Virtual tour of a house: what it is and how to make one (3D, 360° or video)

What is a virtual tour of a house?

"Virtual tour" is used for four different things. They're made with different equipment, show up in different places, and answer different questions for a buyer or renter:

The first two are interactive: the viewer decides where to look. The last two are videos: they play anywhere, including social feeds, but the viewer can't choose where to go. When a listing says "virtual tour" or "3D tour," it usually means one of the interactive kinds.

Which virtual tour to make: equipment, time, cost and where it shows

Each company's own requirements and US prices, as of October 28, 2026:

If buyers will find the home on Zillow, a Zillow 3D Home tour is the one that appears there. If you need a measured model or a floor plan for a large or unusual home, Matterport or a hired photographer is the stronger choice. What each route costs over time, including hosting, is in our guide to 3D virtual tour cost.

Before you capture: prepare the house

A 360° camera sees the whole room at once, including the corner behind you, so preparation matters more than for photos. Zillow's own checklist, and Kuula's tips for 360° shoots:

• Tidy every room and put away documents and anything with personal information. Our prep checklist goes room by room.
• Turn on all the lights and open all the interior doors, so viewers can see where each room leads.
• Turn off fans, TVs and anything that moves. Moving things blur or break the stitching of a panorama.
• Wipe the camera lens.
• Plan your route through the home, starting outside the front door or at the street.
• Check the mirrors. With a 360° camera, you have to be out of the shot, and that includes reflections.

How to make a virtual tour with just your iPhone (Zillow 3D Home)

Zillow 3D Home is free and needs nothing but an iPhone. Its App Store listing says the app requires iOS 26 or later. With the phone's own camera it makes a tour of linked panoramas; it can't make the interactive floor plan, which needs a supported 360° camera. Zillow's instructional guide sets out these steps:

1. Open the Zillow 3D Home app, sign in to your Zillow account, tap Start capture and choose Use iPhone Camera.
2. Choose the listing address, or Add home address later, then pick the first room. Zillow suggests starting at the front door or the street view.
3. Stand with the room's most interesting feature behind you. In a small room, stand in a corner or the doorway and hold the phone lower; in a medium room, stand near the center; in a large room, take panoramas from more than one point.
4. Hold the phone vertically, close to your chest at 4 to 5 feet, or use a tripod with a rotating head and phone mount.
5. There's no start button. Line up the phone icon with the row of white rectangles and turn slowly to the right, following the yellow line, until you've completed the full 360° circle. If you turn too fast, the app tells you to go back.
6. Tap Add for the next spot. Capture every connecting doorway and hallway, too: that's how the app links the rooms into one tour.
7. Review the panoramas, retake any blurry ones, and let them upload over Wi-Fi or mobile data. Tap Finish, then choose Post to listing or Build, but keep private.

Zillow emails you when the tour is built; a tour with 10 to 20 panoramas should process within four hours. You can then change the default view, add or edit the arrows between panoramas, change the room order and hide a panorama. A Zillow moderator also reviews each tour within 72 hours.

How to make a 3D tour with an iPhone (Matterport)

The free Matterport app (iOS 18 or later) builds a measured 3D model, not just linked panoramas. Matterport's help center says you can capture with a smartphone alone, with its Axis motorized mount, with a supported 360° camera, or with its own Pro cameras.

1. Open the app, tap +New Job, enter a name and the address, and tap Save. You can skip signing in until you upload.
2. Tap Options, keep 3D scan selected and choose Simple Scan (one full turn per spot, faster, but blurry ceilings and floors) or Complete Scan (three turns, better for high ceilings and small rooms).
3. Tap the camera button and aim the phone at each white dot until its pink ring completes. Keep the phone steady and rotate yourself around it, as if it were on a tripod, rather than sweeping it like a panorama.
4. Move no more than 5 to 8 feet and scan again. The app lines up each new scan with the last; the minimap shows your scan positions.
5. When you're done, mark windows, mirrors and trim, then upload. Matterport emails you when the space is ready to view.

Do you need lidar? No, but it helps. Matterport says a phone with lidar gets extra lidar scan and lidar complete scan options, and that lidar can improve the fidelity of the model. On iPhone, the LiDAR Scanner is on the Pro and Pro Max models, from the iPhone 12 Pro to the iPhone 18 Pro, according to Apple. Without lidar, Matterport recommends Complete Scan if the app can't use an ultra wide camera.

What a phone scan can't do. Matterport notes that not all add-ons are available for free accounts or for spaces scanned with a smartphone. And the app is free, but keeping a tour online is not: since October 12, 2026, Matterport's Professional plan starts at $108 a month, or $1,080 a year, for 10 active spaces (tours kept online).

How to make a virtual tour with a 360° camera (Insta360 or RICOH THETA)

A 360° camera takes the whole sphere in one shot, so each spot takes seconds instead of a slow turn, and the stitching is cleaner than a phone panorama. You control it from your phone, so you can step out of the room. Check that your platform supports the exact model before you buy:

Matterport says it plans to support the Insta360 X6 and X4 Air but has no date yet; meanwhile you can shoot with the Insta360 app and bring the 360° photos in with Matterport's Import 360 feature. On Kuula, CloudPano or RICOH360 Tours you upload the 360° photos yourself, so any 360° camera works.

