Growing technology now lets homebuyers in the Upstate tour a home at their own pace and on their own time.A Greenville area homebuilder says they’re the only ones in the area using the technology.Cothern Homes President Anthony Kent says they started “Self-Tour” using the online “U-Tour” technology during the pandemic.Kent says he started to see a shift in how homebuyers were touring and looking for homes. “The reason we’re able to do self-tours on new homes is because they are vacant and they’re ready to purchase,” he said.He says “Self-Tour” is designed for new home builds.”We’ve learned that most people will search for a home between 9:30 at night and 11:30 at night on an online platform,” Kent said.He says this system is something that’s continued to grow in popularity after the pandemic.Kent says they’ve learned most people schedule home tours for Saturday at 8 a.m. and Sunday at 4 p.m.”Self-Tour” allows people to schedule and tour a home seven days a week when it’s convenient for them.”When it comes to self-touring, what we realized is people couldn’t conform to our normal sales, working hours of 9 to 5 because of maybe the way their job works, or they have a holiday off,” Kent said.Kent says you’ll sign up online, and the system will verify your information through something like a bank card.Once you schedule a home tour, you’ll get a code to use to get into the house. Kent says the door will automatically lock behind you.After you go into the home you’re touring, he says you’ll get a text with contact information for him or a salesperson, to ask questions while you tour.”We find that about 25% of all the people who do a self-tour will call us first to ask us additional information about the home, and it’s super convenient because we can be across town, working with another client at the time,” Kent said.Amanda Murphy was planning her move to Greenville, but only had a short window of time to find a home.”It was one of those things where I had come back from seeing family over Christmas and was just trying to fit in some viewings when I could,” Murphy said.Murphy says she was able to visit the home she toured multiple times.“For someone who has sort of a traditional job, touring it at 9-5 is not really convenient,” she said. “So, I was able to go after work, and I think it might’ve even been New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day.”Kent says they’ve found most people connect with a home within 90 seconds, so if you don’t like a home, you can leave right away, or stay for up to an hour. “It doesn’t replace the sales agent. It actually supplements the sales agent to where, when we’re selling or working with buyers and clients, we’re able to get them to where they want to go at the time that they want to go look at a home, or help other people who are extremely interested, and maybe this person just wants to check out a home,” Kent said.Kent says you can also bring your real estate agent to tour a home.“This is unique to new home sales because homes are vacant, but it will never replace the need of our real estate professionals in our area, because we still have to transact homes where people live in them, which self-tour wouldn’t apply,” he said.