Virtual Reality for Real Estate Agents, is set to emerge as a powerful tool in selling property developments off-the-plan. Buying selling homes involves a lot of emotional and subjective decisions. Before these transactions even take place, real estate professionals need to work with these decisions and get creative to even get in front of these buyers and sellers in the first place. Without a doubt, video marketing is one of the best ways to appeal to the emotional, subjective factors in buying and selling a home, and 360 video has taken this to the next level. Just like any other form of marketing though, poor video marketing methods can turn off a buyer or seller just as quickly as it reels them in.
“VIRTUAL REALITY IS A REALLY POWERFUL TOOL AND WHEN APPLIED TO THE REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY GIVES CONSUMERS GREATER CONFIDENCE TO PART WITH THEIR HARD EARNED DOLLAR AND PURCHASE OFF-THE-PLAN” – StartVR
Example of 360 video
360 Video and Virtual Reality, has rapidly become one of the most popular ways for realtors to market their properties. The ability of video to help sell homes is also increasingly well understood by homeowners. Consequently there is a strong preference by sellers to use realtors who offer 360 video as part of their marketing. According to 360VirtualReality, the stats are truly compelling as to why you would opt in for 360 video and VR as part of your marketing process for property:
- 60% of prospective buyers find virtual reality video tours to be very useful.
- Just under half of prospective buyers like to view a virtual 360 video tour of the property in order to make an informed purchasing decision.
- Real estate listings with video receive 500% more inquiries than those which do not include video.
- 80 % of homeowners would be more likely to list with a realtor who uses 360 degrees , virtual reality video to market their home.
THESE DEVICES ARE MUCH MORE THAN THE SUM OF THEIR PARTS FOR THE END USER. THEY ARE MINI TIME MACHINES AND MEMORY MAKERS. THEY ARE PORTAL DEVICES THAT CAN TAKE YOU ANYWHERE, REAL OR IMAGINED. WE ARE JUST SCRATCHING THE SURFACE THIS TECH’S POTENTIAL. – StartVR
If the statistics above are to try and boring to convince you that VR and 360 video are something you should absolutely be considering, then check out these 3 reasons why it should be on the cards.
Why Virtual Reality for Real Estate Agents may emerge in the future?
#1 A picture tells 1,000 words. A video has 30 frames per second. That’s a long story.
Video is by far the next step in telling the story of a homes’ charm. It’s quite difficult to convey space and depth by just using regular pictures, and it’s difficult to get a feel for how the house flows in regards to design without actually walking through the house; this is no longer an issue with 360 video.
#2 Remove some burden from the homeowners
Trying to sell a house means ensuring that it is constantly kept in a state of near-perfection; you don’t always get a warning for when someone wants to come and check out the property, and there’s often not enough time to do a quick clean-up. Plus this can get expensive for regular cleans, constantly kicking homeowners out of the house and hiring furniture if it has been hired for sale. VR and 360 video alleviates some of this pressure because the images used for both are only taken once, when the house is looking its best. Eventually someone will want to take a walk through the house, however it’s drastically reduced quantity from the open houses required without 360 video.
#3 Ease of presenting homes to interstate and overseas investors/buyers
Let’s say you’re a real estate agent across multiple countries or states. For example, you are selling property in Australia but you have Chinese investors who cannot come down easily and view properties. VR and 360 video assist with giving these investors the best opportunity to assess the house and it’s viability for their portfolio or as a new place to live, without the expensive trip over to view a house that may or may not by viable.
360 video is becoming more ubiquitous and more widely-supported. YouTube and Facebook support 360 video and they are viewable on mobile and tablet devices. These channels are also fantastic for embedding into other sites like Realestate.com.au, your website and also for advertising in these social networks. Plus, the cost of 360 video cameras is falling, making them more business-friendly.
As for virtual reality for real estate agents, it’s still not particularly cost-effective. One VR scan of a house can start at $300 but it can rise to almost $1000. At this time, VR is something that only makes sense for high-end, expensive (and expansive) homes with high-dollar buyers. However, as technology changes and becomes more affordable, there is little doubt that both 360 video and Virtual Reality for real estate agents will find their way into the world of real estate marketing.