The question comes up before every first shoot: how long is this actually going to take? Not the marketing answer, the real one, counted from walking in the front door to texting a client the link. The honest number depends on the property, but the shape of the timeline is the same every time.
Capture: 15 to 30 minutes
A consumer 360 camera on a tripod covers an average flat or house in one scene per room, shot at a consistent eye-level height. Budget two to three minutes per scene once the tripod habit is set: level it, trigger it, move on. A three-bedroom home with a kitchen, living room and garden runs eight to ten scenes, which is the same twenty-minute shoot already typical of an ordinary listing walkthrough.
Upload and link: 10 to 20 minutes
Drag the folder of panoramas into Pano and every shot becomes a scene automatically. The only manual work left is dropping a hotspot on each doorway and stairwell so viewers move through the tour the way they would walk the real space. For a home of eight to ten scenes this is a five to ten minute task once you know where the doors are.
Optional: dollhouse adds 15 to 40 minutes
Tracing the floor corners of a room to build its 3D dollhouse model takes a few minutes per room, and the magic wand furniture selection speeds up the busiest rooms but still wants a check per piece. Skip it on a first listing and add it once the hotspot tour is already live, since dollhouse is an enhancement to a published tour, not a requirement to publish one.
Publish: instant
Press publish and the link exists. There is no render queue and no overnight wait, because nothing needs to bake; the tour runs directly off the uploaded panoramas. Edits after publishing, a re-shot kitchen or a moved hotspot, go live on the same link the moment you save.
What actually slows it down
The variables that stretch the timeline are rarely the camera. A property with ten rooms instead of six adds proportional capture time, but clutter adds more: a bedroom that needs clearing of laundry and cables before the tripod goes up can cost five extra minutes on its own, the same tidying habit any photo shoot needs. Multiple floors mean carrying the tripod up and down stairs between scenes rather than pivoting in place, and outdoor scenes depend on the weather holding rather than on you.
So, realistically
A straightforward home: 30 to 50 minutes from tripod to link, most of it capture. A larger property, or one getting the full dollhouse treatment: closer to ninety minutes. Either way it is an afternoon task, not a studio booking, which is the whole reason tours stopped being reserved for listings that could justify a specialist's day rate.
Full capture walkthrough: how to shoot 360 panoramas with any camera. What to do with the finished link: QR codes on for sale signs.