The increasing interest being shown in 3D technology has been underlined by the decision by real estate giants Realogy to agree to market United Lane’s Open3DHouse™ interior modelling software to its brands.

Realogy is the world’s leading real estate company with brands including such household names as Century 21®, Era®, Coldwell Banker®, Sotheby’s International Realty® and Better Homes And Gardens®, it has approximately 270,000 affiliated real estate brokers and sales associates, who work from 14,400 offices in 93 countries.

The decision by Realogy to market Open3DHouse™ to its brands is a sign of changing times in the real estate market, according to Aamir Butt, United Lane’s CEO: “Realogy is a company that is at the forefront of technological innovation and I would like to think that by its decision to market our technology that it sees us as part of that process,” said Butt, adding that the real estate industry in the US was now much more receptive to technology as it comes to terms with life in the first decade of the 21st century
“The impact of the current economic conditions and the rapidly developing world of the internet have been presenting realtors with a number of challenges.

“As a result realtor’s are turning to the internet in a bid not only to cut costs but also to respond to the fact that 90% of their clients are choosing to start their search for property on the web, said Butt.”
A change that has other messages for the modern real estate broker, the survey from the National Association of Realtors that found that nine out of ten searches start on the web also found out that 98% of those using the web to start their quest for a house subsequently viewed properties they had seen on the web.
Statistics that also mean that other properties were rejected, some because there was not enough information available about a property to sell it.

According to Butt, it is now essential for the modern realtor to engage those clients instantly and provide them with as much information as possible, if they can do that then they can cross one of the biggest hurdles and form a relationship with those virtual clients there and then at the same time differentiating them from their competitors.

A process that Open3DHouse™ has been designed to seamlessly dovetail into by letting people searching the web not only to get a feel for the property they are interested in by allowing them to walk around a 3D interior of the building but also by allowing them to decorate and furnish any part of the building using tools and databases built into the system.

“One of the things that we have discovered about the technology trends going on in real estate is that people want to have choice but also they want the reassurance of working with names that they can trust, that is why we consider our association with Realogy so valuable because we believe that the value of our brand is its ability to contribute to the value of other already outstanding brands,” said Butt, adding: “This now gives us the opportunity of working with the top names in real estate and bringing the value of our internet viewing technology via that association to a much wider audience.”

Buying and selling a house has always seemed a very personal transaction to me…not to mention the largest and potentially most important financial transaction most people experience in their lifetime.

It seems the business of real estate (the real estate industry in particular) has been one of the slowest to embrace technology, with most of the more significant advances happening in the last 2-3 years.

According to NAR, over 80 percent of people start their real estate search online. For today’s real estate agents, the opportunity to build relationships starts the minute a potential buyer or seller taps the keyboard. To capture those keystrokes as early as possible, the real estate industry has been scrambling to verse itself in the ways of technology.

The most recent challenge: mastering the art of social media, where online applications like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn have taken networking to new heights. In an industry where your sphere of influence is the single most important driver of your book of business, these social networks seem like a dream come true. Agents can now reach hundreds, even thousands, of people, without setting foot outside their front doors – and without spending a dime.

This is a major contrast to the old-school traditions of building relationships that used to start with desk time at the office, talking to strangers in the supermarket, one-on-one schmoozing with everyone you know and pricey marketing tactics like billboards and mailers – it does require a sea-change in thinking within the real estate community.

As a result, broad acceptance of social networks in real estate has been slow – there are always those brave few that quickly embrace and leverage technology – but the majority of agents have been slow to jump in.

Some complain that social media can be time-consuming; others point out that its value has yet to be proven. Many stand firm in the belief that real estate requires a personal touch.

They’re not entirely wrong. By its very nature, real estate will likely always require some level of face-to-face interaction. Buyers and sellers benefit from meeting in person; from seeing a home first-hand; and most importantly, from working with a trusted and trained professional.

In stark contrast to the high frequency of those searching for homes online, the number of homes that are sold by owner is still under 20 percent, pointing to the notion that consumers still need someone to guide them through the complexities of a real estate transaction.

The good news is that the real estate industry is starting to more broadly adopt the use of technology to facilitate building real world relationships. The fact is, these two worlds need to live side-by-side. It would be a mistake for either to think that the other is going away anytime soon.   There are now a plethora of sites that foster social interaction at some level, each enabling an agent to demonstrate their unique voice and hopefully engender trust with their future clients or share valuable experiences with their peers.

Because essentially what social networks do is extend that old school tradition, letting the real estate agent reach out from their desks into the new streets of the internet and meet up with the people who are searching for the houses that they want to visit there.

At the end of the day, both online social networking and in-person interactions in real estate are about being responsive to the consumer and rather than turning over the pages of a paper in the old school way your buyer is now clicking their way through cyberspace.

Being available in person, online, via cell, via text, via Twitter – it’s all connected. The key to survival in the current real estate market will be the ability to leverage both old-school and new-school skills effectively.

