Zillow 3D Tour Ultimate Guide: Definition, Features & How-To

Zillow 3D Home Tour is a free app that allows agents to create walk-through property tours for buyers. Agents can use their smartphone to take tour photos, generate seamless 3D tours with the app, and upload these tours to their Zillow profile, website, or social media profile to generate buyer leads—all for free.

If you’re interested in making the most of the Zillow 3D Home Tour app, start by setting up your Zillow profile then download the free app from the Google Play or App Store. You can create your first tour in a matter of minutes; just follow the on-screen prompts to take the right photos and stitch together into an engaging walk-through. Start generating leads now with Zillow 3D tours by downloading the app.

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How the Zillow 3D Tour Works

The Zillow 3D Home app allows agents to take pictures and upload property images from their smart device to create a 3D tour for buyers. After downloading the free Zillow 3D Home app, agents are prompted to add property information and pick their camera—either a 360-degree camera or their own smartphone. They can then take the tour photos and easily combine them into a full walk-through with just a few clicks.

The app starts by asking the agent to input the property address. You can skip this step or do it later, but the location is the name of the video file, so it can help with organization and identifying tours in your Zillow dashboard. The agent is then given recommendations of usual shots around the interior and exterior of the house like the backyard, bathroom, kitchen, and bedroom. Agents can click on “custom” to create shots of other areas not listed, like a den.

Once the agent selects the room shot that they are taking, the phone camera opens and a marker of lines and directions—like “turn right”—are displayed on the screen to give guidance on how to get the right shot. Rotating around in a circle takes a full shot of the room and the image is cataloged in the app. Agents must repeat this step for all room shots, including hallways and doors needed to complete the 3D tour.

Finally, the agent can click on “New Tour” to create a walk-through. The Zillow 3D Home app then stitches the images together to form a complete, 360-degree image of a room or location. Each image in the virtual tour has a small seam that shows where the property photos were combined, but this is barely visible. The agent is then able to share the virtual tour on websites and social media to generate buyer leads, making it a great real estate marketing idea.

Zillow 3D Home Stitching Images Together

Zillow 3D Home Tour Camera Choices

There are three main camera choices for agents who want to use the Zillow 3D Home app: their smartphone, tablet, or the Ricoh Theta 360° camera. Pick the best equipment for you based on the price, how often you will use it, and how technically savvy you are.

Here are the three equipment choices compatible with Zillow 3D Homes:

• Smartphone: Agents can use either an Android or iPhone to take panoramic pictures of a property. The agent takes property photos in each room with their smartphone using Zillow 3D Home and the app stitches the images together into a tour.
• Tablet: Like the smartphone option, many agents already own a tablet, so getting started with creating virtual tours is easy and cost-effective.
• 3D camera: The Ricoh Theta 360° camera, which boasts several models, ranges in cost from $180-$1,000. The biggest benefit of the Ricoh Theta 360° camera is that the images are of higher quality than the average smartphone or tablet. It can also be used to create panoramic and 3D tours on other platforms. This means that the minor seam stitches in the tours are less likely to show up.

The type of camera equipment you use to create your 3D tours will depend on your budget, technical ability, and the quality of home tours you want to create. For our purposes, we will focus on the smartphone and tablet options because most agents already have them, and they are easiest to use for quick 3D tour creation.

How to Create a Zillow 3D Home Tour in 10 Steps

Creating 3D home tours have traditionally included expensive camera equipment, all-day shooting schedules, and complex technology. With the Zillow 3D Home app, creating a walk-through as part of your real estate listing only involves signing up for a free Zillow account, setting up a profile, preparing your rooms, taking photos of the rooms, adding photos to the tour, and sharing the results on your website or social media.

Here are the 10 steps to creating a Zillow 3D tour:

1. Sign Up for a Zillow Premier Agent Account (Optional, But Recommended)

Although you do not need a Zillow Premier Agent (ZPA) account to use the Zillow 3D Home Tour app, it is free and will help you to show off your listings. Zillow is the number-one real estate listing site in the world, so sign up for a free ZPA account and claiming your listings to get extra exposure to potential buyers. Then, use your account to create and showcase 3D tours.

