Digital tools that boost sales of real estate

Virtual visit and augmented reality
Digital tools that boost sales of real estate

Having an Internet site where candidates for the purchase of a property can find the description and a few photographs of a house or apartment is now the minimum for real estate agencies. To boost their turnover, new digital technologies complete the range of tools available to professionals: the virtual visit and augmented reality offer a potential to exploit without delay. Explanations.

The digital revolution has not spared the real estate sector, and so much the better!
Professionals can now focus on new features to provide to potential purchasers with performing services, thus completing classic Internet sites in a relevant way (with photos and descriptions of goods).

As long as the conditions of their use are well-managed and do not drown clients in a deluge of images, the virtual visit and augmented reality constitute an improvement (because too much information kills information). And may even be decisive in the purchasing act.

It remains to well-define each of them.
 

A visit without leaving home

As its name indicates, the virtual visit consists of giving the possibility to interested clients to visit an apartment or a house without moving from their armchair. an ideal solution for geographically remote buyers or to those who have time constraints and want to limit “in situ” visits.

Incidentally, it is also an alternative for the seller who thus avoids losing hours with infructuous meetings… Furthermore, the virtual visit can also be conceived to present properties that have yet to be constructed, thus sold on plans. Better than photos for the potential buyer who can perambulate among the various rooms of the house as if it already existed…

For agencies, there are two possibilities: entrust the realisation of 3D images to a claimant (the rates are about 60 to 100 euros per photo) or effectuate the work oneself with a 3D camera (the investment is about 3000 euros, but allows to offer virtual visits for all properties in stock).
 

Aiding to go even further 

With augmented reality, a supplementary degree is crossed, from a technological point of view as well as in service rendered to the potential buyer. The basic principle is to embed elements (designs, texts) in the environment shown on the image.

A concept already made popular by smartphone applications that add gadgets (a pair of glasses for example) onto the photo or the portrait made and transmitted to one’s correspondent…

In the case of real estate, that permits to offer images or films that encourage potential buyers to project themselves-and we know that this is a fundamental sales argument-, Example: compare a home before and after eventual renovations.

Some specialized companies propose digital tools combining a virtual visit and an augmented reality visit after virtual changes in interior design.

With special glasses distributed by the giants of Internet (Google Glasses or Hololens by Microsoft) new developments and applications seem to be infinite.

In the United States, some promoters distribute glasses to their clients that allow them to visualize a house or a building in its future environment, even and especially if it is still just a project, by simply walking around the neighbourhood!

Another feature that is growing is the automatic sending of alerts to clients when they pass near properties.The client can then “point” his cell phone towards the property enabling him to consult prices, descriptions, images of interiors, and of course the telephone and address of the agency.


We now understand: far from being gadgets, the virtual visit and augmented reality must be integrated into the services offered by real estate agencies, provided that it is managed intelligently. Especially when they are not exclusive properties. Customers will quickly make the difference!
 

From Emilie Di Vincenzo