Twin Cities real estate investors use futuristic home tour technology
Twin Cities real estate investors just took the game to a whole new dimension; 3D that is! Charles Neimeyer a local real estate agent and his trusty sidekick in the form of a tripod mounted multi-lens camera that is able to rotate 360 degrees to capture every nook and cranny of a property for sale. Now this by itself isn't taking the real estate industry to the next level but then this isn’t all this technology allows. After each room is captured on the camera a digital condo can be put together room by room on an iPad allowing anyone to virtually walk through the entire house!
Matterport futuristic home tours
Niemeyer is just one of many real estate professionals across the Twin Cities who have fallen in love with this new technology. The camera comes straight from the capital of technology itself; Silicon Valley and is made by a company that specializes in camera technology called Matterport. This camera to many real estate investors and agents is a dream come true for the industry allowing professionals to give virtual home tours before they take the clients out to the property. All past attempts to create these virtual home tours just fell short of expectations, but thanks to Matterport, professionals in the real estate industry have a real solution.
“It is difficult for people to visualize a floor plan if they haven’t walked through it” explains Neimeyer. “But thanks to the Matterport camera and the virtual tours “you can imagine yourself being in the space, spending time in it . . . It’s a realistic representation of the space.”
Street view for homes?
Many people might be thinking this is the real estate industry’s version of Google street view, which allows users to virtually travel down city streets through a series of clicks. The difference is Google street view keeps you anchored to the ground as you “travel” the "city” and the Matterport virtual tour lets you zoom around the house as if you were a fly on the wall, able to see the home from any and all angles. The Matterport tour also allows you to have a aerial floor plan view giving you the advantage of better comprehending the space of a floor plan. Plus these beautiful angels are presented in extremely high quality HDR (high-dynamic range) imaging. This added technology evens out all lighting, corrects all blurs and allows the virtual tourist to have a clear presentation of the house from every angle and all with a few swipes on an iPad.
John Lynden, a St. Paul real estate agent wasn’t a believer when he first heard about the Matterport camera, but had a change of heart after a business associate showed him the 3D technology. “I’ve never been a fan of (older) virtual tours (technologies) such as fishbowl panoramas. These don’t show a property’s true nature. But this isn’t the case with Matterport’s camera because, “it’s actually like seeing the house. This works especially well on your iPhone or iPad.”
The technology available for today’s real estate investor is only the beginning. In the future we’ll be able to strap on a pair of virtual reality goggles and walk these homes, giving real estate professionals the ability to give home tours in the most controlled of conditions. From here on out real estate agents will be able to give home buyers the option to virtually “test” the house in any season of the year, or test out the angles in which the sun enters a room all with the touch of a few buttons. Real estate technology is about to enter the future!
