Seattle: real estate agents are moving away from Matterport. Buy Pro3?17339
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ron0987 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I just wanted to tap in on your experience and thoughts for all Matterport tour providers. This is what I have seen in the Seattle area. Just a little background on our business. We broke into the real estate photography business in 2014 with our primary service at the time was Matterport tours as a primary service with secondary photo services. We never got super big but turned out 3-4 Matterport tours a week with add on of photos when needed. We developed a solid client base up to the end of 2019. The great pandemic strikes and for our business we saw a drastic reduction in services. What we saw was not only effects of the pandemic, we saw the real estate market decrease in home sales. What we also saw was the rocket in sales for real estate for what homes that were available. We saw several jobs canceled prior to shoots or even while on site because houses were selling with just a few photos taken by agents with smartphones. The next two years we continued to provide Matterport but have found little to no interest in Matterport. We recently have increased our service area in attempt to revive our business. To do this I personally have stopped by about 40 real estate offices and spoke face to face to both agents and brokers to try and get a baseline feel on the need for either Matterport or strictly photo services. We though since the real estate market has exploded in our area the need would be there. What I was told did not shock me. Agent have gotten comfortable taking photos with their smart phone posting them with a wait and see attitude. With the recent market being extremely hot the need for Matterport has decreased drastically. With the wait and see attitude by agents we have also found reduction of photo services. I have also called our previous client-based agents and found they were moving away from Matterport tours because the need was just not there. So, with the rumors of the Pro3 camera release what are your thoughts and what have you seen in your area and or what did you do to stay busy or leverage your Matterport tours. I personally cannot see a good reason to invest in the Pro3 camera, I do not see the return on investment there. The Pro2 camera for real estate home tours still produce a great tour. I would love to hear from you and your experiences, your thoughts and or your magical remedy to keep your business going. I also would love to hear your thoughts about investing in the Pro3 camera when it does get released. Just my thoughts Ron |
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thedavidteter private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I am unlikely to purchase a Pro3 for a little while as the use cases for me don't justify the prices I've seen of the new camera. I also am wanting to hold out for a third party (Leica but cheaper) to have similar functionality that has cross provider capabilities. The Theta series is what I end up using most of the time since the scans are high quality and faster than the Pro2. I'm not willing to keep investing in hardware that is locked in to a platform and can't be used for other cases. | ||
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MeshImages private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @ron0987 I worked for residential, but I dropped it completely. I am now focusing on different use cases with Matterport, most often where MP overlays are involved or where clients need consulting on the processes and possibilities. Actually I am very bullish about Matterport, but not in the residential agent use case. There is too much competition and realtors may stick to the isle phones also in the future (with arrival of Apple room plan). But other fields have huge potential. Easy cases like hospitality or childcare or more difficult scan jobs like schools. Have an eye on AEC as this is where Matterport has put their spotlight on in the past. The Pro3 will be a fantastic tool and I will definitely get one. |
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 WGAN FanCLUB Member Coeur d'Alene, Idaho |
lilnitsch private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @ron0987 The last couple of years I have been working my tail off, I cover Eastern Washington & Northern Idaho. While on average I shoot a similar # of Matterport tours a week as you I shoot photos on nearly everything, just have 1 agents that uses someone for her stills. While I have several different packages my most popular would be Zillow 3D home tour and stills followed by a full package with Zillow, Matterport, Video, Stills & floor plans Will I run out and buy a Pro3 ~ Probably not but, I also cannot rule out getting one at some point. My pivot point will be on a couple items I will want to see some actual real world tours and scan times & to see if Matterport forces folks into new accounts to use this new camera and what this account pricing might look like |
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coulee360 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| For me, I thought I was going to be soo busy doing Matterport tours during that first year of Covid, but only had a few calls for them the whole year. Last year, I'd get a few agents wanting them on homes, but I would be honest with them and tell them a tour was pointless because of how fast homes were selling it wasn't worth the agent spending that extra money or me spending hours scanning. I saved them money, I lost money BUT I'd rather keep the agent happy to keep coming back to me. I mainly only do 3d tours for investment properties now lately. A few weeks ago while getting my carpets professionally cleaning in my house, the owner of the company was the one that showed up to clean my carpets, he had noticed my Matterport sign rider I have on my office wall and we talked for a few minutes about potentially partnering up for me to scan homes for flood damage stuff that he can help provide to the insurance companies the data and he'd get a better square footage estimate on cleaning expense. I would love to eventually get back into offering agents Matterport tours again and if a Pro3 has a more crystal clear image quality, i'd definitely jump on it. But the grainy look isn't doing it for me (granted I still have a Pro1). But with image sensors these days, they could produce a better quality product that stands out much more. And if a Pro3 would work on a classic plan that would be a major sellign feature for me. |
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WGAN Fan CLUB Member Coeur d'Alene, Idaho |
lilnitsch private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @coulee360 I do NOT pressure agents into services however, I do like to educate agents that my photo, video, VR services are just as much about building their resumes as it they are for building mine. Having these professional marketing assets will help them land future listings when comparing to other agents that may just resort to lackluster cell phone picture which may work in a hot market but, as markets slow proper marketing become really important though, in a hot market proper marketing could result in a better sales price and/or quicker sales time which are also things that will benefit the agent and home sellers |
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ron0987 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I appreciate all the feedback. I think the MP tour is an excellent tool for agents to use. @lilnitsch I agree with you and have been talking with agents just trying to educate them on the use of MP and professional photos or video to supplement their portfolio. But you cannot force one to move away from the use of smartphones. @coulee360 I also agree with the hope that MP rises to its full potential whether it is the Pro, Pro2 or Pro3 cameras. I do not think we are getting the full quality of photos from MP. In the past the extracted photos were higher quality. About a year ago I noticed the extracted photo quality was not as good as I had seen in the past. I contacted MP support and was told that the extracted photos were dependent on the view of your screen since it was only a screen grab. I am not sure if I believe that and told support that I was running an 8-gig video card with a 4K monitor and received no other feedback from support. @Jump showed me how to extract the 360 panos, those pano's were of better quality looked far better than what MP provided. So, the photo quality I think is there but not released from MP. @MeshImages and I do think the MP format has its place in multiple disciplines. Hopefully the Pro3 further exploits these formats. I am glad that it is not just me seeing these changes. I hope to see other post, even from people that are thriving with MP. |
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