Have you seen those sign-posts/billboards showing 3D homes and apartment interiors around town? These beautiful 3-dimensional designs and videos are representations of villas-homes and luxury property apartments.
The era of traditional open houses is slowly dying off and virtual tours are among the changes that will continue even after the current pandemic. Home sellers are already loving this, as it has helped them weed out non-serious buyers. Before someone tours a property, they now must view a 3D or do a virtual tour first.
Buyer’s Perspective
Ugandans who love going out and physically looking at homes are facing a hard time in the home buying process. People are already doing more research online, having more conversations with real estate agents before physically going into someone else’s home.
Here are some of the Dos; a step by step process of a virtual tour.
- Communicate your preferences to the seller or his agent (listing agent). This can be done on the phone or through your agent. Oh yes, I forgot to tell you that you might need an agent. A professional who will save you from baits, cons and a financial loss. A buyer’s agent who clearly understands what you want.
- After receiving the available houses/apartment spaces, start prioritizing (do the crossing) based on your preferences. Make sure your final list of the houses or apartments chosen fully fits with-in your means.
- Request the seller/agent to provide virtual listing descriptions and preferably videos in and around the homes/apartments on sale.
- Carefully watch the videos, zoom in on certain features without showing the whole room. Pay close attention to the details of the house (size of the rooms, walls, floors, quality of the furniture, how far windows are, etc).
While the luxury market is full of well-produced montages, the same can’t be said of the rental market. Most videos are blurry, dark and sometimes short-you might need to go an extra mile. The extra mile is calling that agent for a live video session tour. It is your money so don’t rush or be afraid to do all checks. Besides, it is your money at stake.
- It is now time to schedule a virtual meeting with that seller for a video tour in and around the house. You can use the Zoom application or any other app like skype. Be sure to choose a video sharing application. The experience is certainly not uniformly enlightening, and if that’s all you’ve got to go on, it means taking a leap of faith with a lot of money at stake.
- Have a sit down (include your agent if necessary) and dictate what you want to see/know during the video session tour.
- After the long wait of virtual chats is done and you are happy to close on any house/apartment, leverage the loosening of the lockdown. Arrange a physical meeting with the seller at the property house/apartment and do confirmations. Your health matters! Sanitize and distance. You can now take the final steps of the transaction process if you are content.
Virtual Open House Tours.
Can you merge the two? The real estate leaders have, and some developers are. It works.
At Jakana Heights, they are leaning more on offering the highest international standards and helping our buyers find the property that meets their demands. From luxury, spacious accommodation, with top-quality finishes and fittings to attractive discounts for off-plan buyers.
That is why they have resumed safe open houses upon the easing of the lockdown measures. These will be social distancing tours running from Monday to Sunday (9 AM-3 PM) allowing a small number of people. For virtual tours and inquiries, you can book an appointment on +256(0)775495107 or email reagan@zooka.co.uk/jakanaheights. We are helping you find your dream safest haven.
Conclusion
The days of virtual tours are already taking a stand in the Ugandan real estate industry. Those days of bringing 30 people into a house or an apartment to help you make a decision are coming to an end. The spread of the virus is affecting the industry, and technology is jumping in to save the business. For now, the virtual reality is the new normal and maybe here to stay (even after the lockdown). But since we need them both (virtual tours and open houses), we can still merge the two and call them Virtual Open House Tours.
