How to Host a Virtual Open House & Stand Out in a 2025 Real Estate Market
Back in 2021, 58% of homebuyers said they wanted virtual tours included in property listings, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
That expectation hasn’t faded since.
In a 2024 report, NAR found that “many buyers took advantage of virtual tours and virtual listings and used those in their search process,” and that nearly half of all homebuyers rate virtual tours as “very useful” in the buying process.
However, just 16% of real estate agents are using virtual tours to market their properties. This is an opportunity for you to make your l.
Advancements in real estate marketing technology have made it easier than ever to make virtual tours part of your strategy. If you’re wondering how to host a virtual open house, here’s everything you need to know about the process (and how to leverage a tool like Matterport Marketing Cloud to make it as simple as possible).
What is a virtual open house?
A virtual open house is a live event or pre-recorded on-screen walkthrough of a property that gives prospective buyers more context on their space. Using video conferencing platforms or virtual tour technologies, real estate agents can connect with a broader audience of potential buyers and answer questions about the property remotely.
4 reasons to host a virtual open house
In a 2024 Real Estate Witch survey, 85% of millennials said they would buy a home sight unseen and 60% of baby boomers said the same.
More and more, the idea of buying a house almost entirely online is becoming the norm. The real estate agents who make the process as smooth as possible will close more deals.
But beyond making life easier for buyers, virtual open houses offer benefits specifically for you as an agent.
1. Broader audience reach
By making the open house virtual, you expand the property to out-of-state and international buyers. Unlike traditional open houses limited by geographical constraints and scheduling conflicts, virtual tours offer accessibility to anyone with an internet connection. Prospective buyers can explore properties at their convenience, allowing for greater flexibility and inclusivity.
Additionally, virtual tours cater to individuals with physical disabilities or those unable to attend in-person viewings, thereby expanding the pool of potential buyers and enhancing overall engagement in the real estate market.
2. Lower time, energy, and paper costs
A virtual open house eliminates in-person open house costs, including food, physical printouts, and energy expended from ensuring the property is open house ready. You get to designate when the open house occurs and run it from your office. Once prospective buyers are in, they can browse freely and ask questions while having access to the listing’s floor plan and your contact information with the click of a button.
3. More effective real estate sales and marketing
Between March 2024 and March 2025, data from Realtor.com pulled by the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) service shows that the median days on the market for houses in the United States was between 50 and 73 days. Our own research shows that virtual walkthroughs and open houses can shorten that timeline by as many as 21 days.
And real estate agencies like Jay Hudson Homes – Keller Williams are showing how.
By incorporating Matterport 3D tours into their listings, the team is seeing faster sales, more qualified leads, and higher client satisfaction. Here’s how they’re using Matterport’s real estate marketing tools to move the needle:
Reviving expired listings: Properties that previously sat on the market without interest were relisted with professional Matterport 3D tours and saw immediate engagement. These homes sold faster and often with fewer showings, saving time for agents and clients alike.
Winning more listings with better marketing: By showing prospective sellers a Matterport 3D tour during listing presentations, Jay Hudson Homes has been able to demonstrate their marketing edge and earn trust. Sellers love seeing their home elevated with high-end visuals and immersive experiences.
Improving listing presentation: Using a single Matterport scan, Jay Hudson Homes generates high-quality photography, floor plans, and a 3D walkthrough all at once. This not only saves hours of manual content creation but elevates the professionalism of each listing from day one.
Their findings reflect a broader industry shift: listings with virtual tours don’t just look better. They perform better.
3 types of virtual open house formats to consider for the next sale
While live streams and pre-recorded videos are the norm for virtual open houses, technological advancements present a third option:3D virtual tours, which can give prospective buyers an immersive photorealistic virtual experience of the property. Let’s take a closer look at these three virtual open house formats.
