How can a home owner, who is intent on selling their home, provide a safe alternative to an open house when the coronavirus is at the forefront of everyone's mind?  An essential part of the home purchasing process is the experience of seeing a variety of homes and comparing them via open houses.  The majority of home owners are concerned about how to sell their home without opening themselves up to a traditional open house and unnecessary exposure to viruses or run-of-the-mill bugs from the general public.  Because of COVID-19, standard practices are no longer considered safe or even comfortable. Home owners are caught between opening their homes to the public to allow a larger swath of potential buyers the opportunity to view the inside of their home or allowing a much smaller ‘by appointment only’ group of qualified buyers a peek inside.

What if there was a way to keep the open house concept, but in a more restrictive environment, without losing the potential to sell a home? What if individuals could tour a home live, but through their home computer, tablet, or Android phone with the help of the real estate agent hosting the open house?  HouseList.com makes this now possible with virtual open houses.  The first and only real estate listing service to allow Realtors or home owners to present a live virtual open house. Utilizing this service would eliminate the potential of a home owner and potential buyers from becoming infected with any number of viruses or unintentionally infecting others when showing no signs of illness. Videoconferencing open houses are so easy to set up through HouseList.com. When a potential buyer spots a for sale sign and an open house sign in your yard, and sees you’re listed on HouseList.com, they can access a video address, unique to you, that can be viewed on a home computer, tablet, or Android phone.   

Because of the improvements in videoconferencing technology, which have made almost any cell phone and tablet capable of portable videoconferencing, anyone can visit HouseList.com and click on the virtual open house link to initiate a video chat with the realtor hosting the virtual open house - without downloading any software or registering for the video service. The realtor can host a virtual open house through HouseList.com for one person or for several potential buyers at one time.

This new virtual open house service provided by HouseList.com is just another ‘tool’ to make the home selling and buying process as safe and streamlined as possible.  It also keeps the looky-loos at bay and satisfies the curiosity of others. And when a home owner is ready to begin taking serious offers, the realtor can show the house in person to bona fide buyers. Now, how it works: (Get Started)

Step One: Realtor or property owner must log into their account on HouseList.com and add the property they want to feature in a virtual open house. (See tutorial on listing a property: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzZgzjMYUhI&t=6s)

Step Two: Click on ‘Manage’ at the top of the page within the menu.

Step Three: You will see a list of all your properties.  Find the property you want to feature in a virtual open house and click the ‘Edit” button after that property. 

Step Four: Once you have selected the Edit button after the appropriate property, you will see two buttons listed at the bottom of the individual property listing. 

Step Five: The Virtual Tour button will guide you to a wizard where you will type in the date and time of the virtual open house.  Please follow the instructions, and click ‘Add Tour.’

Step Six: Once Step Five is completed, you will have an Open House Online button on the property listing you are featuring.  Please go to the live page to review the listing.
 

Step Seven: Remember to post the video tour on the same day as the open house. It will make it easier for you, the home owner or Realtor, to control the Video Tour of the open house. (You can copy the listing link in the URL address bar of your property for future Video Tours of the open house so it doesn’t appear until you’re ready.) 

Step Eight: After you have posted the video of the open house, you can either copy the link that has been created and post it on an address bar or you can visit the live listing on HouseList.com to see how it looks.