Real estate owners and marketers no longer have to spend their nights worrying about the staggering money required to furnish houses, print property guides, or attract home buyers for their under-constructed properties.
Virtual Reality can accomplish all the above activities at a fraction of the cost and time. Not surprisingly, 71% of real estate agents swear by VR’s transformative powers.
The point is the future of buying and selling homes is becoming more and more VR-centric
If you are still on the fence wondering whether or not to adopt VR in the real estate realm, let’s get you started on the journey by highlighting 8 ways VR is revolutionising the real estate sector.
Whether for property showcasing, home staging, architectural visualisation, v-commerce, or other uses, VR has become the go-to tech for the real estate industry.
1. Virtual Tours Boosting Real Estate Sales
I remember my better half hitting the road, visiting many residential properties, and the headache before zeroing down on one as he had spent tons on petrol, let alone the energy and emotional drain the home search had cost.
This is where VR technology arrives as a beacon of light for homebuyers. Home buyers can virtually tour houses and take property walkthroughs by simply donning VR headsets in the comforts of their homes. Let me tell you, the experience is pretty realistic, as VR takes a three-dimensional approach, making the viewers feel like they are looking at the property from a close range rather than from a distance.
According to a study, homebuyers who have seen real estate listings with a 3-D tour are more likely — almost 95% — to contact the agent.
Additionally, agents can sell properties at a 9% higher price. These reasons should be convincing enough for real estate agents to adopt VR in their business.
Not just homes for sale, virtual tours can push up occupancy rates of rental properties for both short-term rentals and long-term rentals.
3D virtual tours can be divided into two categories:
Guided tours – It could be virtual or could be in the form of 360-degree movies.
Interactive tours are not easy to produce; however, they are found to be more interactive and effectively showcase homes.
2. Home Staging of Unfurnished Properties
Home furnishings can burn your pockets. But then, when you don’t furnish, the chances of a sale go down. According to relator.com, staging a 2,000-square-foot home costs between $2,000 and $2,400 monthly.
Virtual reality in real estate marketing enables you to have a preview of how your property will look once the interior and exterior decor are completely done.
Likewise, property promoters and rental owners can virtually stage vacant spaces when marketing to tenants. Such home staging helps find renters faster.
3. Virtual Architectural Visualisation
Selling a property under construction is a nightmare for every real estate broker, let alone an existing property. Home buyers find it hard to fathom how the property will finally look and consequently shy from buying.
In response, property managers have built enormous scalable models so buyers can see and feel the property. But such models cost a bomb.
Virtual architectural visualisation enables prospective purchasers to view the outside and inside of unfinished residences.
Over and above, VR has made architectural visualisation a lot cheaper and immersive.
4. V-Commerce
Virtual reality in real estate is about property showcasing, architectural visualisation, and home staging. But then, that’s just one part of the equation. Equally important, if not more, is commerce.
Allow me to explain! When giving a virtual tour, realtors allow home buyers to suggest changes to the interiors. Customers may want different furniture or light fixtures or perhaps want to customise the interior. To this end, they can visit an online store, choose the required furniture, light fixtures, and other items, and add them to the virtual tour then and there. In short, they can style their property according to their preferences.
On the other hand, if the client likes the interiors as they are and is keen on buying the furniture, lights, and other things shown in the virtual tour, they can immediately visit the virtual store and order them.
5. Virtual Guides
Usually, real estate agents maintain proper manuals of property pictures and appliances to give buyers or renters an idea about the property. Otherwise, they had to take them to the property location to let them have a first-hand look at the property, furnishings, and appliances. No more!
Now, you can create virtual guides that your buyers or renters can watch whenever they want. This helps both property owners and buyers/renters, thus enhancing the efficiency of your real estate business.
6. Remote Client Consultations
VR has made remote client consultations possible. Clients can view, discuss, and ask questions despite the buyer living 1000 or 10,000 miles away. The technology removes geographical barriers, saves time, and is highly convenient for both sellers
and buyers.
7. VR Training of agents
As VR boasts immersive and interactive features, it is the best tool for training real estate agents. Like home buyers, agents can have a virtual sense of the property and its layout. For instance, they can get a hang of rooms in detail, while new agents can also practice their sales skills, such as negotiation, virtual communication, and more.
VR educates agents about safety hazards and compliance issues and gives them a tour of the neighborhood, local amenities, and landmarks. Thus, they can familiarise themselves with the neighborhood areas and get an insider view of local trends without leaving the office.
8. VR QR codes
QR codes connected to properties help real estate agents share immersive property experiences with home buyers. They can then share these codes on different marketing channels, including Twitter, LinkedIn, and print materials.
Home buyers can scan these QR codes using their smartphones, which gives them instant access to VR tours. VR QR codes make life easier for agents by helping them engage potential buyers with property exploration. Buyers can easily explore different rooms and get a realistic sense of available space by visualising the property as if they were actually present.
Conclusion
As VR evolves, its impact on the real estate industry will also grow. Thus, it makes economic sense for real estate professionals to partner with VR companies and enhance home buyers’ overall experience.
Author bio
Jennifer Warren is a resident wordsmith @ GoodFirms – a review and rating agency that offers a level playing field to mobile app businesses of all sizes. She is a connoisseur of deep work and an addictive reader who believes in the magic of deeply researched posts to drive site traffic and conversions.
