The real estate business is undergoing seismic changes as more buyers and sellers are choosing to go online to initiate their transactions. This has forced a business that for decades relied on face-to-face interaction and personal connection to shift to a less traditional, digital strategy when it comes to marketing.

But instead of looking at the rise of Internet-driven real estate as a negative, real estate professionals should embrace the challenge and find ways to use this to their advantage. With platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter offering live video streaming, the possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

If you are a real estate agent, live video can offer you some real benefits in terms of customer engagement and lead generation. Here are some of the ways you can change the game and tilt the digital field in your favor.

Virtual Tours

Despite a robust market in many parts of the U.S., the challenge for many real estate agents is that their clients are busier than ever and don’t have the time to look at multiple properties. That’s why the virtual tours have become an increasingly important tool in a real estate agent’s arsenal.

Virtual tours allow your clients to have a 360-degree view of a property, so that they can quickly decide if they want to actually visit the property in person or move on. But in a traditional virtual tour, your client would click on the property and “walk” through several rooms for an overall impression of the house.
But if you set up a Facebook Live virtual tour, for example, you can actually interact with your client as you walk through every nook and cranny of the property. And unlike a static virtual tour on a website, a live virtual tour gives you the chance to answer questions and explain details about certain quirks of the property.

And for your clients, a live virtual tour is a more immersive and informative experience that gives them all the details necessary to make a decision about further engaging with that property. It also saves them a drive, which saves gas, time and money.

Constant communication is one of the most important aspects of servicing your clients, and live video is an effective way to show all aspects of a property and to answer the questions of prospective buyers. It also provides busy clients with the feeling of a personal connection.

Home Buying Lessons

Providing actionable and valuable information is one of the best ways for you to market your business, because you establish credibility with your prospects.

You can set up live video sessions that act as tutorials so that users can learn something important about the buying process.

For example, you can do a live session in which you take viewers through an actual inspection of a home prior to a sale. You can question the inspector about the most important things that buyers should be aware of as they go through a final inspection, and some of the red flags that an inspector finds that can affect the sale.

And because the session is streaming live, users can actually ask questions during the process, and the answers you and the inspector provide can go a long way in stamping your authority with buyers.

The trick or challenge with these types of live video sessions is that engagement must be your primary goal.

You want users to interact with you, because the more questions they ask and the more comments they make, the greater the opportunity for you to demonstrate your expertise and increase their participation, so the session feels less like a tutorial, and more like a shared experience.

Embrace Live Video As Your Latest Tool

Live video is a marketing tool that can open up your real estate business to new prospects.

It allows buyers to engage with you online at their convenience, but still lets you sell all aspects of your service, including providing useful content and establishing your authority and expertise about properties in your area.