Have suggestions for products that you’d like to see reviewed by our real estate technology expert? Email Craig Rowe.
Homesnap on Friday announced an upgrade to its popular Multiple Listing Service-connected home browsing app that raises the prominence of Matterport home tours from a separate link to the top of each listing view.
Home shoppers, and agents using Homesnap Pro, now have the option to virtually tour a listing before scrolling down into its details, which are provided by the app’s partnerships with multiple listing services around the country.
“This was driven by the agent-side of the equation, actually,” said Homesnap Co-Founder Guy Wolcott. “We have a number of feedback mechanisms in place and it came up as something more we’re doing for customers. Other agents use it, too.”
Each listing page will have a “3D Tour” icon that, when tapped, will launch the immersive virtual walk-throughs and enable Matterport’s exploded, “dollhouse” view.
Homesnap’s Chief Product Officer Lou Mintzer said the new feature will also help home shoppers.
“3D tours are rapidly growing in popularity,” Mintzer said in a prepared statement. “This improved integration with Matterport ensures agents and buyers have an innovative, seamless experience.”
As with all Matterport tours, users can control the viewing perspective, “stroll” down hallways and rotate around individual rooms.
Wolcott said this new design is only a part of strategy to offer users the best possible version of their app.
“It’s all just bricks in the wall at this point,” Wolcott said. “We want to balance between what users expect and what they didn’t know they needed.”
He added that more prominently featured tours will allow Homesnap to get a more informed view on how much users rely on immersive video when it comes to home-buying decisions.
Credit: Homesnap Pro
In July, Inman reported that Homesnap had facilitated an average of 500,000 home showings per year since its 2015 partnership with ShowingTime, a home viewing management and analytics partner to the industry.
Last month, Homesnap launched a feature allowing home buyers to filter homes according to commute time.
Consumers are turning to 3D and video to see listings before scheduling physical tours.
According to a Sept. 26 article on Forbes.com, a survey of 3,000 adults conducted by Coldwell Banker Real Estate in January found that 77 percent of respondents want to take virtual tours of homes before visiting and 84 percent want to see video footage.
The new feature is live now for all users of Homesnap.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe
