Technology has and will continue to affect all aspects of our lives. How is it affecting aspects of our real estate life? Check out some of these options that already help buyers, sellers and do-it-yourselfers make decisions about their present and potential homes.
Imaging firms like Matterport and Street Peek create 3D and virtual reality home tours that enable consumers to see and feel what it’s like to be in a home before they actually visit. “More than ever,” according to Annette Anthony, vice president of technical engagement at EXIT Realty Corporation International, “people are enamored with photos and videos. They deliver that ‘WOW’ factor.”
Matterport enables buyers/renters to photograph a house available for sale or rent on their Android phone, click the Sign Snap option and get instant information and photos on the property without ever going inside the unit. Street Peak, coming this spring for Androids, enables the consumer to pan a street and get information, price, number of bedrooms and baths, last sale price, etc., on all the homes on that block.
Sellers can show off their homes with digital flip books. Studeo, an interactive storytelling application, enables sellers and agents to create a high-end digital brochure for their listings. Merely provide professional photos of the home along with descriptive text and Studeo will create a digital booklet for real estate websites and/or send links and/or prints to be used as fliers.
Consumers wanting to imagine how their house might look if they remodeled it, updated it, or bought it and brought in their own furnishings now have several options to “arrange” furniture with a click of a button. Visual Stager enables consumers to upload photos of rooms they’d like to furnish and/or redecorate and “…then select from over 2,000 sofas, beds, accessories, plants and wall decors,”room explains CEO Parag Topa. “Simply place, drag and rotate the items…” as you might like the pieces. RoOomy CEO Pieter Arts has a similar visual staging program that generates 3D models of rooms using photos and measurements. “Once rooms are virtually built, buyers and homeowners can add furniture, decorations, modify floor coverings…” to see how things would look.
Everything with a snap of a finger…or a click on your phone/tablet/computer. And, of course, with a real estate professional to help guide and implement your real estate goals.
