@DouglasMeyers
Also, from this WGAN Forum discussion:
✓ Transcript: WGAN-TV How to do Virtual Staging of Matterport Spaces
Quote:
Originally Posted by DanSmigrod
WGAN-TV How to do Virtual Staging of Matterport Spaces with Imagineering Consulting Founder Angus Norriss (@AngusNorriss) - Aired Tuesday, 10 March 2020
Hi All,
Transcript (below) for the WGAN-TV Live at 5 show (above).
Here is the link that we used during the show ...
https://imagineerconsulting.io/matterport-tours-virtual-staging/
✓ walk through examples of virtually staged Matterport spaces (residential, commercial)
✓ variety of interior design finishes
✓ download Style Guide
✓ pricing calculator
Matterport Virtual Staging from Imagineer. My guest was Matterport Virtual Staging Value-Added Reseller Peterborough, England-Based Imagineer Consulting Founder Angus Norriss (@AngusNorriss)
Imagineer Offers Matterport Virtual Staging powered by VRPM
Hi All,
As a Matterport Service Provider, you now have a new Add On to offer:
✓ Virtual Staging of Matterport Spaces
You can now order virtual staging of Matterport digital twins of empty spaces from WGAN Premium Member Peterborough, England-Based Imagineer Consulting Angus Norriss (@AngusNorriss).
The sweet-spot for virtual staging of Matterport digital twins likely includes:
For Matterport Service Providers, virtual staging of Matterport digital twins is a great Add On and may result in properties being scanned twice: after drywall installation and once furnished.
✓ multi-family rentals and senior living communities
✓ multi-family home communities
✓ commercial office space
Virtual staging can include:
✓ adding furniture
✓ changing wall colors
✓ adding walls
✓ adding lighting
Virtual staging styles available include:
✓ Traditional Interior Style
✓ Modern Interior Style
✓ Contemporary Home Decor Style
✓ Shabby-Chic
✓ Industrial Interior Design
Imagineer Valued-Added Services for Matterport Digital Twin Virtual Staging Include:
✓ Project Management
✓ Priced Lower than Ordering Direct from the Developer (VRPM)
✓ Exclusive for WGAN Forum Members: free branding in the nadir (tripod patch)
Three Steps for Virtual Staging of Matterport Digital Twins by Imagineer
Step 1: Share the Space – "You will need to transfer your tour to us, we will stage it and once complete, we will transfer the tour back to you."
Step 2: Pick the Style – "Pick out the interior theme you wish to have included in the different rooms. We will then manage the entire process of the production for you."
Step 3: Approve – "On completion we will transfer the Matterport space back to you. You can use this on any website, just like a normal Matterport tour."
For an example of "Before" and "After" virtual staging by Imagineer Consulting Founder Angus Norriss, please see above. For additional examples, please see the Imagineer Consulting Landing Page for Matterport Virtual Staging of Digital Twins.
Questions about virtual staging of Matterport digital twins? Please post to this WGAN Forum discussion or Private Message: @AngusNorriss
Imagineer is a Value-Added Reseller of Virtual Staging by UK-based VRPM.
Best,
Dan
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Matterport Digital Twin "Before" Virtual Staging by Peterborough, England-Based Imagineer Consulting Founder Angus Norriss (@AngusNorriss)
Matterport Digital Twin "After" Virtual Staging by Peterborough, England-Based Imagineer Consulting Founder Angus Norriss (@AngusNorriss)
House
Matterport Digital Twin "After" Virtual Staging by Peterborough, England-Based Imagineer Consulting Founder Angus Norriss (@AngusNorriss)
Business - Professional Layout
Matterport Digital Twin "After" Virtual Staging by Peterborough, England-Based Imagineer Consulting Founder Angus Norriss (@AngusNorriss)
Business - Creative Layout
Matterport Digital Twin "After" Virtual Staging by Peterborough, England-Based Imagineer Consulting Founder Angus Norriss (@AngusNorriss)
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Transcript (Video above)
- Hi all. I'm Dan Smigrod, founder of the We Get Around Network Forum. Today is Tuesday, March 10th, 2020, and you're watching WGAN-TV Live at 5.