1. Host a live video event
Video conferencing platforms like Zoom or social media sites like Instagram or Facebook Live allow realtors to interact with potential buyers in real time. In terms of time commitment, and despite some platforms’ ability to cross-stream and upload (like Zoom to YouTube), expect to host quite a few livestreams to get as many eyes on the property as possible.
To make the most of live video virtual open houses, explain how you will walk through the property and your preferences for interacting with potential buyers. Some buyers may prefer in-app chat messaging, which allows them to ask questions in the moment for you to answer immediately or at the end of the tour, while others may prefer to ask questions verbally and connect with you when the virtual event is over.
2. Record a video walkthrough
Recording a video walkthrough and then uploading it to the listing’s landing page is a way to continue enticing potential buyers from a livestream or capture the attention of new buyers who can then see the property on their time.
The advantage of a recorded video walkthrough is that it accommodates busy home sellers with a “one and done” recording so that they can focus on maintaining the staged space for any potential in-person listings. Recordings also provide an opportunity to really hone in on crafting a story around the listing and emphasize its attributes to buyers. You will also capture interest from buyers who may be in a different timezone and can’t make your livestream open house events.
As this format is asynchronous, you need to ensure that you reply quickly to any questions or comments people send you, whether that’s through the listing’s webpage, your email, or any social media posts about the property.
3. Offer 24/7 access with 3D tours
Buyers can click through rooms, zoom in on finishes, and visualize how their furniture or style might fit the space—all from any device, anytime. And because Matterport 3D tours are dimensionally accurate, they help buyers answer the big question: “Will this home work for me?” before they ever set foot inside.
The Matterport Marketing Cloud creates context-rich 3D tours through a variety of features that streamline listing prep and improve the buyer journey:
AI property descriptions: Get a high-quality draft listing description, auto-generated from your tour, ready to edit and publish in seconds.
Instant measurements: Buyers can check ceiling heights, room dimensions, and spacing in real time without ever grabbing a tape measure.
Room labels: Automatically tag rooms using AI so buyers know exactly what they’re looking at (no manual setup required).
Defurnish: Instantly remove furniture from the tour to showcase clean, open rooms and help buyers imagine the space as their own.
Social ready video: Engaging and professional video content that drives interest and stops the scroll on social media.
From floor plan views to marketing-ready visuals, Matterport’s 3D tours let you create a fully interactive listing that’s always open—and always working to convert interest into offers.
How to host a virtual open house using 3D technology
Setting up a virtual open house allows you to focus on bringing out the most immersive, interactive elements of the property. While you may have other software available, we’ll focus on how to plan and host a virtual open tour using the Matterport app, which is compatible with various industry software.
Here’s a quick overview of the key steps involved in setting up a successful virtual open house:
Prepare the site for capture
Capture a digital twin of the property
Host your virtual open house
Follow up with potential buyers
Let’s take a closer look at what each step involves.
Pre-event prep: Prepare the site for capture
Preparing the site for capturing a virtual tour requires careful attention to detail to ensure a seamless and immersive experience for potential buyers. Some of the key steps involve:
Decluttering the property or virtually defurnishing your space to remove any personal items or distractions that could detract from its appeal
Optimizing the lighting to enhance the visual aesthetics of the space, making sure to utilize natural light whenever possible, and supplementing with additional lighting fixtures as needed
Arranging furniture and decor to showcase the property's layout and functionality effectively, allowing viewers to envision themselves living in the space
Testing the camera equipment to ensure it is properly positioned to capture each area of the property from various angles, maximizing the viewer's perspective during the virtual tour.
Taking these preparatory steps will help create a captivating virtual open house that effectively showcases the property's potential to potential buyers.
Get creative with virtual staging
This is the step where your virtual open house ideas really shine. Staging a property allows you to bring out the property’s best features and gives potential buyers an opportunity to visualize themselves within the space (you can get a few tricks from our guide on how to stage a kitchen for an open house).
