Home Shoppers Feel Safer if They See Photos of Agents Wearing a Mask
- Seeing a photo of the listing agent in a face mask included with the standard slate of online home listing photos may improve buyers’ perceptions and tour activity.
There are certain essential photos that must be included in any successful online home listing — one of the naturally light-drenched kitchen, one showing off the expansive backyard, one of the tastefully updated master suite… and, in these pandemic days, one of the listing agent wearing a face mask.
While the pandemic may be slowly starting to ease as the weather warms and vaccination campaigns ramp up, social distancing and mask-wearing look to be part of our lives for the foreseeable future. In addition to open house capacity limits and rigorous pre/post-tour cleaning protocols, agents will need to continue finding ways to put would-be buyers (and sellers) at ease — and photos of themselves wearing a face mask may be an answer. Research from Zillow Group Behavioral Science found that buyers’ perceptions of their safety, and potentially their likelihood of moving forward with a tour, were improved when they viewed a listing photo of an agent wearing a face mask.
The choice to include a photo of a mask-wearing agent among the usual roster of standard online property pics is not as straightforward as it may seem. On the one hand, viewing a masked listing agent could signal the agent’s concern for a potential buyer’s health by indicating that the agent and seller are following current health recommendations. But at the same time, there is a risk that even seeing a masked listing agent could remind the viewer of the ongoing pandemic in the first place, potentially reinforcing existing uncertainties and anxieties around health and finances.
After viewing home listings that included an image of the listing agent in a face mask, odds were 73% more likely that a person would think the homeowner cares about their health & safety and 149% more likely that person would think the agent cares. Additionally, odds were 37% more likely to report minimal concern for the home shopper’s own health and safety if they toured the home in-person with an agent after viewing a home listing with a photo of an agent in a face mask. Odds were 33% more likely that a shopper would schedule a virtual tour (assuming the home met their desired criteria, such as size and location) if they viewed a home listing that included an image of the listing agent in a face mask.
A majority of those surveyed reported being somewhat, quite, or very concerned about COVID-19 (79%), but the increased perceptions of safety were echoed even among those who reported being not at all or only slightly concerned about COVID-19. Additionally, the pattern is the same for individuals who reported being at low-risk for severe COVID-19 infection, and those who reported being high-risk.
Taken together, these results suggest that viewing a masked listing agent signaled that the sellers/the seller’s agent are taking precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and are concerned about the buyer’s health and safety.
Methodology
This research was conducted as an online survey experiment in August 2020 and included 3,216 adults living in the US. This research is not a nationally representative sample. Of those surveyed, 62% reported purchasing a home in the past and 64% said they plan or hope to purchase a home in the future. Participants viewed four mock home listing images where one image was manipulated to test the impact of including the masked and unmasked listing agent in a listing photo.
Participants were considered high-risk if they reported personally being at an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19 and/or living with someone who is at an increased risk, otherwise they were considered low-risk.
**Note: MLS listing photo rules and regulations vary.