How to organize an online real estate fair

Online housing fairs are no longer an emergency plan. La Gran Feria Inmobiliaria was born in 2020, when sales rooms were closed, with about 70 developers and the support of Camacol Bogotá and Cundinamarca. Today it brings together more than 150 developers in a 100% virtual event held twice a year. And regional fairs, such as the one El Universal and Camacol Bolívar organized in Cartagena in 2022, added an online platform to the physical pavilion to reach people who could not attend.

Taking part in other people's fairs is one option, and we cover it in how to stand out in a virtual booth. This article is for the developer that wants to run its own: with its whole portfolio or together with partners.

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Which format to choose

The platform

You do not need an expensive event platform. The minimum is a page with:

• One booth per project, with the 3D tour, the unit types, starting prices and the fair's special offer.
• The schedule of talks and live streams, in Colombian time and in your audience's time zones.
• A button to book a video call with a rep, for each project.
• A registration form with name, email, phone, city or country and project of interest, with consent for data processing.
• A chat or WhatsApp staffed during fair hours.

If each project's tour opens on a phone without installing anything, the booth works the same for someone on a computer in Madrid as for someone on a phone on a bus in Bogotá.

Booths you walk through, not download

At an online fair, visitors compare ten projects in an afternoon. The ones offering a PDF to download lose to the one that lets them step inside the apartment, look out of the window and change the kitchen floor. That is why each booth should open straight into the project's 3D model, with the sales details alongside, rather than into a gallery of renders.

The schedule: reasons to show up at a set time

An online fair that only has booths looks like a website. What makes it an event is the schedule: short live talks at announced times. Some that work:

• A 20-minute live tour of each project.
• How to buy from abroad: payments, powers of attorney and trust accounts.
• Financing, with the partner bank: mortgages, leasing and subsidies.
• The view from each floor at sunset, in the project with the best view.

We explain how to run each stream in how to run a live stream, and how to turn a talk into appointments in webinars for buyers and investors.

One-on-one appointments

Talks attract and booths inform, but the sale starts in the private video call: the rep tours the unit the family is interested in with them, with its floor, its view and its finishes. Set aside reps just for appointments during the fair, with calendars visible in every booth. A good goal is for every qualified contact to leave the fair with a booked appointment. We explain how to share the model on those calls in sharing the virtual model on a video call.

Promotion

• Dates and special offer announced three or four weeks ahead.
• Ads targeted by city and by country, if you expect buyers from elsewhere.
• Your database, only people who agreed to receive messages.
• Partners: the family compensation fund, the bank, companies with agreements.
• A reminder on opening day and on the day of the most important talk.

Follow-up

A fair generates more contacts in a few days than the team handles in a normal month. Without a plan, they go cold. Decide beforehand who calls whom, in what order (first those who booked an appointment, then those who toured a project and last those who only registered) and how fast: ideally within the next 48 hours. We explain what to ask to qualify each contact in real estate leads.

How to measure it

• Registrations and visits per booth.
• 3D tours opened per project.
• Attendance at each talk.
• Appointments booked and held.
• Reservations over the following 60 days, per project.

At Inviewd we build each project's 3D model so it works as a booth: it can be toured from a phone, without installing anything, and it is the same one the rep shares on the video call. If you have several projects, see also one sales room for several projects, and if you also attend in-person fairs, the fair booth and the traveling sales room.

Frequently asked questions

What is an online real estate fair?

An event with an opening and a closing date in which several developers, or several projects from one developer, are shown on an online platform: booths with each project's tour, live talks and video call appointments with the reps.

What does a virtual housing booth need?

The project's 3D tour, the unit types, starting prices, the fair's special offer and a button to book a video call with a rep. A PDF to download is not enough when visitors compare ten projects in an afternoon.

How long should an online real estate fair last?

It depends on the goal. Your own fair works well at between three days and two weeks, with a concentrated schedule of talks; large fairs such as La Gran Feria Inmobiliaria last about two months. The closing date is what creates urgency.

How do you handle contacts after a fair?

With a plan set before it starts: who calls whom, in what order and how fast. First those who booked an appointment, then those who toured a project and last those who only registered, ideally within the next 48 hours.

Sources

Estrenar Vivienda — La Gran Feria Inmobiliaria (in Spanish) · Camacol Bogotá and Cundinamarca — Gran Feria Inmobiliaria virtual, 2020 (in Spanish) · El Universal — Tu Casa virtual real estate fair, 2022 (in Spanish)