This is not an easy time for REALTORS®. With open houses being cancelled from coast-to-coast; buyers and sellers are fearful of entering homes, and the government enacting social distancing measures, your business has been uprooted.
As more REALTORS® are moving towards virtual tours we are ensuring REALTOR.ca is capable of supporting our member’s needs.
We know you’re asking yourself, how do I sell a home without any in-person interaction? No client meetings? No open houses? The answer:
You can now highlight your live stream open houses using live streaming services directly on your REALTOR.ca listings.
REALTOR.ca visitors who view videos and virtual tours are 48% more likely to reach out to a REALTOR®. Additionally, 88% of visitors who view REALTOR.ca listings click on the photos.
If you are planning an open house on Facebook Live you can advertise that event on REALTOR.ca, just like you would any other open house.
In fact, REALTOR.ca will support advertising of any live streams from any service. All you need to do is visit REALTOR.ca/golive and enter the details for each of your live streams on each of your listings. Users will also be able to add the event to their calendar and join live.
Don’t forget, REALTOR.ca continues to support 10 virtual tour and video services to provide REALTORS® with the flexibility to integrate rich contextual experiences directly into their REALTOR.ca listing pages.
Virtual tour and video service providers supported on REALTOR.ca:
- Matterport
- YouTube
- iStaging
- immoviewer
- iGUIDE
- Property Panorama
- Realvision
- Vimeo
- Imagemaker360
- ListSimple
As we continue to build and enhance products like REALTOR.ca, we explore other tools and services that provide context to sellers and potential buyers to improve the entire real estate listing experience.
We’ve added and enhanced our neighbourhood features to provide REALTOR.ca visitors with information such as school catchment areas, bus routes and noise levels. We also focus on presenting listings in the most meaningful ways to put potential buyers virtually in those spaces.
Advertising your virtual tours will further complement these tools.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact Canadians, we recommend REALTORS® refer to Health Canada or other public health authorities for up-to-date guidelines, restrictions and precautions.
Is there another way REALTOR.ca can help you conduct business virtually? Leave your suggestions in the Comment section below.
Hi! Virtual Open House tours is a great idea! Is there a step by step process I can follow? Where to start? What tools are needed? I am a bit of a luddite, but would like to learn how to do this in these slow times.
Please advise.
Thanks!
Hi Maggie, we’re working on a tips blog, please stay tuned! In the meantime, if you have questions about adding your live streams to REALTOR.ca, please contact Member Support at support@crea.ca or 1-888-237-7945.
Good Morning;
I’m hosting my first virtual tour live this Saturday.
Can you please describe exact steps and when to do them please?
Thanks
Alison
Hi Alison,
We have some tips here: https://www.creacafe.ca/everything-you-need-to-know-about-adding-a-live-stream-open-house-to-your-realtor-ca-listing/
You can also find our help guide here: https://www.crea.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Member-Help-Guide-Live-Stream-2020.pdf
I wanted to schedule an virtual open house from 1:15 to 1:45pm. It is only allowing increments of 30 minutes and you are not able to change/override.
Is this feature going to be changed to allow 15 minute increments?
Hi Jennifer, thank you for your comment. I will pass along your suggestion to our team working on this feature.
Good Afternoon. Last weekend was my first time hosting a virtual open house via realtor.ca
If possible can there a direct link or some sort of advistismemt on reatlor.ca homepage to inform buyers and sellers of this new feature verse stumbling on the virtual tour by looking at the listing?
Hi there, thank you for your comment. Our team is working hard to make this feature more robust and will continue to explore options. If you require any assistance with your virtual open houses on REALTOR.ca please contact Member Support at support@crea.ca or 1-888-237-7945.
Will you be supporting google meet?
Hi Greg, you can advertise a live stream open house from any platform, including Google Meet. If you experience any issues, contact Member Support (support@crea.ca) and someone from the team will guide you.
“Visitors who view videos and virtual tours on REALTOR.ca are 48% more likely to reach out to a REALTOR®.”
Can you show us where you got this result from ? In other words Prove this statement ? I would be interested to see where you get these results from. Thank you.
Hi Richard, thanks for the question. REALTOR.ca is able to track the effectiveness of links/calls-to-action on the site. In this case, the REALTOR.ca team is able to measure the conversion rate (for example, usage of the “Email REALTOR®” or “Book showing” forms) on listings with a video/3D tour vs. those that do not.