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Can virtual property viewings save the day during the Coronavirus crisis?

The Negotiator looks at two recently-launched technologies that claim to offer sales and lettings agents a way to get customers through their virtual door.

Nigel Lewis

virtual property viewings

The government announced yesterday that all estate agents were to stop conducting property viewings as the government clamped down more heavily on the industry in order to prevent the spread of Coronavirus.

Most agents have guessed that the UK would eventually come to this, and that all but essential face-to-face contact between estate agents and their buyers, sellers, renters and landlords would be banned.

Consequently, interest among agents in virtual property viewings technology has ballooned and earlier this week Propertymark included signing up to one of the services as part of its 27-point Coronavirus plan to help agents weather the Coronavirus storm.

There are several different platforms that offer online or virtual viewings of properties, so we talked to two very different kinds to find out how the work.

Revvis

This is being launched today, Revvis creates a fully interactive walk-through virtual property viewings of new-build properties both before or after they are built including internal spaces and external areas.

The platform has been designed by a 3D artist Christian Ehrich and enables potential buyers to walk through a property as they view it.

“Revvis is an ideal solution to engage with clients on a deeper level, especially during the current economic situation, however, we also feel our tool helps shape the future of how properties are marketed,” he says.

Potential buyers can also change all aspects of a property using the platform and therefore play around with what they would like their home to look like including furniture, paint and furnishings.

Properties can be viewed using VR goggles and developers can use the platform to upsell features to buyers and manage the snagging process after a sale.

Revvis’s sales director in the UK Paul Spencer says Zoopla has agreed to allow listings to include links to Revvis walk-throughs, and that the platform will be an ideal way to keep leads ‘hot’ during any shut-down.

“Our virtualisation walk-throughs can be built in hours and all we need is a property’s annotated floor plans,” says Spencer. More information [email protected]

Watch a video.

Giraffe

Subscription-based 360-degree property walk-through platform Giraffe leases its camera to agents for £399 a month.

The company still requires agents to visit properties and take images and therefore agents will have to think about whether using this system would put their staff at risk, but once complete they can then be offered to both sales and lettings clients as ‘guided’ tours with a live commentary by an online negotiator as the tour progresses.

“Since last Friday when the Coronavirus really took hold, we’ve been inundated with people who we have demonstrated our technology to in the past, but who now say they want it,” says founder Mikus Opelts.

“A lot of agents are realising that they need a virtual viewings solution to help them get by at the moment, and we’re one of the more affordable options because for the subscription they get all the equipment and our platform’s tour creating tech.”

Visit Giraffe.

Other platforms worth considering: Focal Agent, Matterport, EyeSpy360.

Read more about virtual tours.

March 25, 2020

One comment

  1. It took Rightmove 10 years to ‘allow’ agents to embed YouTube and Vimeo video tours.

    They promised VR/360 rollout in 2018 – https://thenegotiator.co.uk/rightmove-rolls-out-3d-virtual-tours-on-mobile-app-and-adds-tab-to-website/

    Nothing has happened yet. Proptech? more like Lowtech.

    Rightmove is holding this industry back.

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