Virtual open houses

You can now promote virtual open houses on your Zillow listings! Virtual open houses are live events held on a specific date, during a specific window of time. Unlike a recorded video tour or Zillow 3D Home® tour which may be viewed at any time, virtual open houses are scheduled events that can drum up excitement for your client’s home. Even better, they’re a great alternative to in-person open houses.

Adding virtual open house links to your listings

 It is now possible to promote a link on your Zillow listing for virtual open houses. This can be done through your MLS’s remarks or property description field. The date and time of the virtual open house will be displayed before the day of the event. At the scheduled time of the event, the link for the virtual open house will appear as well. Please check with your MLS on the ability to add virtual open houses and proper procedures. If none available please see the information below. 

How is a virtual open house different from a virtual tour or video tour?

Recorded video tours and virtual tours (like Zillow 3D Home tours) are a way for customers to access a tour experience on demand. 

A virtual open house is a live event held on a specific date, during a specific window of time. 

A Zillow listing can include third-party links to an on-demand virtual tour as well as a live virtual open house. The virtual tour link will stay active as long as the listing is active. The virtual open house link will be removed once the time for the event has passed.

How do I add a virtual open house to my Zillow listing?

Typically, Zillow removes URLs from the property description field. Therefore, for your virtual open house information to be displayed, you must closely follow a specific format when entering your open house information into your MLS.  

How to format your open house information in the MLS

At end of the listing remarks, add the following, substituting your specific information for the fields in bold: #virtualopenhouse URL date start time-end time

Here’s an example of how your input might look: #virtualopenhouse https://www.VIDEOLINK/ 03/31/2020 11:00 AM-2:00 PM

Please note: 

• Only one date/time window allowed per listing
• The date should be in MM/DD/YYYY format
• Time should be in local time, 12 hr format
• Include the virtual tour at the end of the remarks only – to be sure it’s parsed properly