Planitar, a 3D tour software developer and service provider, announced in a press release that it has entered into a partnership with online home space planning company, Floorplanner.
Planitar’s iGUIDE software, also available as a mobile app, juxtaposes a 3D viewer with highly detailed interactive floor plans to offer comprehensive home tours. Those digital floor plans can now be exported and viewed within Floorplanner’s interior design and CAD-inspired layout tools.
Floorplanner’s extensive library of common furniture and home decor items can be used to help buyers viewing an iGuide tour better understand how to leverage their new home.
Agents who list new construction or often show model homes can use the tool to present additional model floor plans and furniture options.
Floorplanner was founded in 2007 and is based in the Netherlands. Three architects and a civil engineer created it to offer a more simple, consumer-friendly version of professional-level CAD (computer-aided design) systems common in the residential and commercial construction industries.
“Floorplanner will allow iGuide users to plan the placement of furniture, decorations, cabinets, and appliances, as well as, experiment with area rugs, flooring, and wall colors,” said Gert-Jan van der Wel, co-founder of Floorplanner, in the release. “Easy virtual staging with a wide variety of 3D customizations to present a dream space, would now only be a few clicks away.”
Planitar has also released new tools to help agents host property showings over live video.
An agent can navigate tours while aspiring buyers watch on a remote device or desktop. Agents can also run a tour from a mobile device, and viewers do not need an account to view a property.
Called “Virtual Showings,” the feature isn’t merely a screen-share of an existing tour, but it runs through a browser and screen-control tools, in the same way technical support teams help people navigate a problem with their computer.
Tour links can be sent via text on demand, and quickly viewed and toured over a mobile screen, complete with iGuide’s unique floor plan views. It takes one tap from the texted link to begin touring.
This is a great way to minimize the scheduling and “overthinking” in presenting a virtual tour. It can be done very quickly and requires no middleware worries relative Zoom or Google Meet, although it can also work with those online meeting platforms.
During a live demonstration of the tool on an iPhone, Michael Vervena, vice president of sales and marketing at Planitar Inc., said that agent feedback helped the company develop the on-demand virtual showing model.
“I think talking to the agents and finding out abut tools they wanted to use is what drove our approach,” he said. “Agents told us that they couldn’t show homes in person, so what could we do to make it more viable for them?”
The tour can host up to what Vervena said, ” … hundreds of thousands of people, but the developers may have been being facetious.”
Viewers can watch and converse over the speaker phone on their device. Being browser-based, it can be viewed on any mobile operating system.
Live, multiparty showings help buyer agents relate immediate feedback to a listing agent and offer all parties a way to preview a home before committing stakeholders to an in-person showing.
The use of virtual home tours, staging and interior video content has blossomed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sellers and agents are driving the use of such products to minimize the number of people who may need to visit a home during the marketing or inspection stages.
It’s common for buyers to be accompanied by interior designers, contractors and other vendors when touring property. Tools for 3D touring and now, space planning, can help facilitate those visits from afar, reducing the risk of people catching the virus.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe
Craig C. Rowe started in commercial real estate at the dawn of the dot-com boom, helping an array of commercial real estate companies fortify their online presence and analyze internal software decisions. He now helps agents with technology decisions and marketing through reviewing software and tech for Inman.