A virtual model home tour lets buyers walk through your model online, room by room, before they drive to the community. With Path you can build one from the photos or renderings you already have, or from your own 360° photos, and an AI guide walks each buyer through the home and answers questions along the way. This guide covers the setup options, what the guided tour does, and how buyers move from the tour to booking a visit.
What a virtual model home tour is
A model home shows buyers what the finished product looks and feels like. A virtual model home tour puts that same walkthrough online, so a buyer can see the kitchen, the primary suite and the backyard from a phone or laptop at any hour.
Most builders already have a photo gallery for each plan. The difference with a tour is order and context. The buyer moves through the home the way they would in person, and they can ask about finishes, layouts and the area as they go.
For a builder with several plans across several communities, an online model also means every plan can be seen, including ones that do not have a physical model yet.
Two ways to build it with Path
Path supports two starting points for model homes. Which one you pick depends on what images you have.
Photo tour (Path Lite): Enter the property name, website and address. Path reads the website, pulls the photos, sorts them into spaces such as Kitchen and Living Room, and looks up nearby amenities. The Lite flow takes about 2 minutes. You can mark your images as actual photos or 3D renderings, which helps for plans that are not built yet.
360° tour (Path+): Upload one 360° photo per space and the AI names each room. Buyers can look around each room in every direction. 360° and 3D tours need Path+ or above.
If you have neither, Path+ includes white-glove production. Path's team can shoot your spaces on site in 360° or build 3D renders from your plans. If you are starting from a gallery, our guide on making a virtual tour from listing photos walks through the Lite setup step by step.
How the guided tour works for buyers
When a buyer opens the tour, they choose to take a guided tour with the AI concierge or explore on their own. The concierge is called Ella by default, and each property can set its own agent name and voice.
On the guided tour, Ella walks the buyer through the home room by room. Along the way she asks discovery questions about their intent, household, timeline and priorities. Buyers can type a question or hold the mic to talk, and a mute button turns off narration.
Ella answers from your property information. That includes the website Path read, any property details document you upload, your custom instructions and nearby places from Google within 5 km, such as schools, parks, groceries and gyms. She can pin those places on a map with walking and driving times. Our article on answering neighborhood questions inside the tour covers the map in more detail.
Every tour shows a short notice that AI may provide inaccurate information and that buyers should verify important details. Use your custom instructions to tell Ella what to say about topics like options, lot premiums or incentives, and test the answers before you share the tour.
From tour to booked visit
The tour is most useful when it ends with a clear next step. In Path, the side menu includes a Book option.
Your scheduling link: Book a viewing can open your own scheduling page, such as Calendly, Acuity or any URL you add.
Meeting request: Without a link, the buyer sends a meeting request. You get an email, and the buyer gets a confirmation.
Before the tour opens, each buyer enters a name, email and phone and ticks a consent box. So by the time someone books, your sales team already knows who they are.
What your sales team sees
Your team gets a new visitor alert email after a buyer's first interaction, with a summary of the conversation. In the dashboard, each visitor has a 0-100 Conversion Score based on engagement, recency and their declared buyer profile, plus their full conversation history.
The answers buyers give during the guided tour feed that profile. A Hot Leads section shows signals such as budget, timeline, preferences and financing, with AI-drafted emails and call scripts for follow-up. You can export visitors to CSV or sync them to HubSpot or Follow Up Boss.
Property Insights shows the top questions buyers ask, where visitors come from, their purchase timeline and household mix. Those patterns can help your team decide what to highlight on the model tour and in the sales office. See how homebuilders use Path across communities.
Tips for a better model home tour
Cover every main room. Make sure the kitchen, living area, primary suite and outdoor space each have a clear photo or 360° image.
Upload a property details document. Include plan sizes, included features, community amenities and anything buyers ask your sales team often.
Write custom instructions. Tell the AI how to handle questions about pricing, options and availability, and where to send buyers for details.
Add your scheduling link. Give buyers a direct way to book a visit from inside the tour.
Test it yourself. Take the guided tour on your phone and ask the questions buyers ask most. Add detail wherever an answer is thin.
Share it everywhere. Use the public link in emails and texts, and the embed code to put the tour on each plan page of your website.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a 360° camera to put a model home online?
No. Path Lite builds a photo tour from the images on your website and any photos you upload. 360° tours need Path+ or above.
Can I show a model home that is not built yet?
Yes. You can mark your images as 3D renderings, and with Path+ white-glove production, Path's team can build 3D renders from your plans.
What does the AI ask buyers during the tour?
On the guided tour, the AI asks discovery questions about the buyer's intent, household, timeline and priorities as it walks them through the home.
Can buyers book a visit from the tour?
Yes. Book a viewing opens your scheduling link, such as Calendly or Acuity, or sends you a meeting request by email with a confirmation to the buyer.
What languages does the tour support?
The concierge answers buyers 24/7 in 42+ languages, by voice or text.
See a model home tour in action
Book a 30-minute demo and bring a plan or community you want online. We will show you how the guided tour works and what your sales team sees when buyers use it. You can also try a live demo tour first.
See what buyers ask inside your virtual tours
Path answers buyers 24/7 in 42+ languages, scores their intent and tells your team who to call first.
Book a demo