Property Viewings and Coronavirus
Whilst this is a time of uncertainty for many people, those who are making big life decisions are feeling the strain more than ever. If you are planning on coming to university in September, the idea of traveling to view student properties at a time like this might be overwhelming. However, Student Rooms 4 U has some unique solutions to put your mind at ease and guide you through the process of finding a student home.
Virtual Tours
At Student Rooms 4 U, we are able to offer prospective tenants the opportunity to experience a virtual tour. This technology allows you to really get a feel for a property in a way that isn’t possible with photographs alone. While taking a virtual tour isn’t yet an option for all our properties, many of our student rentals have been specially photographed to provide this modern technology to our tenants. All of our properties have virtual tours, they can be viewed in the comfort of your own environment.
In the virtual tour program, you can view the property in several different ways to understand the layout and get a feel for the size and space of the interior. In the Dollhouse mode you can see the entire property as a cutaway image, as if the building were missing a wall, to peep into the house and see which rooms are next to each other. In the Floorplan mode, select which floor of the house you’d like to see and get a bird’s eye view of the whole property. Measurement mode allows you to take measurements between any two points, or to work out the area of any space. You can use this function to see exactly how roomy your bedroom will be or work out the sizes of the living spaces. If you want to bring any small pieces of furniture from home, use this function to work out where they will fit in the space.
Finally, click on ‘Explore 3D Spaces’ for a virtual walk through of the property. Images are available at 365 degrees, so use your mouse to control where you want to look on the property. Walk up the stairs, pop into all the bedrooms, and explore the communal spaces throughout the property. Jump straight to where you want to go by clicking on the appropriate room from the floorplan viewing option.
Facetime Viewings
If a virtual viewing doesn’t quite feel real enough for you and you’d like to speak to a person as you’re browsing our properties, this too can be accommodated even from a distance. Our staff are more than happy to arrange Facetime viewings, where they can visit the property in person and offer you a real-time video of the property. This comes with the added bonus that you can ask them questions as you look around the house, and ask them to zoom in to clarify any areas of the property that you’d like to see in closer detail. As most properties will presently be let out to current students, please appreciate that the rooms will look more ‘lived in’ than they do on the photographs on our website – we’re sure you can understand that our current tenants might have dishes in the sink or unmade beds! However, this is a great opportunity to see how space works once the property has people living in it, and you might even be able to speak to some current tenants during the Facetime tour to ask them what it’s like to live there, and to rent with Student Rooms 4 U.
Viewing in Person
When the restrictions lift, we will be able to offer face to face viewings (with a face shield or mask) of properties for those who are happy to visit in person. Students who still wish to do a viewing of any of our properties can be reassured that we (and our tenants) are well informed about coronavirus, and are carrying forward government guidelines to minimise infection, but we are happy to do everything we can to make sure the visits run as smoothly as possible.
In order to protect yourselves/ ourselves and the tenants during visits, we make the following requests:
– Please make sure not to arrange any visits if you or those you live with are feeling under the weather. We’re more than happy to rearrange property viewings, even if you have to cancel last minute. Please follow government guidelines if you’re feeling unwell or are displaying any symptoms of coronavirus.
– Wash your hands on arrival at any of our property viewings. If you’re able to carry hand sanitizer when you make property visits, this is recommended.
– Please don’t be offended, we won’t be able to shake your hand when we meet you – we are following guidelines to reduce social contact and have been advised that handshaking should be avoided at this time.
– As you view our properties, please be mindful about touching surfaces or belongings of the current tenants. If you’d like to see anything in closer detail, please ask the staff member who is conducting the tour. We appreciate your cooperation.
For more info and up to date local advice on coronavirus, visit the official Government Website.
