The Housechick Blog

I always want to do what will help my Sellers sell their house for the most money, most quickly.  Are Virtual Tours a part of that?

Well, I’ll admit they aren’t in my marketing plan.  My personal preference is to have a good set of professional pictures that will entice a buyer to want to see the house in person - where they can have a physical, emotional, visceral reaction and want to buy it.  I’ve always thought virtual tours would cut down on potential buyer traffic.  If someone can see online that they don’t really like the living/dining room setup, then they may never visit the house.  But - I know that if I can get a person into the house, once they get there, they might like everything else so much that they’ll decide to deal with some other feature they may not have liked initially.

But I’m a numbers geek.  So what does the history of Virtual Tours in MLS tell us in relation to sales time and price?  At least for single family homes?

From January 2006 to today, 23% of all sold listings had a Virtual Tour. 

Okay, so roughly a quarter of the agents out there are buying Virtual Tours for their listings.

The Average Sales Price for a House with a Virtual Tour was $397,049.  Average Sales Price for those without a Tour was $273,891.

Did having the Virtual Tour really increase sales price or does having a higher priced listing just increase the marketing budget, allowing for more money to be spent on things like a Virtual Tour?  I’m guessing the latter.

In fact, when I broke the numbers down by area of town, the highest priced region, the North, had the highest percentage of sold listings with Virtual Tours, at nearly 39%, with an average sales price in the mid $600s.  The lowest priced area, the South, and the smallest percentage of listings with Virtual Tours, at 9%, and an average single family home sale price of about $180,000.

Here’s what really caught my eye though:

The Average Days on Market for all sold homes with Virtual Tours was 62 days.  For those without Virtual Tours?  50 days.

Can’t be true, I said.  When I broke numbers down by area, every single area had a lower days on market for listings without Virtual Tours compared to those that do.

Then I calculated Days on Market for all of the solds, regardless of Virtual Tour: 53 days.  So listings without Virtual Tours were selling faster than average, even.

I came up with two potential reasons the result could be false.  One, it might take higher priced listings longer to sell, and since Virtual Tours are normally associated with higher priced listings, it might make sense that Days on Market would be higher for listings with Virtual Tours.

Second - I’m making an assumption here.  I know DOM isn’t a favorite comparative figure, but I’m considering withdrawing and relisting at a new price, or with new agent, to be a clean start, a clean slate.  And that listings both with, or without, Virtual Tours are withdrawn and relisted at proportionally the same rate, at least among those houses that actually sell.

So then I looked at the data broken down into price range.

The percentage of listings with Virtual Tours rises in direct proportion to the sales price.

Just more confirmation here, right?  Bigger sales price = bigger marketing budget.  However, if Virtual Tours really really really sold houses, wouldn’t the cheaper listings have it done too?  It doesn’t cost all that much more than a newspaper ad anymore.

Yet another kicker though:

For every $100,000 price bracket up to $600k, the days on market for listings without Virtual Tours was less than that of the listings with Virtual Tours.  By an average of roughly a week.

In sale prices between $600-900k, days on market for homes with Virtual Tours was less than those without, by a week on average.  Above $900k, they either performed the same, or the listings without Virtual Tours sold quicker.

So are Virtual Tours only really effective in higher, but not the highest, price ranges?

Something to ponder.  Not at all what I was expecting.

Thought - If I look at the number of listings with Virtual Tours that didn’t sell, and compare that to the number of homes overall that didn’t sell, am I gleaning anything significant?  I’d like to compare successfully marketed and sold homes.  If I consider homes that don’t sell, I’m including those with no pictures, wrong information, possibly crazy prices…  Let’s stick to just the solds for now, in an effort to compare apples with apples.