Open houses are a lot of work.
It’s like planning a party every week, hoping as many people will show up as possible, and hoping each person who attends is a qualified buyer or reliable referral source. They only work though if people walk through the door, they tell you who they are, and you can nurture that relationship until it becomes a sale.
Many agents don’t do open houses because of safety, the amount of time it takes to do them right, and you can’t be at two places at the same time. You could be doing other things to grow your business and the idea of sitting at a house and no one showing up is very depressing. Can you relate?
Facebook Live video has been the craze and there are many people who can teach you how to do that. What they don’t tell you is what to put inside the video camera input source to the Facebook Live, Zoom video meeting, Microsoft Teams, or whatever platform you are using to conduct your #screentoscreen meetings to make YOU stand out in a dynamic and captivating way.
That’s what we are going to talk about in this post is How You can Conduct a Virtual Open House and adding 32 pieces of flair to the video input feed, also known as your virtual camera.
A virtual camera is a software. Your Logitech BRIO 4K webcam is your hardware. You need virtual camera software along with your virtual camera hardware and learn how to operate your virtual camera software inside of your favorite video meeting software.
How much is a virtual camera?
Mac or PC – try OBS = FREE
Mac – try Ecamm Live = $240/year
PC try Vmix = $350/year
You need to learn how to perform these tasks inside of your virtual camera software:
- Create a table of contents of four scenes.
- Create a generic scene with company-branded information and contact information by creating an image in Canva as the virtual background image and add audio/video input feed from your webcam.
- Create a property tour scene with company-branded information and contact information by creating an image in Canva as the virtual background image and add audio/video input feed from your webcam.
- Create a generic scene with company-branded information and contact information by creating an image in Canva as the virtual background image without a video input source.
- Create a screen share scene with company-branded information and contact information as lower third and desktop screen share as the virtual background image with video input.
- Alternate between scenes quickly using keyboard shortcuts or macros.
- Switch the camera input source from your webcam to your virtual camera. This is located in the video settings of your meeting or broadcast platform.
Next, open up your web listing on Matterport, your brokerage website, or favorite online tool that has pictures, designs, and visuals to help others understand the most important selling points for that home.
If you or the listing agent does not use quality photos or videos, it may not make sense to use this tactic to gain exposure to properties or your services. You need to use your own good judgment. If you do use quality photos then it would be silly not to use a virtual camera, video meetings, and social media to connect with potential customers. You already invested in web-based tools to sell homes and probably at times show your laptop to customers when you meet face-to-face. Why not do the same in a fun and engaging way.
If the couple hundred dollars is too much for the virtual camera software, ask one of your transaction partners if they can help sponsor your showings and add their logo to your virtual background or lower one third when you go live.
Watch my video to get a sneak peek of the possibilities. Call me at 314.582.8808, press 1, and tell me what you think. Your message will get transcribed to text and I will read it. I can’t wait to hear what you do.
