List Sotheby's International Realty Uses Matterport to Provide Superior Customer Service to Clients around the World

Providing the Highest-Quality Experience to High-End Customers

List Sotheby’s International Realty is a leading luxury real estate brand with a reputation for serving customers with refined tastes and high expectations, whether they want to enjoy an oceanside villa or get a gorgeous view of Tokyo from the balcony of a high-end condominium. Wanting to help customers find the best way to discover and sell luxury properties in Japan prompted the firm to adopt the Matterport platform. With digital twins from Matterport, List Sotheby's International Realty can create photorealistic 3D experiences that give prospective renters and buyers remote views of any luxury property while assuring sellers that the clearest, most accurate view of their property is presented.

As travel restrictions ease and more people begin to plan stays or moves abroad, List Sotheby's International Realty is broadening its use of

Matterport to help clients around the world walk through luxury properties in Japan without booking a plane ticket.

“Our clients are often busy people. Giving them the convenience of viewing a property from anywhere at any time starts the entire sale or leasing process with a positive impression,” says Yuya Fukubayashi, Senior Manager of Public Relations at List Sotheby's International Realty. “Matterport helps us deliver the superior quality customer service essential to who we are as an organization.”

More Personalized Customer Service

High-quality customer service at List Sotheby's International Realty begins with individual brokers who can start the process by visiting properties with the Matterport Pro2 camera in hand. The camera is portable and easy enough to use that anyone can be quickly trained to capture 3D digital twins of properties of all sizes. It typically takes List Sotheby's International Realty team members an average of two hours to complete a scan.  

The Matterport Capture app empowers team members to quickly capture spaces like luxury condominiums and apartments with their iPhone or iPad. The speed and ease of using Matterport make it possible for List Sotheby's International Realty to create more digital twins, moving more properties through the deal cycle much faster for sellers and buyers alike.

Sales representatives are particularly pleased with the dimensional accuracy and precise details of the digital twins compared to conventional photography. They can capture replicas of large-scale properties like resort villas or single-family homes with multiple floors, knowing what a buyer on an in-person tour would want to see. With the Matterport digital twins, clients can get close-ups of everything from appliances in the kitchen to the living room view of the balcony.

Matterport has helped us create more meaningful, immersive customer experiences that really distinguish us as a broker of choice,” says Yuri Okamoto, Assistant Manager of Public Relations at List Sotheby's International Realty. “Using Matterport, we can show our clients that we understand how much even the smallest details matter, whether they’re trying to buy or sell a space.”

When viewing a Matterport digital twin, buyers can seamlessly move from floor to floor or view the full layout of a property in Dollhouse mode. Using the measurement tool, they can take the dimensions of any room from floor to ceiling. This combination of both granular and high-level detail helps assure discerning clients that they’re making the right investment.

“Even though Matterport helps us serve more clients and close more properties, it also gives us the resources to make sure every client feels like they have our undivided attention,” says Okamoto. “Matterport is one of our most dynamic customer service resources.”

A More Strategic Approach to Global Marketing

Turning to Matterport has also helped List Sotheby's International Realty veer away from large-scale mass marketing efforts that can be costly to mount and don’t deliver the more intimate, personalized approach its high-end clientele expect. A potential buyer or renter living halfway around the world from a property isn’t likely to respond to an email blast with 2D digital photographs. If they’re going to commit the time and expense of traveling to tour a property in-person—or even making an offer sight unseen—they need to feel confident that the space is exactly what they are looking for. 

An immersive 3D tour is one of the many assets automatically generated from a Matterport digital twin. A unique URL is created and can be added to a listing on the List Sotheby's International Realty website based on region — the company’s predominant regions are in Tokyo and Kanagawa.

As the brand’s agents gain more experience capturing digital twins, List Sotheby's International Realty can also offer more continuous, responsive service to sellers, such as updating digital twins to include virtual staging that might help spark fresh interest in a property that has been on the market for a while.

To help create a more private connection between serious buyers and sellers, List Sotheby's International Realty has also started a catalog of digital twins to let certain clients view select properties of interest remotely.

“Matterport has helped us expand our customer outreach exponentially, with greater innovation and flexibility than we could have achieved with more conventional approaches to marketing and branding,” says Fukubayashi. “We see Matterport as a powerful resource for increasing our sales.”

Building a Future of Enhanced Services

As List Sotheby's International Realty considers more ways to better serve its clients, it is diversifying its use of Matterport, for example, to support ongoing facilities management. Matterport digital twins can also provide a living record of a property throughout each stage of a renovation process, making communication with architects, engineers, and contractors more efficient.

Through the property management capabilities of Matterport, List Sotheby's International Realty can continue offering highly attentive customer service to clients even after they’ve signed an agreement. Robust spatial data from digital twins allows List Sotheby's International Realty to provide concierge services for clients who may not live in their properties all year round. Knowing exactly where everything from the electrical panel to the washing machine is located helps List Sotheby's International Realty team members handle any repairs. 

The brand is also looking to be more involved in overall project development by expanding its relationship with construction firms in Japan, with plans to use Matterport in documenting the construction process for new luxury properties. Eventually, List Sotheby's International Realty plans to offer clients an app using Matterport Developer Tools to provides digital twins of a property’s original conditions.

With the enhanced construction management and documentation capabilities of Matterport, List Sotheby's International Realty wants to expand its portfolio of luxury properties to include more domestic villas and large resorts, without losing its personal approach to customer service.

To deepen its customized client experiences, List Sotheby's International Realty is also exploring ways to incorporate virtual staging into Matterport digital twins of properties. Virtual staging gives brokers the opportunity to customize luxury properties with a variety of furniture and fixture selections that appeal to renters and buyers.

List Sotheby’s

List Sotheby’s International Realty is a leading luxury real estate brand that connects buyers and sellers of high-end condos, houses, villas, and resort properties in Japan, mainly in the Kanagawa and Tokyo areas.

https://www.listsothebysrealty.co.jp/

HEADQUARTERSYokohama-shi, Kanagawa

 INDUSTRY Residential Real Estate

EMPLOYEES552

CHALLENGEProvide cutting-edge customer services to best assist luxury real estate clients with finding and selling properties. 

PRODUCTS Matterport Capture Services Matterport Pro2Matterport Developer Tools 

SOLUTION With Matterport, List Sotheby's International Realty provides clients with photorealistic, 3D experiences of luxury properties to help guide decision-making and facility management.

Results

•  More than doubled sales by attracting serious buyers 

• Tailored marketing efforts for global reach

• Enhanced concierge services

•  Improved property management capabilities