Today's topic, how to stage a Matterport space, how to virtually stage a Matterport space. And our guest today is Value Added Reseller Imagineer Consulting Founder Angus Norriss. Angus, good to see you again.
- Hi Dan.
- I know we've had you on the show before and it's good to see you again. You were on previously talking about your division 3DVR.
- 3DVR.io.
- 3DVR.io about doing fast-start websites for Matterport Service Providers.
So, good to have you back on an exciting new topic. Just within the last week Matterport announced that it's now possible to do virtual staging of Matterport spaces and you're going to talk about how to do that and how to order them from you.
I thought we'd just kind of jump in right away and first do like a walk-thru so we know what we're talking about. Does that sound good?
- Sounds good, thank you.
- Okay good. So, we're actually on Angus's website now. This is Imagineer. If you go up to the URL, if you want to follow along, it's imagineerconsulting.io/ and then the following has hyphens in it matterport-tours-virtual-staging. matterport-tours-virtual-staging. Okay, great.
So, Angus, super excited, this is something that you've shared with me prior to launch and I've just been really waiting for this day for you to be able to talk about this publicly.
So, I'm on your website. I'm looking at a virtually staged Matterport tour and I'm going to start looking around. You want to talk us through what we're looking at?
- Yeah, certainly. So, as a quick heads up, this is an unfurnished empty property. It's been created by VRPM, who are the technology behind the license to produce this sort of finish. So, you're currently looking around a tour produced by them.
And you can move from house to house, sorry, room to room, looking through kitchens and every piece of furniture you see is a digitally produced item.
Even the garden at the background is a real image and added. So, that is a photograph added so the entire experience looks as real as possible, from pictures to clocks and it uses exactly the same Matterport interface. You can embed this tour into your website as per usual. It's got all the same functionality.
And you can move from floor to floor through the property. So, as it currently stands the furniture can be changed and selected into different themes.
But, as an experience it remains exactly the same sort of experience as you would normally have as if it was a normally furnished house and you were walking through it as if you had scanned it as normal.
- So, this looks like it's the actual furniture. So, just for clarification, this sofa, this bed does not exist. This picture on the wall does not exist. These end tables, these lights, this is all virtual furniture, is that correct?
- Correct, exactly.
- And so is this actually a space that was scanned with Matterport when it was totally empty?
- Yes, exactly. This particular case study of this tour was produced by VRPM and they have given me the flexibility and grace to present this.
And it is exactly the sort of thing that other MSPs could produce. The objects that you see, down to the laptop, down to the mirrors on the wall, down to the fixtures and fittings, the lighting, are all solutions that can be added to any empty space.
- And that view, is that the view that actually exists? Or was that added?
- That is the view that exists.
The advantage being that if you're onsite at a development like this you can take some photos or ask the local developer to take photos from certain aspects and photos can be added because if you're having a look out of the window and you can't see much it doesn't help sell the property.
The idea is to sell the space and furnished spaces sell faster.
- We've been on some Matterport scans where it was a construction site of a multi-family rental community. So, looking out the window you'd actually see heavy duty equipment. So, there is the option of swapping out the outdoor view.
- Oh, yes, yeah, this is a virtual environment. So, if you've got construction at work outside or a swimming pool under construction those view points can be changed.
- Now, is this light fixture, does that exist?
- No.
- That's a virtual light fixture?
- That's a virtual light fixture, yeah, right.
- And that's me touching the mouse there too much. So, we're actually seeing not only the light, but shadows and then we're actually seeing in the mirror.
- Yeah, exactly. Reflections, shading, I think the art of CGI is quite an in-depth technique. And so, these are the skills applied by experts in order to make sure a convincing aspect and a convincing viewpoint is achieved.
- CGI, what is that?
- CGI stands for computer generated imaging. And by using CGI objects such as a 3D object such as a bed, a chair, a mirror, a CGI object is something which you can caste light on from different angles in order to make it look real.
- So, these books, this computer, this chair, the desk, this is all make believe virtually, the plant, the pictures on the wall, the furniture, again the plant.
- Yeah.
- Is there a fixture, a light fixture? I don't see a light fixture in this room, maybe it's just a lamp.
- It's just, being in that room there, Dan, you can see that the light is coming in through the window, but the blind is down about 20%. So, as an artist you need to look at how much light is going to come in. Where's the shadow being caste?
