Real estate has always been an extremely in-person industry. Typically any sale or leasing of property involves meetings between the buyers, sellers, and brokers. In-person tours are followed by inspections, face-to-face negotiations, and finally a handshake with document signing. Needless to say, the pandemic has really put a damper on the traditional ways that real estate is managed. This is especially true of commercial real estate where the procedure is more complex and the negotiations more precise than the sale of residential homes. 360° onteractive virtual tours for commercial real estate are changing the way properties are exposed and improving their marketing.

Commercial Real Estate in the Post-Pandemic Era

Commercial real estate tenants and buyers are extremely careful, as they are making a large investment for long-term results. Before the pandemic, most wouldn’t dream of making a bid or signing a lease on a commercial property without touring in-person. But times are changing and virtualization is taking center-stage. Virtual tours have become essential for commercial real estate transactions where both the property owner and leasee/buyer are not comfortable visiting the site or meeting in person more than necessary.

How do you promote the space, beauty, and functionality of your commercial property without hosting in-person tours? The answer is 360 virtual tours, so immersive that viewers will feel like they’re almost walking through the building in person. You can see the beginning of this trend with Google Virtual Tours and Zillow’s residential virtual tours, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. Custom 360 virtual tours are the new normal for truly showcasing your commercial real estate.

What is a Virtual Tour?

Example: Your Wall Street Office in NYC

A virtual tour is a 360 degree walkthrough of your property done with high-detail digital photography. ‘Standing’ in one spot, a prospective buyer or renter online can actually ‘look around’ by click-dragging their mouse through the virtual environment. They can look 360 degrees around themselves, also with the ability to look up at the ceiling and down at the ground. This gives the viewer the impression they are truly standing inside the virtualized building. More than any set of photographs or even video, 360° interactive virtual tours give the viewer a real feel for how big a space is and how the rooms flow together.

An entire tour is crafted of multiple 360 degree vantage points, usually that follow one to the next down hallways, into offices, and through shared spaces. A person can jump from one viewing point to the next to give themselves a nearly smooth and fully immersive ‘walkthrough’ of your commercial property.

When you need to show  a prospective buyer or tenant the inside of a building without actually unlocking the doors to meet in person, a virtual tour is the next best thing and it is a powerful tool in today’s post-pandemic real estate market.

What Buyers and Renters Learn from Taking a 360° Virtual Tour

Someone looking to buy or rent commercial property is planning for the future. They want to see everything from the general space of the rooms to counting the outlets along the walls. They want to see the lobby, conference area, and break room. They want to see how big the offices are and how many windows there are. Many would like to peek into the utility spaces and begin visualizing the space in the ways they’ll use it.

A virtual tour can show your prospective buyers or renters all these details by allowing them to use their own eyes and choice of looking direction with greater freedom than any photograph. They can linger on the rooms that matter most, zoom in on the details, and walk around your hallways as many times as it takes to get a feel for your space.

Virtual Tours in the Post-Pandemic Age

There’s no question that since the pandemic, virtual interactions have become the new normal. This goes beyond restaurant delivery and shopping. Every single industry is finding ways to conduct business virtually instead of in-person. The same is true for commercial buyers and renters. Most are already looking for brands that have a virtual tour option. The tour is both an initial interest-builder and a source of information for deeper investigation before making a bid. Many commercial real estate buyers have expressed that they might buy a property without an in-person visit if a high quality virtual tour is available.

Difference Between Google Virtual Tours and Custom Virtual Tours

Google Virtual Tour Example: Office Evolution in Bellevue, WA

You may be wondering how custom virtual tours are different from Google Virtual Tours which have risen in popularity in recent months. Google Virtual Tours are a powerful tool and you can upload your own custom tool into Google for this purpose with approved and qualified 360° photographers who have earned the Google Trusted Photographer designation. However, Google Virtual Tours are only used for public venues that are open to customers and clients. You see, Google isn’t a real estate brand, their a commerce brand at heart. They connect consumers to goods and services at a far higher priority than connecting real estate buyers and sellers.

Google Virtual Tours give customers a peek inside before they arrive in person. Custom 360° virtual tours can be used for real estate purposes to sell your commercial property or lease units inside your commercial property to new resident businesses.

What is Unique About Custom Virtual Tours?

Custom virtual tours are also more highly detailed than typical Google Virtual Tours because you can customize how the tour is shot and the information represented. For example, a custom tour allows you to clearly label every location so that potential buyers can explore your space with labeled rooms and an easy guide to flow from one space to the next.

Custom virtual tours can also build a ‘dollhouse’ or overhead floorplan view spotlighting every single labeled room and 360 perspective point that buyers can explore. You can tag information blubs, images, and guiding data by embedding it into the virtual tour experience and your buyers will appreciate this data as they gather information for an important commercial real estate decision.

How to Create a Custom 360 Virtual Tour for Your Commercial Property

Example: Sublease Space in Renton, WA

Booking a virtual tour for your commercial property is faster, easier, and more affordable than most building owners realize. The cost for a 360 virtual tour shooting in your property starts at a modest $399 for a 2,000 square foot space. Larger and more complex spaces adapt the price, but it remains within a very approachable range for your unit turnover or property selling budget.

Once you sign up, creating the virtual tour takes a single day of shooting. Here at TrueView360s we have a streamlined process that commercial property owners can count on for speed and quality. We will send a skilled 360° photographers with the camera and equipment to the empty property. We’ll either map your floorplan with the most logical step-by-step approach and take pointers on which rooms (and room names) to use.

Within the week after shooting (sometimes on the same day) we’ll have a virtual tour upload with labeled rooms ready for your online listing.  You can then upload this tour to your website and any website hosting your commercial real estate listing.

Booking Your Virtual Tour with TrueView360s

Ready to add a virtual tour to your commercial real estate plan? We’re ready to make it happen. Contact the TrueView360s team online or by phone to book your shooting day and enjoy a fully detailed virtual tour within just a few days.