Blog: Mark Foreman
‘Virtual tours are great, but what if you don’t like the color of the living room?’
The constantly evolving technologies that help
us market and sell real estate all started with Gutenberg’s printing press in or around 1450. Fast forward to 2009. Fax machines, cell phones, digital cameras and the internet have created marketing tools unimagined 30 years ago – so what will the future of real estate marketing and sales look like?
No one really knows, but sci-fi author and techno-visionary William Gibson once said, ‘The future is already here – it is just unevenly distributed.’ Some innovative companies are already showing a glimpse of how agents will market their listings in the not-too-distant future: 3D technology is at the center of this movement.
Potential buyers already have the ability access property data, photos, flat floor plans, photo tours and virtual tours online, before they venture out to physically tour the homes. In the very near future, agents will be able to walk buyers through their listings virtually. If they don’t like the wall colors or floor style, they will change them with the click of a mouse. Want to see what the rooms look like with furniture? Simply arrange and rearrange with your index finger. Just about any item in the home will be viewable in a different style or color.
As a Realtor for over 21 years, I have worked with a lot of buyers who look at a lot of houses that they never buy. Some just like to look. And I can’t tell you how many times I have heard, ‘My furniture will never fit in this space.’ Having my buyers ‘fit’ their furniture in the rooms before they go out and look at the homes would make a tremendous time saving. They would only then look at homes about which they already have a sense of the interior size and layout. Most of my clients end up spending a lot of time envisioning how the walls will look in a certain color, or asking, ‘What if I changed the floors to hardwood from carpet?’
Many Realtors already use floor plans as part of their marketing package, which add depth to the information a potential buyer uses in making a decision whether or not to go see a home. Virtual tours are great, but what if you don’t like the color of the living room? How can you tell if a King-sized bed will fit in the master bedroom? A two-dimensional static floor plan lets you see the room layout, but it won’t allow you to place furniture in the rooms or play with different wall colors.
A new program, being developed by the Denmark-based United Lane Corporation, will soon allow home shoppers and commercial tenants to make and see these changes online. United Lane’s software takes that 2D floor plan and converts it to an interactive virtual 3D model that then becomes an open house – 24 hours per day. No more Sunday open houses; no more asking the sellers to leave for the afternoon; no more baking gingerbread cookies to make the house smell ‘homey’. Any buyer can look at and ‘walk through’ the listing anytime, from anywhere in the world. That’s powerful marketing.
It’s rare when a product/concept so unique and intuitive first comes to the market and almost everyone can immediately see how this could change the face of several industries. The early version of the program is impressive to say the least, but high-definition, video-quality 3D walkthroughs are already in the development stages. And purchasing consumer products through this venue might be as easy as clicking the Dell laptop on the desk in the den and inputting your credit card info.
It won’t be too long before every single piece of commercial and residential property in the world will have an interactive 3D rendering of the layout available to the owner, or made accessible to the public if the home is for sale. Planting a virtual ‘For Sale’ sign in front of these homes and buildings will let the world know that this property is on the market. Potential buyers will be able to ‘cyberwalk’ down United Lane, popping into the properties they are interested in seeing. Agents will benefit by taking buyers only to homes that they have a high level of interest in. The possibilities can only be imagined…
