Full transparency and complete information. It’s what US consumers want, which is one reason why Amazon became a successful ecommerce platform. At the time in the late 1990’s, you could get more information online regarding a $10 book than you could for a real estate listing.
Fast forward to 2024. Some things have changed for sure. Most listings have at least 30 to 40 photos, some have floor plans (maybe 15%) and some have 3D “walkthrough” type tours for a more immersive experience (about 17% in the greater Seattle area per a recent search on Zillow). But the vast majority still have just photos and 750 characters of text (Northwest MLS limit). Yet, the needs/desires/wants of the buyer have not changed. They still want transparency and as much information as possible about the product (home) they are looking to buy. How do we know this?
Look at Zillow’s buyer research, where they asked buyers what was important as part of their home search. The most prominent content provided for a listing, professional photos, scored in the middle of the response graph, with about 46% of respondents saying it was extremely or very important to view professional photos. The top 4 things in terms of importance to a buyer as part of their home search (with the extremely or very important stat after it) is below:
- Taking a private tour – 79%
- Access to an inspection/pre-inspection report – 73%
- Access to comprehensive data and history – 59%
- Viewing the floor plan – 58%
According to Zillow, listings with a floor plan have sold for 22% more than the market average and listings with a 3D tour get 79% more saves and 60% more views on their platform. According to Matterport, listings with a Matterport sell for 9% more than the market average too. Despite this research, as stated, maybe 20% of listings have the floor plan or have a 3D type tour to enable the ability to take an immersive “private tour” from anywhere. And comprehensive data and history does not exist. Not sure of the percent that have a pre-inspection report, as I have never seen one on a listing, other than my own (which is added to the virtual tour as a document and our agent Jodi Stull added it as an MLS document too). According to research, even having a pre-inspection report or pro photos can increase a property’s sales price over the market average by about 2.5%.
Introducing the Inside Story
The Inside Story is a concept we are testing right now to help satisfy some of these Buyer’s needs, namely provide comprehensive data and history of the home, in addition to the other things HomeDiary has been providing for years, 2D/3D floor plans (Viewing a floor plan) and a 3D walkthrough (Taking a private tour, which can be done by anyone with an Internet connection from anywhere, 24/7 and from the comfort of one’s couch). All of this is done through the HomeDiary Pro platform (you may also know us as FloorPlanOnline) and our virtual tour, or what we call a Story. The Inside Story is embedded content with the property’s Story, and we have a living example with the new listing of HomeDiary’s co-founder, Kris Cone, and his home that is currently listed for sale in Sammamish, WA. The Story includes everything identified above that buyers want to see, including a complete walkthrough of the whole home, the garage and the backyard, floor plans, a pre-inspection report and comprehensive data and history, which is presented in the form of the Inside Story.
The Inside Story content can be accessed via the virtual tour through two different ways.
- Video – there is a separate Inside Story Showcase Video series under Video on the Story. Play one and it will continue to auto play others. Click the dropdown on the left to show all videos and select one of interest.
- 3D Walkthrough – each Inside Story segment is embedded into the Matterport walkthrough and tagged to a specific location in and around the property. This includes an outside 3D scan of the backyard and specific segments on the pool, such as how to run the pool equipment, how to maintain it and how to open up its safety cover. The Inside Story content also includes before, during and after media for the new driveway and roof and it includes associated warranty certificates for the roof and artificial turf, and how it can be transferred to the new owner to get the remaining warranty for the roof (47.5 years) and the turf (9 years). We even include a spreadsheet that shows all of the utilities of the property over the last few years (see the AC unit in the main home scan).
It is the ultimate in full transparency, and some of the information can help make the new owner’s life a lot easier, and more cost effective, such as how to manage the pool yourself with the included cleaning robot and app which can save around $400 a month by doing it yourself, and how to run the pool heater so the gas bill is maybe $100 a month, vs $900, which is what Kris’ bill was in his first month of ownership when he bought the property in 2005. Another benefit of the HomeDiary Story is the new owner can Claim the Home right from the virtual tour and the photos and floor plans will come over automatically…and we are working to figure out how to transfer the Inside Story content – it could be done by making a copy of the Matterport and providing it to the new owner, or providing a link to the Showcase Video Gallery. That is all part of this experiment.
You can see for yourself. Launch the Story for this home here, or scroll down to see how the content is embedded. The first is under the Video section (note we moved the video up on the Story under the Presentation settings to make it more visible, then we positioned the 3D Walkthrough behind it).
Under the 3D Walkthrough, each of the icons represents an Inside Story content piece that either has text, text and video or text, video and a document or link. As you navigate, hover over the icon and you can play the video or see the other content. Click on it or on the icon on the top right to put the content into the right sidebar as you see in the next screenshot.
When the Inside Story content is in the dock on the right, you can scroll through each via the < > on the top right. It will jump you to the specific spot in the property where that Inside Story content resides, so a quick and easy way to see contextually where the information is tied to in the property.
We would love your feedback on this Inside Story concept. Is it something you would like to see on listings you market? Please complete our survey to provide your thoughts.