It may sound weird, but, in some cases, the pandemic has improved business in America. Many white-collar employees find working remotely more conducive to delivering high-quality work and achieving better overall happiness. With much of the workforce (and many employers) realizing that physical presence at work is unnecessary, families are able to move away from hectic commutes and small, expensive homes.
People can choose to relocate to cities that fit their lifestyle, whether that be dictated by cost of living, being close to family, or availability of extracurricular activities. In fact, migration from cities to suburban areas has become so common that it has been coined in the housing industry as cultivating “Zoom boomtowns.”
A boomtown undergoes sudden and rapid population growth when people migrate there to benefit from working in a localized industry like gold or oil; a Zoom town encounters an influx of citizens who seek the non-work life experiences that a town has to offer while continuing to work for a company that is located elsewhere.
Some emerging Zoom town locations include Austin, Texas; Charlotte, North Carolina; Denver; Nashville, Tennessee; Phoenix; Salt Lake City; Indianapolis; Seattle; Tampa, Florida; Sacramento, California; Columbus, Ohio; and Minneapolis, among many more. Seeking lower cost of living, less people, and more space with better amenities, families are often relocating to cities like these from hours, or even states, away. What is unique about these Zoom boomtown migrants is that they are unable to engage in traditional methods of viewing properties in person, giving real estate professionals an opportunity to explore new remote leasing strategies.
Before COVID-19, society had already begun the shift to online shopping. Companies like Amazon and Uber disrupted markets when they streamlined the entire buying process for consumers into a few easy steps online. An effective online presence has become of utmost importance in any company’s success—multifamily marketers and leasing agents are no exception. Younger consumers have been raised in a society where their major life events can be completed over the internet, whether this be booking vacations, buying a car, or completing a college degree. Consequently, comfortability in online shopping for homes has accelerated, particularly in the face of the Zoom town phenomenon.
For example, recently released data from Zillow has shown that 39% of millennials and 36% of Gen Z populations are completely comfortable purchasing a home online compared with 7% of baby boomers and 19% of Gen X. Even further, Zillow reports 80% of millennials would prefer viewing a home online before considering an in-person tour or a purchase. This is an exciting statistic for the multifamily market, considering the majority of millennials are approaching prime age to purchase their first homes. The millennial generation alone could lead sales trends in the home buyer sector for decades to come, with online strategies simplifying the transaction for buyers and operators.
In other words, these developments present a unique opportunity in the multifamily leasing sector; real estate professionals can use technology to take advantage of the unique Zoom town activity and build a foundation to improve future sales at the same time. Online strategies that can aid multifamily leasing agents include offering virtual tours, garnering reviews, hosting feedback forums, running targeted ads, implementing tools to help buyers filter searches, and developing a mobile app, to name a few.
In fact, Peek’s data has shown that there is a four-time increase in conversion from visit to application after prospective residents viewed an interactive virtual tour prior to the physical walkthrough. Another study showed there was an 89% increase in inquiries for listings that feature virtual staging on their websites. Similarly, a recent survey indicated that 55% of potential buyers would purchase a property sight unseen after using a virtual tour, and that 90% of buyers reported more interest in a listing with a virtual tour available.
Tools such as virtual tours enable Zoom town prospective residents to explore a space without physically being there, which helps move them through the buying process in two ways. First by increasing their trust in the unit and second by presenting an easy and fast way to narrow down a list of properties to choose from.
A virtual listing may be the only information a prospective buyer or renter sees before making a decision—if operators do not offer a virtual tour for their property, it is likely to be dismissed from consideration outright. According to Redfin, 63% of home buyers in 2020 made an offer sight unseen, mainly using virtual 3D walkthroughs or virtual meetings with real estate professionals to come to their decisions.
With the trending benefits of offering virtual tours on each listing, why isn’t it everywhere? A few reasons may include the perceived lack of time and skills necessary to capture the virtual tour content, costs, or incompatibility with existing websites and systems. However, these setbacks are easier for operators to overcome than it may seem—many platforms have begun offering custom solutions to meet the growing demand for multifamily virtual tours.
In the end, the long-term advantages of virtual leasing are worth the upfront work. Virtual touring improves a buyer’s trust of authenticity, their access to a listing, and the transaction’s efficiency—all of which saves operators time and money while increasing the visibility of their units. It is mission critical for real estate professionals to invest in online tools like virtual tours to ensure the long-term success of their properties.
