3D Real Estate Tour

3D Real Estate Tour

3D REAL ESTATE TOURS

Despite sage old advice that is no longer relevant, 3D Real Estate Tours are the future of property marketing. 3D content has been around for over one hundred and twenty years. First coming to the scene in the 1900’s, claymation was a cheap if not time consuming method of filming and rendering in real time; 3D models. 3D Real Estate tours were still a long way off from being not only a concept but an affordable reality. Before then came the first computer generated 3D image. The first motion picture to take advantage of the new computer generated images, now known more commonly as CGI, was a 1973 film called “Westworld”. Later, major motion films such as “Star Wars” (1977) and “Tron” (1982) would go on to also utilize CGI, and had cemented themselves as iconic household name sense. We find the origin of the word “Virtual Tour”, in a 1993 exhibit by Dudley Castle, where the viewer was led through the imagined construction in the year 1500. One of the very first consumers was in fact Queen Elizabeth II of England. Opening the exhibit in 1993, the queen’s officials had requested titles and descriptions of each event of the opening of the exhibit. Dudley castle provided this as an explanation of the new phrase, “Virtual Tour; a cross between virtual reality and a royal tour”. We can make three deductions from the history of virtual tours, that would in fact not hold up today. First, virtual tours are speciality, high cost, limited application assets. Second, virtual tours are more or less exclusively for high traffic and other cutting edge spaces, like castles. Third, virtual tours are hard to make. In reality, virtual tours are very cost effective, often costing just a few hundred dollars to make. They can take as little as an hour to produce, meaning they have limited; if any impacts on the daily happenings of the space.

According to Matt Bell, co-founder of matterport, in a 2016 interview- “…we founded Matterport in 2011, virtual reality was beyond the horizon, a technology that had captured everyone’s imagination for decades but had never delivered. We were focused on a dream of our own: enabling easy 3D capture of the real world”. A June 2021 article by Cision says the following on the potential application of Matterport, “The built world is the largest asset class in the world worth an estimated $230 trillion, more than three times the estimated value of all global equities combined. It also represents the largest undisrupted market with less than 1% digitized. With the help of artificial intelligence, machine learning and deep learning technologies, Matterport sees additional growth opportunities as the company continues to unlock powerful spatial data-driven property insights and analytics. This increases the total addressable market for the digitization and datafication of the built world to more than $1 trillion.”

For the purpose of this article, we are going to focus on Matterport for 3D Real Estate tours. Matterport is the largest and most prevalent name in 3D image capture. While there are others, like GeoSLAM that are taking a larger and larger market share over time, this shouldn’t gesture to Matterport dropping from top of the pile anytime soon, but it is a clear indicator of the growth in the 3D Real Estate Tours awareness and market.

3D Real Estate Tour

What exactly is 3D?

3D is shorthand for three dimensions. Compared to your phone or tv screen. You may perceive depth of field using camera tricks and angles, however, you cannot pause or otherwise isolate content, and look at it individually from different angeles. The greatest explanation of 2D is the 1884 sci-fi book “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions” by Edwin Abbott Abbott.

3D Real Estate Tour

Above is a mathematical representation of the concept of 3D. We can see how adding a third dimension, we can not only mention how far up and along something is on X and Y axis, but its depth from that point with the Z axis.

By capturing homes with 3D scans, on a 3D Real Estate Tour, the buyer is able to view the entire home, as accurately as current technology allows. This includes taking measurements of spaces, a new and exciting feature for prospective home buyers. This provides distinct advantages over, for example, 360 degree spherical panoramas, which lack 3D data.

There are clear and distinct differences between a 3D scan, which presents as a 360 degree panoramic image, and a “plain” 360 degree panoramic. On Matterport cameras, there is a trio of sensors that are capturing data to render into a digital twin of your space. First, LiDAR range finders get a broad picture, while laser range finders make precise measurements. Lastly, the camera take a panoramic image, giving a very literal picture on top of the data, making it easier for the common consumer to digest and use. 360 degree panoramic images, on their own, are lovely- and even offer customization in programs like Adobe and Topaz.

Traditionally, 3D Real Estate Tours are for selling spaces, giving people a full and complete view, complete with built in tape measure. 360 panoramic images are used for marketing, in consideration of their lower cost and customization.

