Virtual tour or listing video: which one does a listing need?
By Brian Jones, co-founder, engineering and Talyn Jones, co-founder, product, Frameworthy.
A 3D virtual tour needs a scan appointment and lets the buyer click through the home at their own pace. A listing video is a guided walk, in the order you choose, that also works on social. A photos-to-video walkthrough gives you the second one from the photos you already have, without a second visit.
What does a 3D virtual tour do that video does not?
It hands control to the buyer. They stand in the kitchen and turn around, walk back to the entry, measure a wall. For an out-of-town buyer deciding whether to fly in, that control is worth a lot, and it is why the scan is standard on higher-priced listings.
The cost is the appointment. A scan technician has to visit, the capture takes an hour or more, and the tour is hosted on a third-party platform with its own fees.
What does a listing video do that a 3D tour does not?
It tells the story in order and it travels. A video plays on the listing, in a text to the seller, on Instagram, in a Reel and in an email blast. Nobody shares a 3D tour link on social; everybody shares a video.
A walkthrough made from the listing photos gives you that video on every listing, on the day the photos go live, at a flat price. It shows only what the photographer captured, checked clip by clip against the photos, so it is honest by construction.
Which should a listing have?
Every listing should have the video, because it is the format buyers actually watch and share and it now costs less than a tank of gas. Listings where the buyer pool is remote or the price justifies a scan should add the 3D tour on top. The two are not competing for the same slot.
Questions
Can a photos-to-video walkthrough replace a 3D tour?
Not for a buyer who needs to measure a wall. It replaces the filmed listing video, which is the format most listings never got because of the cost and the scheduling.
Can you make the video from the 3D tour's stills?
Use the photographer's stills. Frames pulled from a scan are usually lower resolution and shot from tripod height rather than from the doorway, which gives the clip less room to move.
Does the walkthrough work for a rental or a land listing?
Rentals, yes, from the same photos. Land depends on the photos: aerials and wide shots move well, a flat field with no reference points mostly comes back as a slow pan.