And then apply that accordingly. So, as you go from room to room that's very important to look at the realism. And this art is getting better and better. Because the ability of the technician to look at where the light is coming from to be able to stage those products.
- Cool, so I'm going to take a look at a commercial space. Ah, this is actually a video of a commercial space. So, do we want to play the video?
- Yes, I think so, because in this video, this is a VRPM video. They demonstrate very quickly how a space can move, how an environment can change from space to space by changing the scenes. Now, as time goes on I think that the furniture styles and the lighting shading will improve.
And I think that there'll be all sorts of 3D furniture objects that can be added and applied to create textures and environments like this. So, an empty office like this can be experienced fully furnished.
- Incidentally, just as a little side note, because when I look at this video, Angus, to me it's a little bit, it's not silky smooth.
And I just want to let, for those that are members of the We Get Around Network Forum, you're already probably familiar with MatterVids, M-A-T-T-E-R-V-I-D-S.
MatterVids does super silky smooth transitions.
So, if after you have your Matterport space virtually staged and you do want a video for Vimeo or YouTube personally I would recommend taking a look at the solution called MatterVids. And we do have a special offer for We Get Around Network Forum members about MatterVids.
And then, I think just for clarification since we're showing a video, the thing that I think is really important to do is to come back and say, hey, this is a video that we were just looking at of a Matterport space.
And really, Matterport space lets you walk through it and be in control of your experience. That just happens to be a video showing a commercial space.
- Yes, yeah, exactly.
And I would just like to caveat that, that that space, that office space, was produced probably about a year ago. I think technology has improved the experience of the team on it have improved.
So, I think every week that goes by is like a week in politics, things just get, well, not like politics, things get better, but things change. So, I'm looking at that particular example, whilst it's a good demo of a before and after in one video, I do tend to agree that quality will just continue to improve.
- So, terrific, so you mentioned the company VRPM and as I understand it you're a value added reseller of the VRPM solution that enables Matterport spaces to be virtually staged.
- Correct, yes. They are the technical brains behind it. My service is the project management, the interior design and the 3D product modeling and themes that go into the empty rooms that are scanned.
- Okay, we'll put that aside for the moment and we'll come back to that. Let's still try to understand a little bit more about virtual staging. So first, let's talk about who's the target audience for virtual staging?
If you're a Matterport Service Provider and you're going, wow, I got another quiver in my, or I got another hammer or screwdriver in my toolbox, yet something else I can offer. Who do I offer this to? Is it my existing clients? Is it different clients?
- I would say the lowest hanging fruit are the property developers. The guys who've got several properties to sell.
In the U.K. we have these things called garden villages being sprung up. About 1000 homes over several acres of land and they are trying to sell five styles of homes.
And you buy flavor A, B, C, D or E.
Those homes cost a lot of money to furnish and they are then promoted to show homes. So, the lowest hanging fruit is the property developer who is looking to try to present and promote their properties as soon as the drywall has gone up and the empty house is ready.
- Before we go on, Angus, because I want to be clear, because in the United States what we generally call that is multi-family.
And multi-family is either going to be rental communities and the rental community could be 50, 100, 200, it could be 1000 units, typically attached apartments. Or second, it can be multi-family homes for sale.
And it could be anywhere from 10 homes to 50 homes to 1000 homes, planned communities. And I think we'll talk about commercial separately, but I think that was a third category that if it's an office space they existing tenant may not have the configuration of what the vision is of the target audience for that space to be renovated and for a new audience. I guess that's the short of it.
The proposed likely tenant of that commercial space likely looks different than the existing furniture and you really want to kind of clear out the furniture and start over.
- Yeah, if you go back to the multi-family sell point it is being able to go to the property developer and say, listen, you've got three or four types of home that you're trying to promote and families don't come in one flavor.
You might be looking to sell to several different themes and styles of interior design. So you can say, this is the same house staged in five separate interior design themes without you having to buy a stick of furniture.
- Okay, so in this case I found on your website, I didn't realize that the commercial space was just a toggle over in order to look at the commercial space.
- Yeah, so if you click on the commercial space, this is a commercial space here that's been virtually furnished with fairly generic office style.
