The real estate agent, especially those selling high-end homes in and around the city or suburb, is a harried person who has to go from one listing to another, maybe back to back, to show clients homes that they want to see.
Enter virtual reality. VR is the future of the real estate business. It’s an exciting new technology that gives a view of a house in a realistic way so that a buyer can see the house up close as if he or she is at the site, without even setting foot on the property. In another way, VR assists with architectural drawings or renderings, which can be difficult to clients because they might or can’t imagine what a new property will look like just using those renderings
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VR is easy to use. It’s just a headset that you put on. VR is shot as if it were a promotional video, except that it is assembled and shot in 360 degrees. You can also use other functions to expand virtual reality, such as video footage, 3D renderings, and the like.
To use VR, first erase from your memory the cumbersome headsets of the past, the technology housed in a complicated way, the prepubescent boys using them to play video games. Then VR can be a powerful tool. You can send VRs to clients who don’t have time to look at apartments. The real estate agent can use VR as a way in which they can show unfinished projects like never before, especially during those days when the clientele gets antsy and wants to see the progress of the property but can’t because the house is still in construction. But VR works best for high-end buyers who want to purchase a home in, say, Bel-Air while they reside in the Hamptons. In a word, distance is eliminated and the buyers who want the house don’t have to take (maybe multiple) trips to the area, thereby disrupting work, family life and most, of all, their time. With the headset, the buyer will see the property in 3-D and in all its glory. The technology allows users to move side to side, to look up and down. There’s the gourmet kitchen with the WOLF stove and the Subzero fridge. There’s the picture window overlooking that infinity pool. There’s a powder room near the butler’s pantry, but seeing it again, it’sway too small.
.The VR headset, in the coming years, promises to be the must-have device, an inimitable technology that brokerages will start gravitating toward it and ultimately embracing them. In the long run, the VR maybe the most dominant and exclusive way to showcase a property. Already we can see how mobile apps on iphones and the like can be used in relation to VR. There wouldn’t be much to get some apps up and running, especially given that real estate agencies already use several apps and can easily incorporate VR into them.
There ae, of course, limitations. VR might be the future, but it can’t really replace having a broker showing homes to buyers during real time. What about the nuances, the leaves stuck in the gutter, the boiler machine making noises, the way you have to flush the toilet twice before waste goes down. VR, in this way, may sound like a novelty, like the scooter. But if we are open to our imaginations, if we don’t mind embracing change, VR may very well become your best friend.
