Do you see any conspiracy against virtual tours in the following situation11335
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 WGAN FanClub Member Queensland, Australia |
Wingman private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I am "spying" on some agents and principals through Linked premium trial because this way I can build a list of all people I am interested in, see their posts and contact them directly. So far none of them have ever mentioned virtual tours as an alternative to real open house. This trial also helped me to see a post from some big rank lady in NSW(Australia) real estate institute that was using a word Innovations in her interview and then she referred to skype and facetime as a way to show properties. Not a word about virtual tours. Then yesterday I noticed a message from the CEO of the biggest australian listing website. The message came a week ago and he said they were going to create digital inspections on their website by 26th of March so buyers can see it and inspect a property online. My thought was "finally, they are going to suggest to do tours and give all agents advantage by offering buyers to see listing with tours first" I was wrong. I googled and found it. Have a look at https://agent.realestate.com.au/digital-inspections That's just ridiculous. They offer an agent to do a video by themselves and they do not mention virtual tour at all. It is even worse here https://help.realestate.com.au/hc/en-us/articles/360040881252-Digital-Inspections- Look at the FAQ section Will 3D scans appear alongside inspections, as well as the Digital Inspection video? At this stage, only videos will appear. So they are not only quiet about virtual tours. They are actually going to give advantage to amatuer videos as a digital inspection and put all agents who have done virtual tours at disadvantage because they are not considering virtual tours as digital inspection tools. And that's just one side. By offering agents to do videos by themselves and not suggesting virtual tours as an option this CEO is encouraging all real estate agents to leave many property video pros without income on top of doing the same to all Matterport providers in Australia. I have one real estate agency principal coming to me and asking to do a tour for one property which can turn into 20-25 properties booked for a tour after it. Now if he reads that CEO message I am sure he won't go for it. Does it all look dodgy to you, like they are really scared of tours and do not want them to get a big exposure on their website? The only thing that does not line up is the fact that both major listing websites added Matterport tours as a property listing media about 2 years ago. So they should be well aware of it and still try not to mention anything about them anywhere. And on top of that two weeks ago I offered to do almost the same but with tours to the second big australian listing website. I managed to connect with a Director of agents services there. He saw one of my tours, liked it and even said he was building a house that would be ready soon. He did not mention that he wanted to do a tour for it but he was obviously impressed with my example and technology. I tried to push an idea to him that they probably should reward agents who do Matterport tours though a special filter in search on their website. That way buyers can select "Digital Inspections" to see all properties that come with virtual tours and inspect them. He has not reacted to it at all but it seems their competitor did it and suggesting videos only. |
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 WGANStandard Member Los Angeles |
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| As agents are mostly self-employed independent contractors, the math for most is simple. Get a listing, spend as little as possible on anything so that you can keep as much of that commission as possible. Not to pick on agents, that's the same math employed by many large corporations, so I guess I shouldn't accuse agents over others. Hmm, I guess it's the same for Matterport as well. C-Suite comes first, tech engineers and MSPs can wait. We complain about this because a lot of us are truly artists. We do this to earn a living, but we also love what we do and inject as much 'art' into it as we can. We should remember this is not the case for everyone. For a lot of people a job is just a paycheck. Our real challenge and objective is to educate the public in our "farms", not agents. What will change our world creating virtual tours is when Mr and Mrs Homeowner, when interviewing potential listing agents, ask: • Have you provided virtual tours for ALL of the homes you marketed in the last year? • Will you be doing a virtual tour of my home? • Will you show me examples of the virtual tours you've had created in the last six months? • Please let me see the work of the photographer - 3D/360 tour creator you propose using. * Will you let me choose the virtual tour creator who photographs my home? Can you imagine such a world? Let me dream. But if you can figure a way to foster this thinking in your area, you'll work forever. |
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WGAN Fan Club Member Queensland, Australia |
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| Agents are my least worries now but this CEO has just diminished all video professional services leaving most of them without jobs. Their listing website says the following on their page. "You don’t need a professional film crew to make digital inspections work! These days, smartphones can produce great quality videos, and we’ve prepared some tips to help you create engaging digital inspection videos." Meanwhile their facebook page has a pro video playing in their header at https://www.facebook.com/pg/realestateAus/posts/?ref=page_internal Why they have not put there some agent's video taken with a smartphone? We all know why, because in most cases it is just so bad that only some stupid people will advertise with something like this. And still this CEO gives such an advice. As to the agents saving every penny, most agents in Australia markup all pro media creation & listing fee services by a huge margin. My friend who was doing walkthrough videos which included aerial and a property walkthrough for $700 AUD. Then he saw that a customer was charged $1300 for his video. And similar markup is applied to any service they offer to vendors for marketing including marking up listing fees. So they do not need to save pennies. Every client pays anywhere from $500 to a few $1000s extra on top of real marketing cost. They have this money "earned" even if they do not sell a property. They can pay for pro videos and tours these days just to help them selling a property and getting their commision. That should make sense if they want to earn over $10000 from each property in their commision by just staying at a property entrance. I have been on a few dozens inspections and that's all agents have been doing in order to sell a property. I agree about public education but it is not possible for a small company like mine. Plus what is a point if a vendor decides to do a tour with me, then goes to an agent and he says something bad about this media. I am just sure they will. Sure it may be easier these days for a vendor to order at least all media without their agent involved, give it to an agent they may still welcome them as clients and do not say anything bad. However it is most likely the greed to earn more on marketing and some fears to use a tour may still make most of them say something bad about all media I have done, not just my tour. |
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 BasicMember Virginia Beach, Virginia |