But you know that staging a home can get expensive. One way to avoid staging costs is to use Matterport’s Defurnish feature. This feature allows virtual visitors to remove furniture with one click so they can see open rooms like in the before-and-after example below.
The Defurnish feature is the most cost-efficient way to help buyers imagine spaces as their own. But if you want to learn more about other virtual staging processes, you can check out this webinar on staging commercial real estate spaces.
Marketing your virtual open house
Even the best virtual open house won’t drive results if no one shows up. That’s why promoting your event across multiple channels is key to maximizing visibility and engagement. Your plan should include:
Social media: Share teasers, video snippets, or behind-the-scenes previews of the space on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Use countdowns, event reminders, and Stories to build momentum.
Email: Send personalized invitations to your buyer list and past leads with a clear call-to-action and the date/time of your virtual open house. Include clear instructions on how to join the event.
Real estate portals & MLS: Many platforms allow you to link or feature upcoming virtual tours and open house events. Take advantage of these options to get more eyes on your listing.
By adopting these strategies, you can enhance engagement and drive higher attendance for your virtual open house, ultimately leading to a more successful property showcase. And with Matterport Marketing Cloud, even if someone can’t attend live, the listing experience doesn’t end when the event does.
With an immersive 3D tour available at any time—complete with auto-labeled rooms, real-time measurements, and clutter-free Defurnish views—marketing your virtual open house continues beyond the live event.
Different ways to capture a 3D tour
To take your virtual open house from a 360-degree experience to a true 3D virtual tour, you first need to capture a Matterport of the property. You have a few options available to you:
Use Matterport’s Capture Services
Matterport Capture Services assists in amplifying the virtual open house experiences for commercial and residential agents. Capture Service professionals are available to book in over 700 cities and will capture your property for you. The 3D tour will automatically upload to your Matterport cloud account within 24-48 hours. This option is most suited for professionals with big portfolios.
Use the Pro2/Pro3 Cameras
For people who would like to own the process, Matterport offers a wide range of 360 cameras. For bigger properties, the Pro2 and Pro3 cameras deliver high-quality scans with the press of a button. The Pro2 is ideal for scanning homes and apartments with stunning 134-megapixel scans and 3D accuracy. The Pro3 builds on the success of the Pro2 with lidar scanning that adapts to natural lighting so you can capture the same high-quality scans indoors and outdoors.
Use a 360° Camera
360° cameras are incredible at capturing small or medium spaces. When you pair a 360° camera with the Matterport app or platform, you can easily convert 2D images to an immersive 3D virtual open house experience.
Use your phone’s camera and the Matterport mobile app
Smartphones have some of the best cameras on the market. The Matterport app is compatible with all iPhone and Android devices, so once you download the app, you can walk through and scan the property to create your 3D tour.
Matterport Axis™, a motorized smartphone stand, provides a stable foundation that spins your smartphone around the space to capture it with more precision. And with a few clicks, you can also adjust the scan to ensure you capture each room from floor to ceiling.
Matterport for Mobile saves you time with easy labeling, measuring, uploading, and sharing capabilities so that you can present the listing with immense clarity and personalization in no time.
Include contextual information about the property with tags
Tags inform potential buyers about aspects of the property, including descriptions of property elements, PDF documents, and other forms or links to similar properties or articles about the city and neighborhood.
Adding a tag is a straightforward process, with a click-and-drag element to place the tag wherever you like within your virtual tour. The tags are customizable, so you can change tag colors and stem lengths, as well as link out to manufacturer information about appliances throughout the property.
Host your virtual open house
The stage is set—it’s time to host your virtual open house. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you get ready for the event.
Choose the right platforms
The easiest way to host your virtual open house is through AgentRelay, a customer engagement and sales enablement platform for Matterport virtual tours. AgentRelay offers an “open house mode” where you manage individual parties with their information anonymized. Prospective buyers will also be able to access follow-up forms to schedule future viewings or ask further questions.
