How Listing Agents Can Differentiate Themselves In 2018

Use 3D to increase efficiency and attract more qualified home buyers

Now more than ever real estate agents need to understand and invest intelligently in new technology. As an agent, knowing your audience and how you reach them is essential to being successful. Here’s one key statistic — according to Zillow, more than 50% of all home buyers are under the age of 30. This millennial audience is online, tech-savvy and has more buying power and access to research and information more than ever before. A lot of the most powerful technologies out there are easy to learn and user-friendly -- resulting in quick adoption, new industry standards, and updated consumer taste. In no industry is this more relevant than in real estate.

Imagine a scenario where a property that you represent has been captured into a 3D and virtual reality experience. You now have an immersive 3D virtual tour that you can distribute throughout your existing marketing channels including social media, realtor.com, MLS, company or your personal website, etc.

Empower prospective buyers with keys to a 24/7 open house

With a 3D virtual tour, you give prospective buyers the virtual keys and the freedom to navigate this property from the comfort of their own home. This 3D virtual tour is engaging and shareable with viewing capabilities across all devices and should be added to your home selling checklist as a must-have.

Empowerment and autonomy is a beautiful thing in the mind of a consumer.  What does this do for you as a real estate agent?  It means more eyes on your listings, quickly identifying buyers who are ready to buy, and less time that sellers have to be displaced from their homes.

Put yourself in the mind of a home buyer

Put yourself into the mind of a home buyer for a moment. Consider these two very different buyer experiences:

Experience A: View an MLS listing in the traditional sense with only 2D photography

You’ve filtered through your preferences (location, price range, etc) and you’ve got a list of results to look through. You've selected a home that you think might fit your criteria. Now comes the first impression, because that’s exactly what this is to the potential buyer - a first impression.

You begin looking at the professionally taken photos of the space. First, the kitchen - appointed with granite countertops, a beautiful range over the oven, and what appears to be a large center island. That’s all you can see… onto the next photo. Overall, you’re intrigued - but you begin making assumptions and mentally creating a checklist of “hope so's” and “what-if's” about the property. This standard, unchallenged experience leads to hopeful assumptions waiting to be shattered by reality.  

Experience B: Explore an MLS listing in immersive 3D along with hi-res photography

Still armed with assumptions and a piqued interest, you now have an option to view an immersive 3D model or virtual reality experience - you click and are immersed inside.

You are now “standing” in the center of the kitchen with the space unfolding around you. You feel a connection almost as if you’re really there. Yep, you’ve confirmed it - there is a large island in this kitchen, and as you navigate you see where the refrigerator, sink, and oven are in relation to it. You have a true sense of how big this island is and what you’d be able to actually place on top of it. You notice the sight-lines, realizing that you can see directly into the living room while preparing family meals (a possible deciding factor and unique selling point for a family with children running around). The “hope-so” begins to turn into reality and the emotional response to this property kicks in. This new and currently sought-after experience continues with the rest of the home. No more “it doesn’t look like the pictures” once you actually arrive on the property.

For potential home buyers, Experience B provides a great deal more information that helps them decide whether to make time for your open house that weekend. If they’ve seen what they like and want to see it in person, by the time they show up at our open house, they are significantly more qualified buyers and these are just the type of buyers you want to meet in person.

Who knows - they may even be driven to buy sight-unseen.