Settling Down

Virtual Apartment Tours: What To Do & Expect

Hello FlokqJune 11, 2020

Having a virtual tour of potential apartments as opposed to the usual conventional method is, of course, one of the perks of today’s modern technology. It is also a great choice when wanting to move during the COVID-19 pandemic where everyone has to do physical distancing. Virtually touring the apartments is an of course different from physically touring it, its generally more ease, and of course, there’s less physical work, but you still might want to keep the essential things you need to take into account like you’d do when touring an apartment physically. With that said, you still need to do your due diligence in securing your much-preferred future living space. And it’s not that hard either, all things considered! While you may already have some ideas on what you need to do, to help you out, here are some things to do and expect when doing virtual tours!

read also: 5 Affordable Fully Furnished Apartments in Jakarta

Make a Template

Like every repetitive social interaction, doing virtual tours can also be faster when you have a set yourself a method in place. One of the ways to get the information quicker from the tour is to have an introduction template so that all the pleasantries and initial interaction can be more smooth and doesn’t take too much of your precious time. Start from your name, then your occupation, then the place where you work or go to school to, then ask which apartment do you want to ask about, set up important questions about the apartment, ask the key point of the apartment, and finally ask to have a virtual tour. You can mix and match as you go along. 

Know the popularity

When doing a virtual tour, be sure you already did your research on the apartment that you want to move to. Many people feel disappointed or sorry for themselves by not doing research. It is also a way to know the level of popularity that the apartment has. You can know this by understanding the popularity of the surrounding area and the distance of the apartment to an important or popular area. But more importantly, you need to ask the contact information on this too, like knowing how many years have people lived in this apartment. Because the information desk may just be giving a piece of information that would have strategic marketing value, just take it with a grain of salt, but still have good faith in what they say especially when you know that the apartment is within a very desirable area. So get strategic!

Anticipate varying response time

For those who are accustomed to modern communication, this part goes without saying. But because of the ‘ping-pong’ nature of modern communication, your quest to find a suitable apartment might be hindered by this inherent character. Because you can’t really know how many people are lining up to ask for information and have the upper hand on the apartment, it’s good that you would inquire about them on working hours. Granted, that some information desk might have a 24-hour response window, the fact still stands that making an alarm for each and every one apartment that you want to know more about can really help smoothen out the process. Having alarms and schedule can significantly help you especially if you are one of those people who needs to get a new place as soon as possible!

Be Quick

Following up on the issue of response time, you need to also have preemptive measures to get the faster result that you ought to have. One of the ways to do this is by being responsive to the replies by the information desk. This way, you can fill in the blanks of the information regarding the apartment quicker! Aside from that, this can secure potential apartments from other people that are also interested in the apartment. This can also make you seem very much interested in the apartment and the information may in fact give greater and faster attention to your inquiries. Besides, if you want them to answer quickly, doing it too helps. After all, it’s a ping-pong of replies, isn’t it?

read also: Do’s and Dont’s during Apartment Touring in Jakarta

Set a schedule and do the tour!

Finally, setting a schedule for the virtual tour, it could use any platform you’d like, as long as you do a video call to help you see the place. Or some people may even prefer to look at the apartment from the pictures taken.  So be sure that during the virtual tour, you already got the list of important spots and details that you’d like to see live. This helps mitigate any unpleasant experience in the future, its also a way of collecting information of the apartments. Especially if you’re in a rush to relocate as soon as possible or you’re one of those people who are really picky when it comes to things related to living space.

Get your information organized

After you have done virtual tours and your research, to make it easier to digest information is to organize it. Google Spreadsheet or Microsoft Excel can especially help you out in this one. Make the leftmost column the collection of apartment names and the columns to its right the information that you wish to know about (e.g. distance to your workplace/campus, quality of gym benefits, price). This way, any additional information that you want to have can easily be added to the rightmost column at any time. 

With an organized table of information, you can just cross out or color important information differently when you need to highlight certain aspects in your search for the perfect future living space! This could also help you recheck the information that you have on the availability and the price. The less the number of available units and the cheaper the units are, the sooner they need to be known. 

If you’ve done all of the abovementioned steps, your virtual tour or virtual search should be less stressful and straining overall. Virtual Tours actually happens similarly to its conventional, physical counterpart. Another matter to consider is the fact that you need to be thorough in the process because sometimes you or the information desk may unintentionally leave out important information on the apartment. So try to go through your plan back and forth, ask your friends and family what they think about your whole virtual tour spree.

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