If you anticipate multilingual buyers, implement MPskin, a tool that translates tags, descriptions, and recorded tour videos for potential buyers and saves you hours in post-production edits by simply activating the languages you want for your 3D tour with one click in the Matterport app.
Set up your virtual open house for success
A smooth virtual open house isn’t just about showing the property—it’s about delivering a professional, engaging experience that meets buyers where they are. Here’s how to set yourself up for success:
Choose a time that works across time zones: Midday events often work best to accommodate buyers coast-to-coast. Clearly list the event time and time zone in all invites and reminders, and consider recording the session for those who can’t attend live.
Keep it interactive: Don’t let your event become a passive video stream. Incorporate live Q&A sessions, chat-based engagement, or quick polls to get viewers involved. Assign someone from your team to monitor and respond in real time.
Make it easy to join and navigate: Provide clear, step-by-step instructions ahead of time—including how to access the event, what tech is required, and how to use platform features. If you’re using AgentRelay, buyers will get automated calendar invitations and reminder notifications as the event approaches.
Getting these event logistics right can make all the difference in ensuring your virtual open house converts.
Utilize Google Street View
Schedule calls and private virtual viewings with interested parties so you can understand what they’re looking for and answer broader questions about the property and neighborhood.
Embedding Google Street View allows you to give some weight to your listing and follow-up conversations, as you can explore the neighborhood and search for freeway accessibility and nearby amenities (like schools or restaurants) that will encourage potential buyers to move forward with you until the eventual “offer accepted” and “property sold.”
Follow up
After hosting a virtual open house, there are several important steps to take to capitalize on the event and drive toward a successful sale.
Follow up on potential offers
Following the virtual open house, promptly reach out to interested parties to schedule follow-up calls and private virtual viewings. This personalized approach allows you to gain deeper insights into their preferences and answer any questions they may have about the property or neighborhood. By demonstrating attentiveness and professionalism, you can nurture leads and move closer to securing an offer.
Request feedback
After engaging with potential buyers, solicit feedback about their virtual open house experience. Ask about their impressions of the property, what features stood out to them, and if there are any areas for improvement. This feedback not only helps refine your future virtual open house strategies but also demonstrates your commitment to providing exceptional service.
Nurture visitors beyond the event
In addition to following up with the most immediate potential offers, you should establish plans to nurture all virtual visitors. These plans should include:
Capturing contact info and following up fast: Use registration forms or chat interactions during and after the event to collect attendee info. Follow up within 24 hours with a thank-you email, answers to any questions asked during the event, and a link to the on-demand 3D tour for revisiting the space. For hotter leads, consider personalized outreach via phone or SMS.
Offer helpful marketing materials: Keep the momentum going by providing downloadable resources like printable home feature checklists or a one-page overview of the property with highlights pulled directly from your 3D tour. Matterport Marketing Cloud makes it easy to bundle floor plans, high-res photos, and video content into a polished package for post-event sharing.
Use engagement data to prioritize and optimize: Matterport’s Space statistics dashboard helps you track how many times your 3D tour was viewed, how long visitors stayed, and where they dropped off. These insights can help you identify high-intent buyers, refine future events, and understand what content resonates most.
Unlock your property’s virtual open house potential with Matterport
When you combine the personalization of in-person viewings with the accessibility of the Internet, you have the potential to create impactful listings and experiences for potential buyers looking for their first or next home.
Virtual tours offer the immersive, interactive experience real estate agents and stakeholders are looking for in virtual open houses. By including the virtual tour on the listing’s landing page and hosting virtual open houses, you connect with your potential buyers wherever they are in their home-buying journey—and increase the potential for them to say “yes” to this listing.
Homes listed with a Matterport 3D tour sold 31% faster than those without one. Sign up for our Digital Pro plan today, and you’ll gain access to a Matterport professional who can walk you through building a Matterport and preparing a digital package that will have you ready to promote the listing and virtual open house within 72 hours.