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The real estate industry is increasingly focusing on 3-D technology and 360-degree imagery and video, banking on their ability to upgrade the experience of looking at listings online and open up greater marketing possibilities for practitioners. How are these advancements being used in the field right now? Take a peek at these interactive listings from three real estate professionals.
Interactive Floor Plan With 360-Degree Tour
Deanna Whipp, marketing director for the Caskey & Caskey team at Shorewood, REALTORS®, in El Segundo, Calif., uses iGuide, a technology company that takes 360-degree photos of each room of a home and combines them with an interactive floor plan. The floor plan includes virtual viewpoints in each room that users can click on for a 360-degree view.
“It’s a phenomenal improvement to be able to put yourself in a room, turn your head, and see everything in real perspective,” Whipp says, adding that the intuitive navigation of iGuide floor plans works for home shoppers of all ages. “Everyone understands a floor plan and how it works. There’s nothing anyone needs to learn in order to use an iGuide tour.” Check out a recent Caskey & Caskey listing using iGuide’s technology.
3-D Floor Plan With Virtual Design Capabilities
After one of Pamela Graham’s sellers made renovations that resulted in a long, rectangular kitchen, prospective buyers had trouble envisioning how they would use the space. So Graham, a sales associate with Keller Williams Realty in Limerick, Pa., used floorplanner.com to create a 3-D floor plan of the kitchen that included icons representing furniture and appliances. It was particularly useful because users could rearrange the icons to get a better idea of how the room could work for their needs.
“When people can explore uses for a space like that, it makes the home more marketable,” Graham says. The home had been listed for 119 days with no offers, but after Graham let visitors use the 3-D floor plan at an open house, the property sold with multiple offers in four days. Play with the floor plan yourself below. You can rearrange furniture icons in the 2-D version and then toggle to the 3-D version to see a rendering of the new layout.
A 3-D Walkthrough With ‘Dollhouse’ Floor Plan
Kevin Tolbert, broker-associate at Keller Williams Realty in Port St. Lucie, Fla., uses Matterport to create 3-D listings. The $4,500 Matterport Pro 3-D camera, which can be controlled from a mobile device, scans each room in a home to capture 3-D imagery and measure for a 2-D and 3-D “dollhouse” floor plan. Tolbert then uploads the images to the Matterport system to automatically assemble an interactive tour, floor plan, and 3-D rendering.
“Whatever is in a home, it can’t hide from that camera,” Tolbert says. “A person can see a room from floor to ceiling, zoom in, and explore everything there — even the detail of the crown molding. There’s no better way I’ve found to see what’s there without actually being there.”
He’s the first in his market to employ the Matterport technology, and the quality of the tours has helped him win luxury listings. “I’ve had buyers from overseas who bought a home because of the thoroughness of these tours,” Tolbert adds. “They felt like they knew the home before they ever set foot in it.” Walk through one of Tolbert's 3-D listings below.
