Virtual reality for real estate
Virtual reality now seems to be the new toy of the real estate industry. Not because it is entertaining or funny, but because virtual reality improves the presentation of a property, captures the attention of potential clients and saves a lot of unnecessary visits.
For years now, technology has penetrated almost all areas of our lives, allowing us to carry out the most common tasks without leaving our homes. Even so, since the last crisis in the real estate market, we have not been able to observe any substantial change in the process of buying and selling properties. The most notable innovation arose around the year 2000 with the appearance of real estate portals such as Idealist o FotocasaThe new model did not alter the model either, but managed to centralise the content on a single platform, providing the user with a much broader portfolio and consequently reducing search time.
Digital transformation in the real estate sector is on the move, and we can find more and more technological proposals that are committed to our sector and try to speed up the process of buying and selling or renting property. If we focus on those proposals that intervene in the framework of the visits and how they manage to reduce this process, a good example is Floorfya Barcelona-based startup that was born a little over a year ago with the intention of solving, with virtual tours, the countless visits that we make before managing to sell a property.
Many of you will think that this is a technology for the big players and that the cost of applying it does not compensate the small agency. Well, this is no longer the case, Floorfy offers all types of agencies the opportunity to generate this content ourselves in a very simple way and at a really competitive cost. And what is more, they do not only solve one problem, but from their tool we can create all the content surrounding a property, from the photos to the video, including the virtual tour.
We spoke to Sergi Jiménez (@sergijiba), responsible for Floorfy.
What devices or software do real estate agencies need to start virtual tours?
It depends on how the agency wants to carry them out. We have a very intuitive software in which the agent is completely autonomous and professional photographers for those who wish to hire the service. In this case the photographer takes care of the whole process.
In case the agency wants to set it up on their own, all they need is a 360º camera and a Floorfy account to be able to start publishing tours. Cameras are available on the market for less than €400 and we offer a complete kit with a Ricoh Theta SC camera and a panoramic tripod for €350. We also support all agencies from day one.
How can real estate agencies take advantage of virtual reality?
The options are many. Mainly, the agencies can incorporate the visits to their own platform (web and blog), the process is similar to uploading a Youtube video. But they can also publish it on social networks, where their followers can enter directly to the property and contact the agency in case they are interested, they can also send the link to potential clients via email or whatsapp etc.
They also have the opportunity, using virtual reality glasses, to show the properties to their clients from the same office before going out to see them. I can assure you that they will have discarded a large number of the properties so they will not have to visit all of them.
If they do not have the client in the office they can connect through Floorfy and make the visits together, as a kind of skype integrated in the tours so that they can guide the user and, if necessary, show them as many properties as they want before they find theirs.
When you say that virtual tours are the tip of the iceberg, what do you mean?
We started by offering a software for the generation and distribution of tours but we realised the whole process that exists around the content of a property and we decided to attack that problem as well. Currently, agencies take photos or send a photographer to each of your properties and in some cases, you send another professional to take the video and/or virtual tour. Why not have photos, videos and virtual tours for each and every property in your portfolio? Isn't it true that they help in the acquisition process? From there we start to offer an integral solution so that once the virtual tour has been set up, you can take simple photographs, normal videos or 360º videos, guided tours between agent and buyer or you can hold open houses and show the property to as many people as you want.
Virtual reality is undoubtedly an interesting option in terms of the potential savings in time and money for both estate agents and private individuals. If you are thinking of incorporating virtual reality into your day-to-day work as a real estate agency, contact Floorfy at info@floorfy.com and they will help you to resolve any doubts you may have.