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| Many people not just agents do not understand what true immersive 3D Virtual Reality Tours are. On one level it is ignorance on another level it may be their belief of self-preservation. Their very survival depends on making themselves the center of all. I'll give you an example, as a REALTOR myself I take photography and technology seriously. As a retired Marine Musician I have been taught you do the job well or not at all! Other agents look for leads from Zillow, REALTOR.com or other sites and meeting them at the house is their very first meet so that they can build their rapport. If the buyer sees the 3D Virtual Reality and does not like the home that initial meet will not occur. If they can see the home without an agent why talk to one at all. Of course, the truth is quite to the contrary. An agent/inspector would give meaning to what they are viewing (Being true professionals) and can even teach their client about the advantages like measuring the room,or looking for faults or explaining special features. Things are now changing: 1. For the past year or so agents in my area of Norfolk/Virginia Beach/Chesapeake of Virginia are getting into 3D VR and claiming to be pioneers. 2. The pandemic is going to push the world into acceptance of Virtual work/conferencing/3D Virtual Reality tours/3D Virtual Reality streaming. Our world will not be the same. People can now live in small towns in the middle of nowhere and work for a big company with virtual offices. Imagine buying a ticket to see a concert/performance/superbowl/world series in 3D Virtual Reality Streaming! You put the headset on and you are in the arena with the full experience (but much cheaper food and beer) This fight we receive from other inspectors/agents is a losing argument I am already seeing that in agents that treated my 3D VR tours like nothing and are now boasting to offer that benefit as a pioneer in this field 4 or 5 years after others including myself have been using and advertising this feature. Hang in there, the world is changing and you are in the forefront ready to assist.  |
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WGAN Fan Club Member Queensland, Australia |
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Quote:Originally Posted by carloscardo I agree with it but I am usually advertising with an example of a tour. I can see people clicking and walking through a tour so we cannot just say they have never seen it. And I usually target only sellers, buyers and rea so it should be directly delivered the message how good this media is. Quote: Originally Posted by carloscardo It is actually good that you an agent because I have been looking for an opinion from another side. May be I am just looking from my perspective but I do not believe any agent can convince anybody to buy a property if a buyer does not like it at all or there is something missing or smaller than a buyer needs. I started thinking about it when one agent told me something like what you have just told.. if people do not like a property through a tour they won't come to an actual inspection. The agent then added that if a bathroom is small they can propose to a potential buyer to extend it because there is some room for that. It does not sound convincing to me at all because 1) As a buyer I can see any extension opportunity inside a tour myself. 2) I did some extension adding two bedrooms to my home. We were lucky to find a small builder who did it for $78K while extensions company would ask twice of this amount. But even $78K for no plumbing extension(40sqm indoor and 10 sqm outdoor) is a half of a price of new home budget or mass home built designs. Add plumbing to it and it would cost extra $20K-30K. Does the agent who thinks he can give an advice like this is aware of the extension cost? I do not think so. Does any buyer change their mind about not buying this house towards buying it if they hear about possibility of extension for such a huge investment in it. I highly doubt it as they can just add extension cost to their buying budget and look for the property where everything is up to their liking. So please tell me if you can, what is a point of dragging 100s of people to inspections or what is a point/need to see all buyers face-to-face if there is very little chance of selling it to those who do not like something and it is enough for them to make a decision not to come to an open home? I guess one answer to it is to collect leads for inspection crowd. But is it right ethically that most agents hide this media from their vendors just because it does not let them to collect their own leads while only smart use it to actually get more vendors on board and deliver the best timeframe with selling and a price result for them? |
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WGAN Fan Club Member Queensland, Australia |
Wingman private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by carloscardo I agree with it but I am usually advertising with an example of a tour. I can see people clicking and walking through a tour so we cannot just say they have never seen it. And I usually target only sellers, buyers and rea so it should be directly delivered the message how good this media is. Quote: Originally Posted by carloscardo It is actually good that you an agent because I have been looking for opinion from another side. May be I am just looking from my perspective but I do not believe any agent can convince anybody to buy a property if a buyer does not like it at all or there is something missing or smaller than you need. I started thinking about it when one agent told me something like what you have just told.. if people do not like a property through a tour they won't come to an actual inspection. The agent then said that if a bathroom is small they can advise to extend it because there is some room for that. It does not sound convincing to me at all because 1) I did some extension adding two bedrooms to my home. We were lucky to find small builder who did it for $78K while extensions company would ask twice of this amount. But even $78K for no plumbing extension(40sqm indoor and 10 sqm outdoor) is a half of a price of new home budget or mass home build. Add plumbing and it would cost extra $20K-30K. Does agent who thinks he can give an advice like this is aware of the extension cost? I do not think so. Does any buyer change their mind about not buying this house towards buying it if they hear about possibility of extension for such a huge investment in it. I highly doubt it as they can just add extension cost to their buying budget and look for the property where everything is up to their liking. So please tell me if you can, what is a point of dragging 100s of people to inspections or what is a point/need to see all buyers face-to-face if there is very little chance of selling it to those who do not like something and it is enough for them to make a decision not to come to an open home? |
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Basic Member Virginia Beach, Virginia |
carloscardo private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Wingman, Here's a point to add, FLOOR PLANS ARE IMPORTANT: I did a virtual tour and realized through the tour a dead spot in the master bathroom. IN one home they installed a smaller shower base and decided to frame in the shower wall around that, so there was an additional almost two feet of dead space inside a wall cavity that was easily knocked out to make the shower that much wider! Point is (not trying to preach to the choir) that the scan combined with the floor plan WILL provide additional information that they can take to a builder for a quick estimate. I have told people that if they plan on doing a major renovation, a scan is important because it can offer additional information that can be used by the homeowner, bomebuyer, or contractor to look at as necessary and see the home from different angles. It has been interesting to me when I find dead space in wall cavities and structural issues as I scan, especially in older/historic homes. |
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