As the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, Zillow has introduced new digital tools to help buyers research homes safely. This summer, the company will bring its self-tour feature to all Zillow-owned homes. It allows shoppers and agents to use the Zillow app to unlock and tour an unoccupied for-sale home on their timeline, minimizing person-to-person contact. While piloting the feature in Phoenix, self-tour homes sold six days faster than homes without the feature.
Zillow also augmented its 3D virtual tours with floor plans that include room dimensions to help shoppers better understand the layout of a home and quickly visualize how their furniture would fit in the space. In the coming months, Zillow-owned homes for sale in all 24 Zillow Offers markets will feature a custom digital floor plan. In the future, the automated floor plan generator could be a feature on all homes for sale with a 3D Home virtual tour on the Zillow platform.
“Zillow has been developing cutting edge tools that make it radically easier for people to move, and up until now, those tools were being adopted at a slow and steady rate. Now they have become essential for buyers, sellers and agents looking to move forward and stay safe,” said Zillow President Jeremy Wacksman. “We expect these tools will quickly become the new standard, and we’re already envisioning other ways we can help to enhance the online home shopping experience.”
In April, listings with a Zillow 3D Home tour attracted 66% more visitors and drove 90% more saves by users than listings without a 3D Home tour, the company said. Zillow also is building features such as virtual staging (which will let shoppers see how furniture looks inside and custom options.