You could probably put in, I don't know, call centers into that kind of room. But, if you're looking for a media finish it might be slightly more colorful or the walls could be changed or the seating or the colors or the woodwork could be changed or the furniture.
So, you can see the same space designed in three different themes in order to appeal to a media client, a potential financial client or another genre of industry which could be, if it's not media, legal, or it could be a kid center. You could open up, make it colorful, stick some bean bags in there, stick some ball pools in there.
- Yeah, I think the really good point that you mentioned here on commercial spaces because there's likely a lot more money available because there's a lot more money as stake for a seven year lease or the sale of a building.
So, in a seven year lease you may very well want to present, have the commercial space virtually staged three different ways to target different audiences that would have a different look and feel.
And I imagine what we would say is a lot of people can't really visualize what an empty space looks like. So, if you can help them visualize what their law firm is going to look like or the media company's going to look like or that children's bean bag style that you were describing for that space then you can help people visualize their use of that space.
- Exactly, yeah. For example, that last office that you saw, say for example you were talking to a furniture retailer. Now a lot of furniture retailers have got their products 3D ready, their furniture, their beds and their range.
So, this particular space could be a perfect example of saying would you like to see this space as a retailer, as a furniture retailer with your inventory. So, I think it gives the opportunity for the same space to be realized in several different ways.
- I've noticed there's no 3D view here, a doll house view. Is that, in this case, that client chose not to have the doll house view, but you can have the doll house view?
- I think that's work in progress and I would say I'll put the question to VRPM on that.
- Okay, so we'll ask Angus to check on that and we'll, Angus, if you could post a note in the We Get Around Network Forum where we post this video tomorrow March 11th, 2020. We'll see if we can get an answer and have it posted in the We Get Around Network Forum.
- I'd say because it's currently being offering by Roomie and another Canadian service provider I would certainly think it's about time.
- Mm-hm, that that's an option. Okay, so we've talked about two use cases in the United States, multi-family homes for sale, multi-family apartment rentals for sale. You described, you put the right words around that for the U.K. I could imagine that the key point here is it's not a one house for sale.
- No, no, it's not a one house sale sell. I think it's a bit expensive for that. I think one of the key advantages as a Matterport operator is that it gets you a bit earlier in the food chain in the property development cycle. You're no longer having to scan finished properties, fully furnished and ready to go. You can get in a bit earlier in the food chain when the property is built and ready, but unfurnished.
So, it introduces you to a wider customer audience such as the interior designer and the architect.
- Is the ideal time to do the Matterport scan, is it after they drywall's gone up?
- Yes.
- Do I need to wait for the drywall to be painted?
- Yeah, painted because then there are cleaner services and then your conversation needs to be connected to the the developer to say in their timeline.
Because pulling you in later when it's all fully furnished is one thing, but you could be adding a lot more value as a virtually staged environment because they could find tenants faster.
So, you're scanning empty and then you're going back and scanning again as a furnished environment. So, I'm hearing a couple different benefits here.
So, this first is, while we as Matterport Service Providers are interested in scanning a space perhaps twice, certainly the developer, the property manager, the property owner is interested in revenue as quick as possible, so this may be that they are able to sell the space faster or rent the space faster, sell the home faster, rent the apartment faster, using a virtually staged Matterport space that was scanned at the time that the drywall was finished, the walls were painted.
Not necessarily the lighting fixtures going in, but just that the drywall has been completed.
- Correct, yeah, exactly.
- And I think part of that is because you can actually control in virtual staging not only the furniture, but the colors of the wall.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah true. And one other benefit is that scanning a property without any objects in it and furnishings means that the accuracy of what you're scanning can be measured better. So you're actually creating a very good OBJ file.
- So, I could imagine what this means is you really don't want to scan something that has furniture in it with perhaps the exception of an office space where the furniture can be digitally removed.
- Yeah. I think it's better and beneficial to scan an empty space of partially empty space because objects have to be removed and that's time consuming and that's more fees. It's better to try and scan the empty space.
- Okay, so the optimal time is when the drywall has gone in, it's been painted, but before any type of furnishings have been added.
- Correct, yes.
- And so, the benefits, so if you're a Matterport Service Provider and you go, oh, I've got something else I can sell.