The pioneering 3D visualization company Get Inside has delivered a world first with the announcement that it is to become United Lane, a 3D web visualization portal that can be used via the internet. 

United Lane delivers a revolutionary concept that allows anyone in the world to input the ground plan of their house and then see it rendered in 3D.

‘One of the real advantages of the United Lane concept is that people who are buying a house can not only see what it looks like but they will also be able to input details of their furniture and the sort of colors that they prefer into the model,’ said Aamir Butt, the new CEO of United Lane. He went on to say that with the current surplus of houses on the market, buyers are increasingly making their decisions on the amount of information that they can see online.

‘The typical high-tech armoury of a successful real estate office will include videos, photos, virtual imaging, a 3D interactive floor plan and online tours, because that is what the market is now demanding. Those companies that are not making an immediate investment in technology will suffer.

‘To get an edge in the current market you have to be able to deploy technology instantly, and that is what we can do.’

The perceived beauty of United Lane is that the 3D house plan stays with the house’s owners forever, as United Lane stores the 3D model on its servers. ‘Technology is now essential in the real estate market because more and more people are going online, said Butt. ‘Even before the current challenging conditions, the trend was for people to want more and more information about a property before they viewed it.’

The change from Get Inside to United Lane marks a recognition by Aamir Butt and Get Inside founder Kresten Thomsen that the next stage in the evolution of the internet will be to 3D.

‘All of the indicators show that people want to see things in 3D because that is how they live their lives,’ said Thomsen. ‘We have created this system because we believe in drinking our own champagne and would like other people to enjoy the best experience that is possible.’

For more information or to arrange an interview with United Lane contact:

Peter Warren, Executive Vice President of Communications on:
email peter.warren@unitedlane.com
Office 00-44-207-100-1389
Mobile 00-44-7870-558635
Skype petewarren

“The companies that will survive the current tough conditions in the real estate market will be those that make the best use of technology”, said Aamir Butt, new chief executive of the 3D visualisation pioneer United Lane.

United Lane considers the US real estate market one of its core interests and has developed a state of the art online 3D visualisation tool to support it.

“We have polled real estate companies across the US and all of them have pointed out the importance of technology in the current market.

“Making an investment in technology now could be the difference between coming through and not coming through,” said Butt.

Polling real estate agents across the US, United Lane found that all of them were viewing technology as essential to get clients through the door.

With each agent stressing the internet was driving an appetite for information from customers that was now accelerating because of the sheer numbers of unsold properties on the market.

“We found that though people are searching on price and location that technology plays a key role in that,” said Butt.

“You have to be able to have a website that can show a whole range of information and allows properties to be grouped like that. When someone clicks on something they are interested in buying, they now expect a whole suite of technology applications to help them in their choice.”

On the East Coast, in New York, that means that the typical high tech armoury of a successful real estate company will include video bios of brokers, virtual imaging to demonstrate new buildings not yet completed, 3D interactive floor plans and online video tours of a prospective property.

On the West Coast, in the Bay area, realtors are looking to combine new developments in mobile phone locational technology and increased 3G bandwidth to be able to send out large amounts of information via the mobile web, while using the same technological weaponry of their colleagues on the East Coast.

3D visualisation and combining information from multiple sources is also being seen as a growth area.

“People want to be able to click on a particular floor of a development, or on a house, and be able to walk through it,” said Butt.

“Though what we are now seeing is a trend for realtors to want to combine information from Google Earth and to try to bring in information about the local area too.

“If local businesses have put that information on the web then the really forward looking real estate websites are looking to add that to information about a property – it’s real estate Web 2.0.

“Portfolio’s of information are now being put together for properties and neighbourhoods and we want to able to develop the 3Dvisualisation tools that people can help people put that information together.

“We don’t just want people to be able to see the property we want them to be able to see where is stands in relation to other houses and parks on United Lane.”

For more information or to arrange an interview with United Lane contact:

Peter Warren, Executive Vice President of Communications on:
email peter.warren@unitedlane.com
Office 00-44-207-100-1389
Mobile 00-44-7870-558635
Skype petewarren

The pioneering 3D visualisation company Get Inside is delivering a world first with its announcement that it will become United Lane, a 3D web visualisation portal that can be used via the internet.

United Lane, the new name for Get Inside, is a revolutionary concept that allows anyone in the world to input the ground plan of their house and then see it rendered in 3D.

“One of the real advantages of the United Lane concept is that people who are buying a house can not only see what it looks like but they will also be able to input details of their furniture and the sort of colours that they prefer into the model,” said Aamir Butt, the new CEO of United Lane.Butt added, that with the current surplus of houses on the market that that buyers are increasingly making their decisions on the amount of information that they can see online.

“The typical high tech armoury of a successful real estate office will include videos, photos, virtual imaging, a 3Dinteractive floor plan and online tours because that is what the market is now demanding. Those companies that are not making an immediate investment in technology will suffer.

