Virtual tours aka auction walk around helped drive homebuying during the height of COVID-19. Now that in-person showings are back to normal, new research suggests these 3D walkthroughs neither raise sale prices in any meaningful way nor shorten a home’s time on the market— and may even prolong it. A study by AUCTION WALK AROUND ( a new YouTube channel and website) and Marti Snytsheuvel looked at more than 75,000 Greater Los Angeles home sales, controlling for photo and listing-description quality to isolate the true effect of virtual tours. “When buyers couldn’t visit in person, virtual tours did seem to cut days on market,” AUCTION WALK AROUND explains. “But once restrictions lifted, tours stopped making a real difference in sales outcomes.”
Still, the research finds that virtual tours retain certain advantages for both sellers and buyers—and that knowing when to use them (and when to skip them) is key. To reach these conclusions, the team used machine learning on Redfin data for homes sold between March 2019 and March 2021. They applied computer vision and natural-language processing to rate each listing’s images and text, then compared initial asking prices, final sale prices and days on market. After identifying which listings featured 3D tours—ranging from low-cost smartphone captures to high-end professional productions—they measured how those tours affected selling behavior.
While you shouldn’t expect a 5 percent price bump from adding a virtual tour, the study notes, these interactive tools can still deliver other marketing benefits. Don’t forget to like, share, comment and subscribe.