2. Set Up Your Zillow Profile

Set up your Zillow agent profile to give potential buyers every opportunity to find out more information about your properties and your own background. Zillow agent profiles are free and easy to fill out; simply add your name, headshot, professional information, credentials, testimonials, and sales figures. You can use your 3D tours in your free Zillow profile to help sell your properties.

3. Prepare the Rooms for Shots

As the app very quickly launches into photo-taking mode, prepare your property in advance of downloading the app. Pick up any clutter that might block important features in the rooms you will photograph. Walk through the property with the eyes of the buyer and make each space as appealing as possible. Also, open curtains to let in more light.

4. Download & Sign into Free Zillow 3D Home App

Next, download the free Zillow 3D Home app to your Android and Apple phone. Once the app has finished downloading, tap on the app icon to launch. Once you launch the app, you will be prompted to use your Zillow Premier Agent sign-in or sign up for the app if you do not have a ZPA account.

5. Select Smartphone Camera & Add Property Address

The next prompt after login will be a button to “Create 3D Home” tour. Click this button and you will be prompted to pick between a 360-degree camera or an iPhone/Android camera. Click on the camera option that fits the device you are using to take pictures. As mentioned above, for the following steps we will be using a smartphone as it is the easiest option for agents.

On the following screen, enter the location of the property of which you are making the tour by typing the address in the address bar or selecting “Current location” to automatically fill in the address with geo-location. You do not have to do this step now, but it is recommended because your pictures are kept in files named after the location you provide in this step. Location helps with the organization of your pictures.

Zillow 3D Equipment Selection

6. Take Photos of Rooms

Now that the rooms are picked up and ready for a photoshoot, it is time to take photos of each room in the house. Zillow 3D tour breaks this process down into easy-to-follow steps to help you organize your photos and produce great virtual tours. Start by clicking on the label for the room you are shooting in, hold the camera in front of you, and move in the direction indicated on the screen.

Click on Room Labels

After the location is entered, Zillow 3D Home forwards you to the “Suggested Rooms” screen. Pick the room that you want to take pictures of. If you do not see the room you want to take pictures of, then you can create a custom room—like an exercise room or patio—by clicking the blue “Custom” link at the top right of the app screen. This will allow you to type in your own room label.

Zillow 3D Home Floor Plan & Categories

Follow App Guide & Take Photos

After clicking on the room you want to take pictures of, stand in the middle of the room and hold the camera out in front of you. A guide will appear on the screen to prompt you to turn around right or left in a 360° circle to create a panoramic shot. When you are back where you began, Zillow 3D will stop the camera and store that image in the app for your tour, then send you back to the “Suggested Rooms” screen pick the next room.

Zillow 3D Home Panoramic Picture

7. Add Photos to the 3D Tour

You will be returned to the “Suggested Rooms” screen repeatedly until finished. Click the blue “X” in the top left of the screen to indicate that you are finished taking pictures. Create your tour by pressing the blue “Add” button to assign the pictures you took to the tour. Once you have added all of your images, press the “All panoramas complete” button to generate the 3D tour.

If there is more than one floor, then click the “⌃” to the right of the “Floor 1” label on the tour screen to add more floors like basements, attics, or bedrooms for split-level properties. When you have added another floor, add images to that floor to create a split-level tour experience for buyers.

Zillow 3D Home Tour Creation

8. Review Zillow 3D Home Tour Videos

Tours show up in the Zillow 3D app menu bar at the bottom of the screen. Make sure you view completed tours so that they are to your liking. If you are a Zillow Premier Agent, you can also access your tours by logging into your account on a desktop, clicking on “Listings,” and then “My 3D Homes.”

Zillow Premier Agent Dashboard

9. Edit Your 3D Home Tours (As Needed)

If you do not like something about the 3D tour, you can edit it by going back to the app dashboard. Click on the image of the room you do not like, then click “Delete.” Reshoot the image by clicking on the category and room label you want to change. Upload the new image to your Zillow 3D Home Tour app, then click “Save” to republish your home tour.

