Apartment Virtual Tours vs. 3D Tours vs. Photos: What Works Best for Renters?

Right now, there’s a prospect looking at your community’s virtual tours and making a decision.

Is what they see convincing them to schedule a tour, apply, and lease? Or pushing them to move on to a competitor?

You must carefully consider how your virtual tours impact leasing decisions—because ignoring it will lead to renters ignoring you.

The three most common virtual touring formats are photos, 3D tours, and walkthrough video tours. But which format actually works best for renters? Which one actually makes them say 'Yes'?

Here’s how each format stacks up across the leasing journey.

How Do Apartment Photos Influence the Renter Journey?

Apartment photos are a baseline requirement—this almost goes without saying.

When renters begin their search, they expect to see beautiful, scroll-stopping photos of your community, floorplans, and amenities splashed across every ILS, your website, Google Business Profile, and social media pages.

Beyond establishing a strong first impression, the goal of your photos are to provide critical pieces of information renters use to compare your community with others. 

They're paying close attention to the content and context of each photo, trying to assess the layout and finishes of your floorplans, your amenities, and other features.

However, there are limits to relying solely on photos as your virtual touring tool that impact which communities renters ultimately select.

Those limits are:

• Photo quality. Images that appear unprofessional, older, poorly lit and framed, or overpolished can be a dealbreaker for renters—especially early in their search. The quality of your apartment photos will either qualify or disqualify your chances of earning a renter's trust and interest.
• Photo quantity. If your website and other marketing channels only include a few photos—an exterior, the clubhouse, and a couple of interiors of a random or model unit—it limits how renters can compare your community to others because they can't see the exact floorplan or other details they're interested in.
• Lacking information. Renters look at photos to answer questions like 'Will this floorplan work for my living situation?' or 'Is there enough room for me and my roommate's things?'. Attractive photos will impress, but ultimately, each photo presented of your apartments must be informative to renters—or else it isn't viewed as helpful.

Your apartment's photos are essential, but know their limits. At best, they bring interested renters into the funnel and serve as an entry point into more immersive, decision-making virtual tour content like a walkthrough video tour.

What Role Do 3D Virtual Tours Play in Leasing Decisions?

3D tours like Matterport let renters self-explore apartment communities and their units. Though heavily reliant on photo stills taken by a 360-degree camera positioned throughout various locations of a unit.

In the research stage, 3D tours can set apartment communities apart from others and give renters more context than a standard photo gallery could offer. Renters can essentially 'walk' a unit virtually and get a better perspective of a unit's layout, finishes, and features.

That said, there are some red flags with 3D tours:

1. They're limited in scope in terms of which marketing sources you could use them on. They will mainly be usable only on the website or ILSs, which may impact visibility in the awareness stage.
2. They require a lot of clicks, taps and swipes to interact with—creating a clunky experience, especially on a mobile device. They can also create challenges with website accessibility.
3. They're often embedded into websites as a third-party application, which could lead to slower load times and changes in the user experience.

Because of those limitations, you have to be careful with renter sentiment. 3D tours are a step above just having photos—but they could also negatively impact their user experience, which could delay or change a leasing decision. 

As a virtual touring option, 3D tours of each floorplan can work when they're also supported by well-organized, informative photography.

How Do Walkthrough Video Tours Influence the Renter Journey?

A walkthrough video tour of an apartment unit is the most effective virtual touring format for renters.

And that isn't just a bold claim.

In February 2021, we ran a study of our client's data to see just how effective walkthrough videos are in leasing decisions, and this is what we found: 

Apartment website pages with walkthrough video tours had 2.5x as many views as pages without them.

We compared the traffic on floorplan pages with video tours and floorplan pages without video. 

During a 30-day period, pages with walkthrough videos had an average of 345 visits compared to 134 for pages without. 

(See the Data on Walkthrough Video Tour Views)

Walkthrough video tours keep a prospect's attention longer.

The average length of a RentVision walkthrough video tour is 2 minutes, 25 seconds. The average time on page for pages with walkthrough videos was 2:22—equaling 98% of the average video length. 

Meanwhile, floorplan pages without walkthrough videos had an average time on page of 1:15. 

(See the Data on Walkthrough Video Tour Engagement)

The data proves:

• Walkthrough video tours, which are usable across every marketing channel, attract renters in the awareness stage, driving more visibility and clicks to community websites.
• Pages with walkthrough videos gain more views and are informative enough to keep prospects engaged for a more extended period—which, in the research stage, is a positive indicator of a leasing decision.

Not to mention the benefits of a format where all a renter has to do is simply click one button to:

• Tour the unit from a first-person perspective virtually, without having to waste time or money driving to see it in-person.
• Share the video with roommates, family, or other decision-influencers.

Both of those benefits heavily influence the selection stage—winning on usability and in building renters' confidence in choosing an apartment community over others.

Conclusion: What’s the Best Virtual Tours Strategy for Apartment Communities?

Invest in strong photography of each of your floorplans along with amenities and exteriors. They're a baseline expectation for renters, and establish your community's presentation across all of your marketing sources.

3D tours take your photos a step further, giving renters the ability to explore a unit and get more information about its layout and features. But beware of their impact on website performance and user experience.

Walkthrough video tours deliver the best touring experience for renters at every moment of their apartment search. They're usable across every marketing source, have the simplest user experience, and are sharable with all decision-makers.

The best strategy? Pair strong photos with walkthrough video tours for every floorplan—the proven formula RentVision specializes in.

Schedule a demo to learn how RentVision's Virtual Tours helps renters lease confidently without having to drive to your community in-person.