Are Matterport Tours Still Worth It for Real Estate Listings in 2026?
Matterport tours have become a familiar part of the real estate marketing toolkit. They allow buyers to move through a property virtually, understand how rooms connect and revisit a home without scheduling another showing.
But in 2026, the question is more complicated than whether 3D tours are useful.
Agents must also consider where the tour will appear, which buyers the listing needs to reach, the complexity of the property and whether the additional media meaningfully improves the overall marketing package.
The answer is yes—Matterport tours can still be worth it in 2026, but they should be used strategically rather than automatically.
🏠 What Matterport Provides That Photos Cannot
Professional real estate photography is still the foundation of a strong listing. Photographs create the initial emotional response, establish the visual quality of the home and determine whether a buyer stops scrolling.
A Matterport tour serves a different purpose.
Instead of presenting a curated series of individual views, it allows the buyer to explore the property and understand:
How rooms connect
Where bedrooms are located in relation to living areas
How wide hallways and entryways feel
The relationship between indoor and outdoor spaces
Whether furniture is likely to fit
How the property flows from one level to another
The National Association of REALTORS® describes virtual tours as an interactive experience that provides more spatial context than static photographs. Its 2025 staging research found that 43% of buyers’ agents considered virtual tours highly important to their clients, compared with 73% for photography and 48% for video.
Those numbers reinforce an important point: Matterport should complement professional photography and video, not replace them.
🔍 Matterport Is Becoming More Than a Walkthrough
Matterport’s current real estate platform can produce more than an interactive 3D tour from a single property capture.
Depending on the service and subscription used, available outputs can include:
A navigable digital twin
Schematic floor plans
Room dimensions
Square-footage calculations
Property reports
Measurement tools
Two-dimensional listing images
Branded contact information and calls to action
AI-generated property descriptions
Virtual defurnishing
MLS-ready property data
Matterport has also continued refining the visual experience. A 2026 update introduced automatic removal of the camera and tripod from mirror reflections, addressing one of the more noticeable distractions in interior tours.
This broader set of deliverables improves the value proposition. The agent is not necessarily paying only for a virtual walkthrough; the scan can become the source for several useful listing assets.
⚠️ The Major 2026 Issue: Zillow Distribution
The most important limitation agents need to understand in 2026 is that Matterport tours are not currently displayed on Zillow.
Zillow removed Matterport tours from its platform in October 2025. In its January 2026 update, Zillow said it was not displaying the tours because of concerns about CoStar Group’s application of its terms and the potential legal risk to third-party platforms.
Matterport and its owner, CoStar Group, dispute Zillow’s reasoning. Matterport has publicly stated that customers own the tours they create and are free to publish them wherever they choose. Matterport has also said that Realtor.com and Homes.com continue displaying its tours.
CoStar completed its acquisition of Matterport in February 2025, bringing the digital-twin company under the same parent organization as Homes.com.
For agents, the practical issue is not deciding which company is correct. It is recognizing that a Matterport tour currently has inconsistent visibility across major listing portals.
That does not make the tour useless. It does mean the distribution plan should be considered before ordering one.
A Matterport tour can still be used on:
The agent’s website
A dedicated property website
Brokerage and approved MLS pages
Realtor.com and Homes.com
Email campaigns
Social-media links
Digital advertisements
Direct messages to interested buyers
Follow-up communication after showings
However, an agent whose marketing strategy depends primarily on the Zillow listing page should account for the tour’s current absence from that platform.
✅ When a Matterport Tour Is Still Worth It
Large or Complicated Floor Plans
Matterport is especially helpful when still photographs cannot easily explain the layout.
Multi-level homes, additions, detached rooms, guest houses, split-level designs and open-concept properties can be difficult to understand through a conventional image gallery. A three-dimensional tour gives buyers the ability to investigate the layout at their own pace.
Luxury and High-Value Listings
Luxury properties often have multiple living areas, extensive primary suites, custom amenities and significant indoor-outdoor relationships.
For these listings, a Matterport tour can support the level of presentation expected by the seller while giving qualified buyers a more complete preview before arranging a private showing.
Out-of-Area and Relocation Buyers
A South Bay listing may attract buyers relocating from another region or purchasing a second home near the coast.
These buyers may not be able to visit every potential property immediately. A detailed 3D tour allows them to evaluate the home more thoroughly before making travel plans or asking a local representative to visit on their behalf.
Vacant Homes and New Construction
An empty property can be easy to scan and navigate. Matterport can help buyers understand the volume and relationship of unfurnished rooms, especially when the tour is paired with a floor plan or clearly disclosed virtual staging.
For new construction, the digital twin can also document the property at a specific stage and provide a reusable presentation asset.
Investment and Rental Properties
Investors often focus heavily on configuration, dimensions, access points and the relationship between units or rooms.
