3D Tours Utilized on Zillow Rentals
Increase SFR Property Leads by 40% … Decrease Days
on the Market by 30%
By Kori Covrigaru
Most house hunters start their property searches online today and digital tools such as a 3D virtual tour make viewing a rental home remotely even faster and easier. Whether from a smartphone or laptop, 3D tours allow consumers to get a realistic experience and feel for what a single-family rental (“SFR”) property is like without having to visit it in-person. According to a recent Zillow study, most Americans would like to use digital tools while home shopping, and a vast majority (79%) of those surveyed said they wanted the ability to view a 3D virtual tour.
At PlanOmatic, we recently measured the impact of 3D tours for SFR property marketing on the Zillow Rentals platform, which includes Zillow, Trulia, and Hotpads. Zillow is the leading real estate and rental marketplace dedicated to empowering consumers with data, inspiration and knowledge around the place they call home, and connecting them with great real estate professionals.
Our 3D tour study was conducted in partnership with a national provider of well-maintained single-family rental homes. The purpose of the study was to determine if the provider should invest in a 3D tour solution to use on Zillow Rentals—their number one lead source—to attract more rental prospects and to provide a superior client experience. Our study data found an increase in lead activity and applications, and a decrease in days on market (“DOM”) when a 3D tour was published on the Zillow Rentals platform.
The data revealed the following:
- Lead activity in the single-family rental home provider’s CRM showed an increase of more than 40% when a 3D tour was published on Zillow Rentals
- Lead activity from Zillow Rentals increased by 101% when a 3D tour was published on the platform
- Applications submitted per property by prospective residents increased by more than 35% when a 3D tour was published on Zillow Rentals
- The DOM showed a 30% decrease for properties that used a 3D tour on Zillow Rentals compared with properties that only had photos on Zillow
“Essentially all home searches start online today, and this has fundamentally changed the way properties are marketed. Our clients are trying to get as much property information in front of the consumer as possible, and a 3D tour stands out online allowing future residents to walk through the house imagining themselves there without visiting in person,” said Tim Rose, Director of Operations for PlanOlabs at PlanOmatic. “Our study was conducted to test whether a 3D tour had a measurable impact for our client, and the results prove that by publishing a 3D tour on the Zillow Rentals platform, SFR owners will generate more property leads and applications, and reduce the days on market.”
Rose added, “This is a case of supply and demand. Consumers are demanding and prioritizing 3D experiences online, and by adding 3D tours to the Zillow Rentals platform, SFR owners and operators are meeting that demand with a high quality virtual experience that their future residents now expect.”
The 3D tour study was conducted by PlanOlabs, the research, data, and consulting hub at PlanOmatic that analyzes and optimizes the property lifecycle for SFR investors, owners and operators. At PlanOlabs, we analyze SFR investors’ current state and use our industry experience to optimize their operational and marketing processes in order to scale and meet their portfolio growth goals.
For this particular test case, PlanOlabs tracked more than 70 of our partners’ properties across two markets—Dallas and Houston, Texas. We created a 3D tour for Zillow Rentals for half the properties in each market and compared that to a control group of properties that received a standard professional photo shoot. The test case properties were tracked between May 10th and June 30th.
