Inman (17 March 2020) Coronavirus drives adoption of video tours

Hi All,

While no one wants to be exploitive of COVID-19, reminder that you - 3D/360 Virtual Tour Service Providers - solve a real, immediate problem for real estate agents and their home seller clients (and for home buyers). You are helping people!

“Instead of showing 10 houses in a day,” the agent said, “all you have to do is show them the video. Then if they really want to see it, you can go there,” reports Inman. "Real estate trade groups and brokerages are also actively trying to crack down on open houses."

"Chuck Fleischer, a broker at Dallas-based brokerage Real, told Inman that he thinks the result of the current outbreak will be a greater adoption of technology by both agents and consumers. And while not all of that shift may be permanent, somethings will have changed for good when the crisis ends," reports Inman.

"A New York-based Compass agent, McKenzie told Inman that he had struck up a partnership with camera manufacturer Ricoh earlier this year. The partnership was designed to enable a kind of virtual open house experience, though McKenzie and his team had been “slow walking” the feature’s rollout. When the crisis “reared its ugly head, we said, ‘hey here’s an opportunity to see if this can be viable,'” reports Inman. "“We thought now was a good time to test this out,” he added. “And I think it It was the right move.”

"McKenzie’s team ultimately tried the Ricoh-enabled virtual tour feature last weekend at an apartment on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Participants were able to attend by getting an emailed link from the team."

Your thoughts?

Dan

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