- 3-D home tours are becoming more common, driven in part by Facebook's publishing tools.
- Homesellers and buyers are constantly demanding more property information. 3-D tours offer immersive views and visual data.
- Immoviewer has latched its 3-D tour app to the Ricoh Theta S, a compact digital camera that shoots 360-degree spherical panoramic images, to simplify the tour capture and delivery process.
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Immoviewer is 3-D home tour creation software.
Platform(s): Android, iOS; browser
Ideal for: All size teams and offices, individual agents
Top selling points
- 2,000 square-foot tour completed in about 50 minutes
- Minimal learning curve
- Virtual tours led by online conference
- Compact equipment
Top concerns
- Introduction of native 3-D photo stitching capabilities from Apple
- Android device manufacturers
What you should know
I continue to be amazed at how easy it’s becoming to produce 3-D home tours.
I admitted to once being a skeptic, especially when the process involved investing in and lugging about a giant Matterport camera. I’m also a fan of traditional photography.
My bias has dwindled.
Immoviewer has latched its 3-D tour app to the Ricoh Theta S, a compact digital camera that shoots 360-degree spherical panoramic images.
One click, and the camera does the work for you; users merely need to stay out of the picture. (Might be hard for some agents.)
Once the full-HD camera is connected to the app and placed on a tripod, an agent can complete a capture of 2,000 square feet in about 50 minutes.
The Ricoh Theta S fits in a coat pocket and costs $350. That’s less than most new phones.
Immoviewer walks you through each room, notifying users when each is done and where to place “hotspots,” the in-tour buttons that direct you from room to room.
Completed tours, ready to be managed from the app’s admin interface, are uploaded in a few minutes to the Immoviewer servers.
Marketing capabilities with bells and whistles
On the backend, things look good, and the features are many.
Each tour comes with an embed code for dropping into your website or Facebook. There are links for public and private viewing.
The app has a feature that allows agents to block off room viewing access with a “Register for More Info” card. That’s not a practice I endorse, but it’s there for those who still believe in its effectiveness.
Real estate agents can also invite prospects to an online tour, connected via conference call. Thus, the agent can control the tour and talk live with people on the other end.
A branded chat window in the live tour allows for document sharing, a great way to send an engagement letter or more content about the listing.
The app has a feature that allows agents to block off room viewing access with a “Register for More Info” card.
Immoviewer also tracks stats by room viewed and time spent in each room. Nice.
Every tour the app creates is virtual reality-ready, meaning it could be a great showroom tool or remote showing tactic for customers with VR goggles, which the company also sells.
The company’s software is active in nine European countries in addition to the U.S. and boasts close to 20,000 accounts.
I’ve looked at quite a few similar apps, but I find Immoviewer’s list of features to help market completed tours plenty of reason for it to be named an Inman Innovator finalist.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe.