“To get an edge in the current market you have to be able to deploy technology instantly and that is what we can do.”

The beauty of United Lane is that the 3D house plan stays with the house’s owners for ever as United Lane stores the 3D model on its servers.

“Technology is now essential in the real estate market because more and more people are going online. Even before the current challenging conditions the trend was for people to want more and more information about a property before they viewed it.”

The change from Get Inside to United Lane marks a recognition by Aamir Butt and Get Inside founder, Kresten Thomsen, that the next stage in the evolution of the internet will be to 3D.

“All of the indicators show that people want to see things in 3D because that is how they live their lives,” said Thomsen.

“We have created this system because we believe in drinking our own champagne and would like other people to enjoy the best experience that is possible.”

For more information or to arrange an interview with United Lane contact:

Peter Warren, Executive Vice President of Communications on:
email peter.warren@unitedlane.com
Office 00-44-207-100-1389
Mobile 00-44-7870-558635
Skype petewarren

Mark Foreman, one the most respected names in US real estate has joined the United Lane management team as Executive Vice President for Client Relations.

A Realtor for 21 years, Mark, who holds a degree in economics and political science from Yale University, brings a wealth of experience to his role with United Lane, which includes helping to improve the company’s flagship 3D real estate products, and working with and developing United Lane’s rapidly growing client base.

Mark has extensive contacts within the real estate industry, he currently serves as the Liaison to the National Association of Realtors’ Law and Policy group and is a former Vice President and Liaison to Committees for NAR.

Mark has also served on the Executive Committee, Strategic Planning, Member Policy and Board Jurisdiction, Credit Union Task Force, Leadership Academy Task Force, and Communications Committees for NAR.

“I regard getting Mark to agree to work with United Lane as a major coup,” said Aamir Butt, United Lane’s CEO.

“He brings to United Lane not only a wealth of experience in the real estate industry but also contacts at the highest level within the real estate world throughout the US”.

“Mark is already proving to be an exceptional ambassador for United Lane and its products.”

By being able to advise United Lane directly on the needs of the real estate industry, Mark has helped United Lane to develop our intuitive user interfaces with the industry in mind and road-tested United Lane’s 3D real estate products on US realtors.

“When I was offered the opportunity to join United Lane I was enormously excited,” said Mark. “Through my work with the NAR I have long realized the fundamental importance of technology to the real estate industry and the potential of 3D visualisation is huge.

“We are facing a time of enormous restructuring in real estate and technology is going to play a key part in how the industry is going to develop over the next 10 years. I am looking forward to being a part of that change, 3D technology will be the future of how buyers look for homes.”

Mark has extensive experience of the real estate market with Cornerstone Capital Mortgage & Real Estate Services, Inc , the company he founded, which has worked with clients such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission (FDIC), the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, General Services Administration, Fleet Bank, Chase Bank, Bank of America, GMAC, Clayton National, and the Bridgeport Housing Authority.

For more information or to arrange an interview with United Lane contact:

Peter Warren, Executive Vice President of Communications on:
email peter.warren@unitedlane.com
Office 00-44-207-100-1389
Mobile 00-44-7870-558635
Skype petewarren

United Lane has announced the appointment of Aamir Butt as the company’s new CEO.

United Lane, the new corporate image for the pioneering 3D visualisation company, formerly known as Get Inside, has announced that Aamir Butt, previously a high level adviser to the Danish Government’s Gazelle Growth programme for new start ups, is to join United lane as CEO.

“Aamir is an entrepreneur with a proven track record of taking companies onto the next stage in their development, and we welcome him onto the board,”said Get Inside founder Kresten Thomsen, who will now become United Lane’s Chief Technical Officer.

One of Butt’s first moves since joining the board has been the rebranding of Get Inside to put it in line with the new technological developments that are now occurring on the web.

“The whole new development of the internet is about communication and experience.That is why we have created United Lane,” said Butt.

“People want to be able to get information instantly and more and more they will want to get that information on any device and wherever they are. If they get a bad information experience then they are going to go elsewhere. Our aim is to make sure that they have an experience so rich that they will want to get more of it.”

In line with those trends United Lane is now launching a new 3D visualisation experience for realtors.

Visitors to the site will be able to upload their 2D floorplans onto the web and see them instantly converted into 3D walkthroughs.

Potential buyers of their properties will be able to use United Lane technology to then add in their own furniture and change colour and decoration schemes.

“We think that this is a really exciting development,”said Thomsen.

“It is part of our ongoing commitment to develop technologies that help one of our core markets, real estate, to reap the maximum benefits.”

For more information or to arrange an interview with United Lane contact:

Peter Warren, Executive Vice President of Communications on:
email peter.warren@unitedlane.com
Office 00-44-207-100-1389
Mobile 00-44-7870-558635
Skype petewarren