Taking home tours without ever visiting the house

DENVER - By now we have a pretty good grasp on the role the housing market plays in the overall health of the economy. The challenges of getting houses sold in this economy are very real and real estate agents are turning to a virtual tool to meet them. More real estate companies are offering online visual tours.

"People are moving, getting job transfers, getting married, getting divorced. Life still goes on no matter what the economy is, and people are looking to the Internet and they want as much information as they can get. As an agent, if I can make that buyer feel like they're standing in the room, they're much more likely to want to see the home," real estate agent Jackie Long said.

Long is an agent with Keller Williams Denver Central and produced virtual tours of all the properties she's trying to sell. One of her homes is selling for $2.35 million, and she says that's actually $400,000 less than the appraised value.

The virtual tour allows the user to view many areas of the home. Red dots that represent "hot spots" can be clicked on and the user is instantly taken to that particular room or view.

"Home buyers are very savvy and in most cases, when they're coming from out of state or even out of the country, this tour gives them a pretty good idea of the house and what it offers," Long said.

Long says these visual tours have been around for a few years and their popularity has grown because of their effectiveness. According to surveys conducted by the National Association of Realtors, users are 50 percent more likely to click on a home that offers a visual tour than ones with just still photos. The association also determined through its surveys that more than 80 percent of home buyers begin their search online.

"If you want to buy or sell a home in these times you have to have a presence on the internet, it is essential," Long said.

Home owners are perhaps catching wind of this. More of them are producing their own virtual tours and posting them on Web sites like YouTube.com. Some of them resemble homemade movies with shaky video and less than professional production value, but if it helps get the house sold, production value may be irrelevant.

As effective as these visual tours may be, the National Association of Realtors estimates that only 15 percent of the homes on the market are advertised with the feature. Long predicts that percentage will only get bigger.