Preparing for Your Remote Home Tour using Zoom

Team Derrick Coates employs numerous technologies to make your real estate buying experience as painless as possible. Of course, visiting a home in person with one of our agents is the best way to get a feel of the space and beauty that a particular home provides. But we realize that distance, busy schedules, or other obstacles in life can make touring homes in person a challenge. This is why we offer the convenience of various technologies to give you a way to tour a home from the comfort of your own home, office, or wherever you may be. We can accommodate most of the popular video conferencing solutions available including Zoom, Facetime, Messenger (from Facebook), Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. Unfortunately, none of these technologies are perfect, and technical difficulties and glitches can easily occur. If you are not familiar with using one of these solutions, or if the preferred solution you use doesn’t seem to be connecting properly with one of our team members, we suggest installing the Zoom app on your device. There is no cost to download the app, and you don’t even have to set up a Zoom account to use it. This guide will walk you through the steps you need to install Zoom so that you are ready for your own private virtual home tour.

Step 1) Make sure you know the password for installing apps on your device. On Apple devices (iPhones, iPads, etc.) you need the password for the App Store. This password is most likely the same password you use for purchasing music or movies as well. If your Apple device has been setup with Face ID to confirm App Store purchases, you might not need the password. On Android devices (smart phones, tablets, chromebooks, etc.) you will probably need the password for the Google Playstore depending on your particular device and your security settings. If you use gmail, this is likely the same password.

Step 2) Find and click on the link below for your device. As an alternative, you can just go to the App Store (iPhones and iPads) or the Google Playstore (Android Phones and Tablets) and search for the “Zoom” app. Multiple choices might appear, but the one we are looking for has a blue icon with the word “zoom” in white letters on it and the app name is officially called “Zoom Workplace”.

IOS APP (iPhones and iPads):

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id546505307

ANDROID APP (Android Phones and Tablets):

https://play.google.com/store/search?q=zoom&c=apps&hl=en&gl=US

Step 3) Install the app into your device by clicking on “Get” on Apple devices or “Install” on Android devices

Step 4) When it is time for your private virtual tour with your agent, the agent will text you a link. Click on the link. ***iPhone Users: some users may have security options set that prevent the user from clicking on links from unknown or new phone numbers. In this case, just press and hold on the text link until a “thumbs up” icon appears on the screen and then click on that icon. After that moment, any text links that come from that same phone number will be clickable. And don’t worry, links sent by other unknown numbers will still be un-clickable.

Step 5) A popup will come up saying “Open this page in ‘Zoom’?” Click on “Open”.

Step 6) Zoom will open with a window asking you to “Please enter your name” – you can enter anything you want here.

Step 7) Zoom might then ask for permission to Access the Camera. Click on “Allow”.

Step 8) You will then see your face in a window. Click on the button that says “Join”.

Step 9) You are in! Enjoy the tour!