10. Share Your Zillow 3D Home Home Tour

Inside of the dashboard, each video has three vertical dots to the bottom right. Click on those dots and there will be share options. If you click “Website,” then a code to embed the video on your website will pop up. If you pick “Link,” then a shareable link will pop up for you to use in social media, email, and texts. Click on the option that meets your needs.

Zillow 3D Video Sharing

Benefits of Zillow 3D Home Tour

The primary benefit of the Zillow 3D Home Tour app is the ability to use your own equipment to create attractive virtual tours—without complicated software or additional costs. Plus, the app is free to use for all agents and offers them a way to attract buyers who want a more interactive look at a property.

Here are three features of Zillow 3D Home tour agents will love:

• Easy to use: Agents can create 3D tours for buyers with their smartphone, tablet, or 360° camera, with which they are already familiar. Also, the app is extremely intuitive and requires no prolonged acclimation or learning.
• Engaging: 3D tours are attractive to buyers because they can get a feel for what it is like to be in a house without going there. This not only increases general interest, but also serves potential buyers who aren’t close enough to visit the property in person.
• No cost: Zillow 3D Tour is free to download and use for all agents (and other realty professionals or photographers).

Alternatives to Zillow 3D Home Tour

While Zillow 3D Home Tour will meet most agent needs, some agents will want more customization options or higher tour quality. The alternatives to Zillow 3D Home Tour offer these benefits but are also more costly and sometimes highly technical. Below, we have included several options, including Matterport, HomeJab, and Pano2VR.

Here are three alternatives to Zillow 3D Home tour:

Matterport

Matterport is a subscription service that allows agents to use any 360-degree camera to create 3D tours. Using a 360-degree camera—not included—will provide high-resolution photos with more detail-rich tours. Matterport subscription service ranges in cost from $9.99 to $309 per month for the program that takes the images and stitches them together into a 3D tour.

HomeJab

HomeJab saves agents and brokers time creating walk through tours by providing a professional photographer or videographer who can take tour photos for $299/tour. While this is convenient, Zillow 3D Home Tour allows agents to quickly create their own shots and walk-through videos on their own schedule.

Pano2VR

Pano2VR is photo-editing software that allows you to take pictures with your phone, tablet, or 360-degree camera to create a 3D tour for $185.This real estate photo editing software is downloaded to your desktop and can be used for advanced edits like color correction. After all photos are edited, Pano2VR allows agents to stitch together images into a 3D tour. Zillow 3D Home Tour doesn’t allow for this kind of editing in-app.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How can I use Zillow 3D Tour?

Your Zillow 3D Tour can be uploaded to your Zillow profile and property pages. You can also embed the tour code on your website and share tour links on your social media posts. These links can also be shared through email with other agents, buyers, or sellers.

How much does Zillow 3D Tour cost?

The Zillow 3D Tour app is free. Any agent or realty professional can download the app, create 3D tours, and add tours to a Zillow Premier Agent profile, website, or social media. The app is available for Android and iPhone.

How much technical knowledge do you need to use Zillow 3D Home Tour?

Zillow 3D Home Tour is very user-friendly for agents without technical knowledge. If you know how to use your phone/tablet to take pictures and download an app, then everything else is easy. Zillow 3D Home Tour guides you through each step from signing into the app to taking images with on-screen tips.

Bottom Line – Zillow 3D Tour

Zillow 3D Home Tour gives agents the ability to quickly and easily create walk-throughs of properties to attract buyers and increase real estate lead generation. The Zillow 3D Home tour app is free to download and gives agents a way to turn their smartphone or tablet into a 360-degree camera without additional cost. Simply download the app, take property photos, and follow prompts to create your own home tour.

Zillow 3D Home Tour is a cutting-edge way for agents to attract more buyers who want a strong sense of what it’s like to live in a home. Find out how you can use just your smartphone or tablet to create stunning walk-through tours and generate new leads by visiting the Zillow website. Or, simply download the free Zillow 3D Home app and start making tours for your properties.

Learn More About Zillow 3D Home Tour App