As homeowners grow weary of waiting for the low interest rates of 2021 to return, Zillow economists¹ predict more homes to hit the market this year. And while more listings offer great news for agents, the uptick in inventory can also mean more competition among agents to capture engagement among prospective buyers.
Fortunately, there are several ways you can help differentiate your listings, get more buyers to engage with your listings and stand out in an increasingly competitive market.
Imagine a buyer across town sees a standard listing on Zillow, loves the initial look of the house, the price and the location but can’t make it to a showing that day or week. She may flag it for later review or even email you, but, soon, she’s off to the next page view and your listing blends in with the rest.
Now imagine that same buyer sees the same house on a Showcase Listing, featuring scrolling high-resolution photography, AI-powered imagery grouped room-by-room, immersive virtual tours and interactive floor plans that provide a deeper sense of the home’s flow and architectural elements.
The buyer wants to know how big the primary bedroom’s closet and bathroom are, so she explores the space through the Showcase listing’s virtual tour and interactive floor plan, which lets her see exactly where the closet and bathroom are located in the home as well as from which direction and location the image was captured.
She also wants to see the home’s orientation to the street, so she uses a new feature from Showcase that places the listing’s interactive floor plan on the Zillow listing neighborhood map to help give your customers a sense of how the house faces the street and its relation to surrounding homes. Liking what she sees, she books an appointment to view the home in person.
By using AI and cutting-edge immersive media, ShowingTime+ Zillow Showcase offers a different way to highlight a home’s best features – before the buyer even steps foot in the house.
In the standard listing, that same buyer sees a vacant space void of furniture; but, in the Showcase listing, the agent opted to virtually stage the house with Listing Media Services. Now, the buyer can immediately envision where her couch and end tables may go and where she might hang her large TV screen.
Research² shows that staging can help homes sell 73% faster on average than unstaged properties, and, according to NAR,³ buyers find it “very important” to see the living room, master bedroom and kitchen staged.
With Listing Media Services’ virtual staging, agents can choose reliable, affordable add-on imagery like virtual staging with or without furniture removal to help enhance the buyer’s virtual online experience and help get them excited about the home before they tour.
A social media livestream is a great way to give real estate agents an opportunity to connect with potential buyers in real time. With social media livestreaming, a buyer can watch a video of the property in real time and interact with the agent, affording an immersive experience as the agent walks the buyer through the layout and answers any questions they may have.
Social media has the power to connect your buyers with your listing in real time while multiplying your reach long after the last guest has left the house. After the livestream, the video can be shared on the agent’s website, generating further interest and potentially attracting more offers.
A video livestream also provides a convenient, efficient alternative, especially in times of unfavorable weather, a condensed sales timeline or when sellers are reluctant to welcome a large number of strangers into their home.
In addition to high-resolution imagery and an immersive viewing experience, Showcase listings can help you expand your marketing reach on Zillow and give you powerful exposure on Zillow.
Showcase listings receive prioritized placement in personalized search results and dedicated email alerts sent to prospective buyers with matching search histories, helping to increase the potential number of buyers who might see your listing.
Showcase listings are the only listings available through the new cutting-edge technology of the Zillow Immerse App and Apple Vision Pro.
This game-changing tech tool helps transform any space into an interactive gallery, where shoppers can take a 360-degree virtual tour with the interactive floor plan guiding them along a vivid, panoramic journey of the home.
Discover more ways how Showcase listings can help you win more listings by letting buyers view the listing in a way they’ve never seen before while impressing prospective sellers with groundbreaking listing technology.
Sign up for a demo today!
¹https://www.zillow.com/research/2024-housing-predictions-33447/
²The Mortgage Reports, Real Estate and Financial News, Feb. 2019
³NAR 2021 Profile of Home Staging