These physical viewings have been replaced by 1,430 livestream open houses, with an average attendance of 11 people at each event.
According to Gavl, one of the key time-saving elements of livestream open house viewings is not having to carry out up to 20 walkthroughs for each available property.
By carrying out virtual open house viewings, agents can also reduce the time spent qualifying applicants, or on buyers or tenants who are not serious or interested in the property.
Gavl’s research found that 11% of consumers attending livestream viewings were prospective sellers, while a further 6% were landlords.
Joel Smith, chief executive of Gavl, said: “Converting 16,000 physical appointments into 1,430 livestream viewings has saved agents a huge amount of time across the whole viewing process from qualification and travelling, through to answering questions and gathering buyer feedback.
“Agencies which have embraced livestream viewings are unlikely to return to their old way of doing things as the technology has saved them time and money, while significantly improving efficiency and customer satisfaction.
“Agents carrying out a livestream event instead of multiple physical viewings save a significant amount of time travelling to and from the property. There’s also the hours spent carrying out each viewing to consider.
“By showing the property to a group of interested parties at once, agents can answer all the key questions in one go without having to repeat the same process over and over again.
“Qualification of applicants needn’t take hours nor be an admin-heavy process.
“Livestream open house events allow agents to pinpoint the most serious buyers or tenants quickly and then focus their resources on progressing the transaction with these applicants.”
