the United States showed that virtual tours are highly effective, piquing buyers' interests and raising the selling price by 2-3%. While this data was for resale homes, there's no reason why virtual tours for pre-constructions would elicit any different response.

The best part is that nobody has to risk their health to take a virtual tour!

Gauge Interest and Make Sales Early

With COVID-19 and people staying at home, you don't need to get people into a model home to start getting a feeling of interest and making sales on these homes. With a high-quality virtual tour, you can advertise the link and let people look around for themselves. Your website can have a contact form for more information, and you can promote it on various real estate websites.

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the way people think about technology. With home shopping transforming into an online activity (since nobody wants to leave their home frequently), virtual tours are now the "norm." Instead of waiting until one or more model homes are complete before marketing, now you can market with just the virtual tours and the public will be receptive to it.

Virtual Tours Transcend Geographic Boundaries

One of the powerful aspects of this pandemic is that it makes people rethink where they live and work. Many people are looking to move closer to their families or leave the big city and go to a smaller, more affordable town. Of course, many of those people would be interested in pre-construction homes.

A virtual tour doesn't need someone to be physically present in the same city. Someone looking at moving from Montreal to Halifax, for example, could look at your pre-construction online to see if it would be a good fit for them. They could then buy it, wait for the company to build it, and move in when they're ready at a later date. Instead of having to go off photos (which can be misleading) or buy sight-unseen (which is terrifying), buyers can have confidence in the quality of the property after seeing it with a virtual tour.

Virtual Tours Are Perfect During COVID-19 and After

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered people's views on home buying. What was once a reasonably rigid process has suddenly come of the digital age. Developers who are looking to sell pre-construction lots should consider virtual tours for their properties. They are safer, have significant marketing potential, and will expand your market significantly by opening your pre-construction to the world.

If you're interested in Nanuk Technologies’ virtual tour solutions, please contact us today. We would love to work with you to help you sell your pre-construction property efficiently and safely.