Not too long ago, before the Internet and social media, consumers completely relied on local Realtors to help them find their dream home. Agents would gather information from the buyer and flip through their weekly MLS book to find properties that could match their buyers’ wants and needs. In 1995, Realtor.com was launched and consumers could not get enough of it! They were flooded with various information about specific listings that only Realtors had access to. Competitors of Realtor.com arose such as NewHomeSource and Zillow to become more “user-friendly,” and provide more market information and home search tools. In more recent years, social media has become a major contributor in the way consumers find and research a specific home, community, or home builder. Very little experience is needed to advertise your new homes on Facebook or Instagram, but the key is to get your listings in front of the right consumer. According to Pew Research Center, 68% of American adults use Facebook. Social media has become such an integral part of our daily lives that we sometimes forget Facebook is only 13 years old. So what’s next for real estate, and how can we get a head-start on the next technological boom in our industry?
Virtual reality (VR) has been around for a long time but it was not until three years ago when Google Cardboard was announced did it become more affordable and more practical for the average person. In many ways, virtual reality is a perfect fit for our industry. As more millennials start to research buying a new home, we need to shift our marketing efforts up to their technologically driven minds when searching for a new home. Virtual reality will put an end to out-of-state buyers gambling that the online images they see match the home they are thinking of buying.
Matterport is the company at the forefront of developing VR solutions for the real estate industry by allowing anyone to scan a property using a special 3D camera. According to their CEO, Bill Brown, “Matterport’s mission is to give people the freedom to experience any place at any time... establishing 3D and VR models as a primary medium for experiencing, sharing, and re-imagining the world.” Their newest camera, the Matterport Pro2 3D Camera, is a marketer’s dream. Scanned properties can be shown in “dollhouse view,” which shows a consumer a complete 3D view of the home, “floorplan view,” which is a top-down view of the property, and a 3D virtual tour, where you can showcase a home in the way you want your customer to walk-through it! The camera can also take high-resolution photos of your property that are comparable to a DSLR camera.
In order to Build The Best Sales Team In The World, our sales professionals need to be armed with the latest and greatest technology out there to aid in their marketing efforts targeted towards their consumer group. We are excited to announce that New Home Star has recently purchased the Matterport Pro2 3D Camera for our sales professionals and builder partners to capture any inventory or model homes they would like to showcase in 3D and VR. The camera will be making its way from division to division across the country, giving every sales professional in our company a chance to use this incredible piece of technology first-hand. New Home Star is proud to provide the newest and greatest technology to our sales professionals and builder partners at NO COST, further helping our builders sell more homes more profitably!