How to shoot it, from Kuula's own tutorial for 360° tours:

• Use a light stand, not a photo tripod. A light stand is taller and leaves a smaller footprint at the bottom of the image.
• Put the lens at about 5 feet (150 cm), with the stand on the floor, never on a table or shelf, and the camera straight up.
• Get out of the shot. Trigger the camera from the app and hide behind a wall or in another room. Matterport gives the same advice for its scans.
• Take a shot about every 10 feet in an apartment and 20 feet in large spaces, at least one in every room, with a line of sight between one spot and the next. Add a shot at sharp corners in hallways.
• Stand away from walls, in a central spot in each room, and leave connecting doors open.
• Point the camera the same way every time. A small sticker on the front makes this easy and saves time when you link the tour.
• Use the camera's HDR mode so bright windows and dark corners both hold detail.

To build the tour on Kuula, name the files by room (kitchen.jpg rather than IMG_2847.jpg), open Create Tour, upload them and tap Post. Then enter edit mode and drag each thumbnail onto the panorama to create the hotspots that link the rooms, and share it with Get link or embed code.

What the free and paid hosts give you, as of October 28, 2026:

How to make a virtual tour with photos or a video

If you don't have a 360° camera and don't need an interactive tour, a video can do much of the same job, and it plays in social feeds where a 360° tour needs a click.

• Filmed video tour. Walk the home once with your phone, slowly, in the order a visitor would. Our guide on how to film a house tour covers the route, holding the phone, light, sound and where to post it. Agents filming a listing will find 4K settings and gimbals in the real estate walkthrough video guide.
• Video from your listing photos. A slideshow or a walkthrough with camera moves between still photos. Our guide on turning listing photos into video compares the options.
• A clickable tour of ordinary photos. Kuula's tour tool accepts regular photos as well as 360° panoramas, or a mix of the two, and links them with hotspots the same way.

Where you can post each kind of tour

• Zillow, Trulia and Redfin: a Zillow 3D Home tour is posted to the listing automatically, according to the app's listing, and can also be shared on your website, the MLS and social media.
• Zillow and Matterport: Zillow pulled Matterport tours from Zillow.com and StreetEasy on October 20, 2025, and as of its January 29, 2026 update it still doesn't show them. Matterport and its owner CoStar say customers may post their tours anywhere and, in May 2026, promised not to sue Zillow for showing them; Zillow says it wants binding terms first and keeps accepting tours from other vendors (HousingWire).
• Realtor.com and Homes.com display Matterport tours, according to HousingWire's May 2026 report.
• Your own website, emails and social media: any tour with a share link or embed code, from Matterport, Kuula, CloudPano or RICOH360 Tours.
• Video tours: YouTube as an unlisted link, Instagram Reels, TikTok, and listing sites with a video field. The house tour guide lists the length and format each one takes.

Where October fits: photos and a walkthrough video, not a 360° or 3D tour

October doesn't make 360° tours, 3D tours or floor plans. If a listing needs one, use Zillow 3D Home, Matterport or a 360° camera as described above, or hire a photographer.

What October makes is the listing photos and a walkthrough video. The October app guides you through each room with an iPhone 12 or newer, an AI image model draws the finished photos from your capture, and an AI video model makes the walkthrough as smooth camera moves between those finished photos. It isn't filmed footage, and it isn't interactive: the viewer watches it rather than choosing where to go. The photos and the walkthrough usually come back within a few hours.

Photos plus a walkthrough cost $99 a place (up to 6 rooms), and your first place is free. Because every October photo is AI-generated, look through each one before you publish and label it where your MLS requires. See pricing and how it's made. Many listings use both: photos and a walkthrough for the portals and social media, and a Zillow 3D Home or Matterport tour for the homes where layout matters most.

Step by step

1. Choose the kind of tour

   A 360° tour with Zillow 3D Home if buyers will find the home on Zillow, a Matterport 3D tour if layout and room sizes matter, or a filmed video tour if you want something that plays in social feeds.

2. Prepare the house

   Tidy every room, put away personal papers, turn on all the lights, open the interior doors, turn off fans and TVs, and wipe the camera lens.

3. Plan the route

   Start outside the front door or at the street and plan a spot in every room, doorway and hallway, with a line of sight from each spot to the next.

4. Capture each spot

   With an iPhone in Zillow 3D Home, hold the phone at 4 to 5 feet and turn slowly in a full circle. With a 360° camera, put it on a stand at about 5 feet, trigger it from your phone and step out of sight.

5. Upload and link

   Upload the panoramas or scans, retake any blurry ones, and check the links between rooms: Zillow and Matterport link them for you; on Kuula you drag thumbnails onto each panorama to create hotspots.

6. Publish and share

   Post the Zillow 3D Home tour to the listing, or copy the share link or embed code for your website, the MLS and social media.

Questions