Most agents will tell you it’s the kitchen that sells the house during an open house or home tour. But according to Mikus Opelts, founder and CEO of Giraffe360, the data says otherwise: The most-viewed room in a virtual tour isn’t the kitchen — it’s the bathroom.
That surprising data point opened the door — literally and figuratively — to a deeper conversation about how buyers behave online, how agents should think about digital experiences and why the home’s digital twin is now just as important as the physical one.
The consumer perspective on home tours
During our conversation, I asked Opelts how he thinks consumers view virtual tours and the technology behind them. “They just want to see the home,” Opelts said. “They care about clarity, navigation and realism, not the logo in the corner of the screen.”
Although in real estate circles, “Matterport” has become agent shorthand for 3D walkthroughs, for buyers, it’s simply part of the experience — like Google Street View for houses. The consumer doesn’t distinguish between brands; they judge the experience.
That distinction matters because it reframes how we market listings. Agents shouldn’t just think about having a tour. They should think about how the digital version of a property performs as part of a larger, seamless buying journey.
8 photos, 10% and the power of the scroll
Opelts and his team at Giraffe360 have analyzed millions of consumer interactions with listings. Their findings challenge long-held assumptions about what grabs attention.
- Eight images is all it takes for a buyer to decide whether they like or dislike a home.
- Only 10 percent of viewers ever click into a 3D tour.
- Yet those who do spend two to five minutes exploring it — an eternity when it comes to online attention spans.
That small subset of viewers represents the most serious prospect for your listing. “The photo gallery gives you the first impression,” Opelts explained. “The 3D tour is the deep dive — it’s where curiosity turns into consideration.”
Why the bathroom wins
Here’s the part that really stopped me: The most-viewed room in a digital tour is the bathroom. Not the kitchen, not the living room. The bathroom.
Opelts has a theory about why this may be so. “It’s an intimate space,” he said. “People want to know how clean it looks, how it’s maintained. Subconsciously, they’re judging the home’s overall condition.”
It’s the kind of insight that makes you look at staging differently. If the bathroom is the most-viewed digital room, it should be spotless, staged and, yes, the toilet seat should be down.
From photos to flow: Building the home’s digital twin
Giraffe360 transforms listings into digital twins: AI-powered replicas that combine professional photography, 3D floor plans and immersive tours into one seamless experience.
“The goal isn’t to produce more content,” Opelts explained. “It’s to design a better journey. The buyer should be able to experience the home remotely, understand its flow, and decide if it fits before scheduling a showing.”
With Giraffe360’s new Pro camera, those experiences are built automatically from a single scan, generating interactive floor plans, cinematic social videos and full virtual tours — all from the same dataset. The result: A listing that lives digitally long after the open house ends.
Reimagining the follow-up
One of the most creative use cases Opelts shared came from REMAX agent Margaret Fogarty in Ireland. Instead of publishing her 3D tours online, she uses them as follow-up material.
After each open house, she emails the tour to attendees: “Thanks for coming. Here’s the link to revisit the home.”
That simple act transforms the virtual tour from a pre-showing teaser into post-showing “daydream fuel,” a way for buyers to revisit, share and fall in love with a property all over again.
The digital twin is the new curb appeal
The modern homebuyer’s journey no longer starts — or ends — at the front door. It begins online, in a digital twin that captures attention, builds trust and tells a story.
As Opelts put it, “We’ve moved past the point where photography is enough. The experience has to be immersive, interactive and authentic. That’s what today’s buyer expects.”
His message to the industry is simple: “We need to obsess about the consumer journey — what they want to see, how they want to experience it. I would lobby the industry to focus on the buyer, not the tool.”
Too often, our innovation energy goes into what looks impressive to other agents rather than what feels natural to the consumer. Think beyond the listing photos, so you can understand what your buyers are really looking at.
Troy Palmquist is the founder and principal at HomeCode Advisors. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