Matterport can answer some of those preliminary questions remotely, potentially reducing unnecessary visits from prospects whose needs do not match the property.
Listings That Need More Buyer Qualification
A virtual tour lets buyers study a home before requesting an appointment.
That accessibility may not produce more physical showings in every case—and more showings should not always be the only objective. A detailed tour can help the agent attract buyers who already understand the layout and remain genuinely interested.
❌ When Matterport May Not Be Necessary
Small, Straightforward Properties
A compact condominium or single-level home with an easily understood layout may already be represented effectively through strong photography and a clear floor plan.
In that situation, the 3D tour may add less incremental value than it would for a larger or more complicated property.
A Limited Marketing Budget
When the budget requires prioritization, professional photography should generally come first.
NAR research reports that 81% of buyers consider listing photographs the most important feature when evaluating homes online. A weak primary photo cannot usually be rescued by placing a 3D tour farther down the listing.
After photography, the next investment should be selected according to the property. That may be a floor plan, video, drone coverage, twilight photography, virtual staging or Matterport.
The Property Is Not Presentation-Ready
Matterport records the property comprehensively.
Clutter, open closets, visible personal information, unfinished repairs and poorly arranged furniture can remain accessible as buyers navigate through the space. Unlike a curated photo gallery, the tour gives the viewer more control over where to look.
The home should therefore be cleaned, staged and checked carefully before scanning.
Zillow Is the Listing’s Primary Marketing Channel
If the agent expects most buyer engagement to happen directly through Zillow, a different 3D solution may currently offer better platform visibility.
This does not automatically mean Matterport is the wrong choice. The agent may still value its floor plans, measurements, property website integration or use on other portals. But Zillow distribution should be factored into the decision.
📸 Matterport Does Not Replace a Complete Media Package
The strongest property-marketing campaigns assign a specific job to each visual asset.
Photography creates the first impression and presents the home’s strongest features.
Video establishes pacing, atmosphere and an emotional sense of movement.
Drone media provides location, lot, view and neighborhood context.
Floor plans give buyers a quick, simplified explanation of the layout.
Matterport allows buyers to explore the property independently and examine spatial relationships in greater depth.
When these assets are coordinated, they create a more complete buyer experience than any single format can provide by itself.
Matterport’s value is therefore not simply whether a buyer clicks the tour. It can also strengthen the agent’s listing presentation by demonstrating a more comprehensive approach to marketing the seller’s property.
📍 The South Bay Perspective
For many South Bay listings, the property’s appeal involves more than square footage.
Buyers may be comparing ocean proximity, natural light, views, patios, balconies, multilevel layouts, accessory spaces and the transition between indoor and outdoor living.
A Matterport tour can be particularly useful when it helps explain those relationships.
For example, a buyer may want to understand whether the living room opens directly to the patio, whether the primary bedroom is on the same floor as the secondary bedrooms or how a rooftop deck is accessed.
However, the tour should still be part of a larger story. Matterport may explain the layout, while professional photography, drone coverage and video communicate the property’s atmosphere and South Bay lifestyle.
📊 How Agents Should Decide
Before adding Matterport to a listing, consider five questions:
Is the layout difficult to understand through photos alone?
Are relocation, luxury or out-of-area buyers part of the target audience?
Will the tour be actively distributed beyond Zillow?
Can the scan produce other useful assets, such as a floor plan or measurements?
Does the home’s condition support a detailed, room-by-room virtual experience?
When most answers are yes, Matterport is likely to provide meaningful value.
When most answers are no, the marketing budget may produce a stronger result when directed toward another service.
The Bottom Line
Matterport tours are still worth using in 2026—but not simply because 3D tours are impressive technology.
They are worthwhile when they solve a specific marketing problem:
Explaining a complicated layout
Serving remote buyers
Qualifying showings
Supporting a luxury presentation
Providing measurements and floor-plan information
Giving the listing a more complete digital experience
The current Zillow limitation reduces Matterport’s universal reach, but it does not eliminate the platform’s usefulness. Instead, it makes the agent’s distribution strategy more important.
The best approach is not to add Matterport to every listing or abandon it entirely.
It is to use it where the property, buyer profile and marketing plan justify it.
📸 Build the Right Media Package With Eyeconic Shutter
Eyeconic Shutter LLC provides professional real estate photography and listing media throughout the South Bay and greater Los Angeles area.
Available services include professional photography, Matterport 3D tours, Zillow 3D tours, floor plans, cinematic property video, drone photography and video, virtual staging, social-media reels and dedicated property websites.
Each property has different strengths. The goal is to select the visual services that communicate those strengths clearly and give buyers the information they need to take the next step.
Visit EyeconicShutter.com to explore available services or schedule your next listing.