Why Use 3D Real Estate Tours?
As we know, traditionally, matterport tours and other virtual tours are not new, but they have certainly been out of reach to everyone but high end, seven and eight figure plus, luxury listings. Today, it simply is not true. 3D Real Estate Tours can cost, depending on the market and size, about $300. But what exactly are you getting for $300?
First, a 3D Real Estate Matterport Tour. This is obviously the big ticket item. But, what if you need still images for the MLS? Easy, you can pull unlimited free still images from this high end three thousand dollar camera. That will allow you the agent absolute and total control over what images you want to use. So what about video? A highlight reel can be made in a matter of seconds, meaning that from that single $300 scan, you’re actually getting three different assets. As far as the outside goes, getting a 3D Real Estate Tour can be tricky. Not designed to be used outdoors, the Pro2 and Pro2 Lite (the light just having 50% of the Pro2 battery) can take 360 panoramic images that can be placed outside the house. Like all other parts of the tour, they can have still images taken from them, they simply can’t be used for any measurements.

The next best feature of 3D Real Estate Tours is versatility. They can be placed on anything from business cards and yard signs, to email signatures and of course, embedded directly on your website. The tour are accessible by phone, computer, or tablet- twenty four hours a day. With unlimited distribution and access at one time, your digital twin will always be open. This beckons to the practicality of open houses. With the ability to embed tags (information in the tour), you can make sure all key features are called out and highlighted.

What types of properties can use 3D Real Estate Tours?

3D real estate tours, now that they are accessible to the public at large, can be used in almost every housing situation available. Are you looking to sell a listing? Are you looking to inspect a house that is far away, and it’s impractical to visit? Are you a landlord looking to document a rental before move in, or fill the rental itself? How about any form of interior property damage? From 500 square foot apartments to 100,000+ square feet commercial real estate listings, the benefits of a 3D virtual tour hold true. Even further still, 3D tours have been made of everything from Real Estate to amusement parks, from medical marijuana dispensaries to banks. 3D Virtual tours are here to stay, and ever growing in popularity and ease of use.

There are even less common applications for 3D virtual tours that we will soon see become more and more relevant. With 3D Virtual Tours being court admissible documents, it’s now possible to capture crime scenes in a precise detail, ensuring nothing is missed and giving a jury a firsthand look at any scene. 3D Real Estate tours are a fantastic example of a unique and practical solution to a marketing problem that can be overcome while also benefiting various industries and sectors at once. This beckons to the true versatility of 3D Real Estate Virtual tours.

There are some practical considerations as to what properties can use a 3D Real Estate Tour. One of the biggest being that the cameras cannot operate in dark or low light environments. Most homes with working light fixtures and some natural light will be no trouble at all. If a building has power cut to it and is being shot on a dark, overcast day- this will impact the camera’s ability to operate. Other considerations include the setting- occasionally the property may be occupied, and the tenants not exactly thrilled that photography is underway. Safety concerns are always a number one priority, so if there are known squatters or other vagrancy, it’s best to have those taken care of before a property is captured. It’s important to remember that a 3D scan is ALSO a 360 degree scan, meaning it is able to capture everything it can see.

A conclusion on 3D Real Estate Tours.

Today, 3D Real Estate Tours are an accessible and meaningful way to list and expose your property. From the ability to give the sellers pece, to having a 24/7 open house customized with every last piece of information imaginable, 3D Real Estate Tours are the future. Often starting for as little as $300, they include the tour itself, unlimited still images from the tour, and a comprehensive walkthrough video. This ensures all your listing needs are met, including having best in class, top of the line marketing assets that are 3D Real Estate Tours.

Being accessible on anything from a smartphone to a desktop computer, and with world class security, 3D Virtual tours are an “absolute” way to market a property. Taking as little as an hour to shoot and twenty four hours to create and deliver- 3D virtual tours wont slow down the process of selling your listing; quite the opposite.

Because of how comprehensive 3D Real Estate Tours are, it shows a refreshing level of transparency while also letting people sell themselves on homes. With 3D Real Estate Tours, every pitch you make can be your best pitch for that listing, always with the strongest foot forward. Fully compatible with virtual reality headsets, these are truly future proof assets that will last the tests of the technology of tomorrow, so you can spend less time showing off listings and more time finding more of them to sell.