With house hunters increasingly seeking the fastest and simplest way to tour a house they may be interested in buying, Zillow is rolling out a new feature called “3D Home” that creates an immersive experience directly from an iPhone program. According to the Seattle-based real estate technology company’s 2017 Housing Trends Report, over 70 percent of first-time house buyers are millennials and they believe 3D media to be as significant as open houses. Additionally, 44 percent of home buyers and 47 percent of renters are trying to find a house from a space – either from another city, state or even out of the nation, Zillow stated in a news release.
If the tech is already on a device an agent or property manager already uses, we have gotten over the hurdle of adoption. While many realtors spend some time on weekends conducting open houses and working with home extension builders in Melbourne, Zillow’s data shows millennials, who now constitute 70 percent of first-time homebuyers, state 3D media is just as important as an open house, based on the 2017 Zillow Group Housing Report. Zillow’s data also revealed about 44 percent of homebuyers and 47% of tenants search homes from a distance, and, according to the company, would reap the benefits of 3D virtual tours of the house.
Jeremy Wacksman, Zillow Group chief marketing officer, stated that rich media, such as new 3D Homes, will help buyers and tenants more easily envision themselves living in the house, however far off they happened to be. Pictures have always been recognised as vital to the home search process and 3D tours of builders extensions may give buyers and tenants a realistic comprehension of what it would be like to reside in the house. By getting a better comprehension of a house or rental property’s design as well as the transitions between spaces, potential buyers and tenants can narrow down the amount of properties which they actually may want to see in person.
For sellers and brokers, the new service reduces the price and effort previously needed to make a 360-degree tour of a house. Zillow says a 3,000-square-foot house can be captured in about half an hour and adds that its program is the only mobile-based app that can capture 3D mobile tours all at no cost. Zillow also unveiled its new program that allows homeowners and property agents to capture the 3D pictures of the home’s exterior, interior, furnishings, foundations, building structure and general plumbing from their iPhone. While 3D tours now exist, the approach is significantly more expensive, and is usually only utilized in higher-end listings.
Currently, real estate agents need to buy special equipment so as to take 3D tours and photos – an added task when they are already calling the emergency plumber and responding to emails from anxious tenants. Zillow’s new program, the Zillow Group Home Capture Program, though, will be available at no cost from their app. Wacksman said that they are democratizing access to this technology, and making it free for agents and vendors. They created a 3D experience that’s easy and cost-effective so sellers and agents can adopt it readily.
By integrating directly with the iPhone, a device many people are already using, agents can simply pull out their telephone, and catch a panoramic photograph. By removing the hardware barrier, more real estate experts can add 3D Homes to their listings, giving them a fresh way to promote all their listings, and enhancing the search experience for renters and buyers. The program is still in the first test period with a select group of realtors and photographers in Scottsdale, Arizona, but will soon roll out throughout the Phoenix area in ancient 2018. The remainder of the U.S. will have access to this program in late 2018.
But will property agents take the time to use the program when demand is so high, and the average days on market for most houses is just over one month?
Photographs are the most important factor in listing a home for sale in both a sellers’ and buyers’ market. But Granite Point Realty President Lisa Bloskas has more than 20 years in the real estate business, such as founding Dallas-based GPR, and went on to describe that experienced brokers and agents use professional photography. Photography is an integral factor in how a house is presented on the internet – correct lighting, the best way to frame a shot, the angle, glare from windows, etc.
Zillow’s program works by capturing 360 degree panoramic photographs of all the rooms in the house, which users then upload via the program. Zillow then stiches the photographs together into a tour in only a couple hours and provides it the list on Zillow. Photos are all taken directly from an iPhone via the program.
But Bloskas clarified this new program is not a game changer, and lots of agents will opt out Zillow’s 3D Homes. According to Bloskas, the cost for a 3D virtual tour is about $100 when done professionally. She claims that since this cost is so minimal, she doesn’t see brokers taking the opportunity to use the app once the price for the extra virtual tour is so cheap and is done while photographers do the still shots.