The first things is you don't need to wait until the apartments been furnished. Plus, you might be able to save your clients money because I imagine when you're putting in real furniture now you have cost comparison for the client to make a decision to say, oh, it's going to cost me X to have it actually staged or it's going to cost me X to have it virtually staged.
And I can imagine that it's actually less expensive to virtually stage than to actually stage.
- True. I'd say, as a rule of thumb, Dan, I think it's almost around the ability to say something like for less than the price of a sofa you could furnish the entire three bedroom house virtually.
- Cool. So, we as Matterport Service Providers when we start talking about pricing later on somebody might say, wow, that sounds like a lot of money compared to how much I get for scanning the space.
You really have to change your mindset to realize your client is already used to spending far more money on actually staging an apartment for sale or a house for sale.
- To physically furnish a three or four bedroom house could cost upwards of 4000 pounds.
- Can you convert that for us? Hey Siri, 4000 pounds is how many U.S. dollars? It's about 5200 U.S. dollars. So, if that's what we're looking at and I think when we finally talk about pricing we're going to talk about it's far less to virtually stage a space even if sounds like it's way more than what you've been charging to do the Matterport scan in the first place.
- Yeah, and so, I'm not sure what your average price of a sofa is, but if you're going to spend less than $2,000 on a sofa, you're going to spend less than that virtually staging a three bed house.
- Yeah, and so I think part of them, because I just wanted to try and manage expectations of Matterport Service Providers, is your target audience is not a one off unfurnished house.
The math is just not going to add up for a real estate agent for one house, virtually staged. Where the numbers are going to make a lot of sense is when that multi-family home has 50 units that are all model type A and 50 units that are model type B and 50 units that are model type C or just a total of 10 units.
I want to share this because I think it's, we've already had some discussion in We Get Around Network Forum about, oh, this is what it costs, the pricing seems high.
And that's based on if you're thinking about your existing clients that are real estate agents that may have an unfurnished home. Really not the sweet spot for virtual staging. I've said, I probably over said it a million times, but multi-family homes for sale, multi-family apartments for rent, communities, that's your sweet spot.
- I'd say that is the sweet spot for regular business.
I think if a real estate agent comes along and they got five apartments, empty apartments, owned by separate people, but you've managed to get an arrangement with them that you can get access to those five apartments, to those five buildings and to get that lined up so that you're the virtual stager for those empty properties then arrange and do your own deal with them to say that I will virtually stage those five houses or those five apartments with you. Even though each properties are with separate developers it's still five properties to be virtually staged.
So, it would be the responsibility of the MSP to do that deal with the real estate agent to say I will be your virtual stager for your properties and how many empty properties can you send me? Can you send me 10 a year? Can you send me 20 a year? Can you send me 50 a year? I think it just opens that conversation.
- All kinds of interesting possibilities, low hanging fruit, multi-family home, multi-family rentals where there's more than one unit in the building. I think I would add one other one is because as the population in the United States is aging, senior living.
Gee, I just went through this with my Mom as my Mom moved to a new apartment community and the space was fully furnished.
And I did a Matterport scan of that fully furnished model apartment. Then I got a call form the agent, the community sales agent for that independent living, and she said, hey, we had to move the furniture out of that unit because we were able to rent it. So, we moved the furniture into a different floor type. Can you come over and do that?
And so, her challenge is she's moving furniture constantly as she keeps selling it. And I think, well, they only have five apartment types and their units are typically sold out. So, rather than asking someone, hey, can we let somebody come in and see your unit because you're moving out shortly? Now you could just go shoot the five types when they're empty.
Today is March 10th, 2020, in the United States and around the world we're all dealing with the coronavirus and the COVID-19. Certainly, in the sort term, a lot of people don't want to go open their doors to people coming through and people don't want to necessarily go see places.
We're in a unique opportunity or window for Matterport digital twins of spaces, which is also a unique opportunity related to virtual staging of spaces. Particularly I think of senior living places. We'll reduce the number of people that are coming through looking at our place that can actually look at the units virtually.
- Yeah, true. Just in the meantime I got a post from LinkedIn about it. About the coronavirus and maybe if our camera's more like a Heineken beer. It actually refreshes the parts of property that other cameras can't reach. Just to use Heineken's trap line about refreshing.
- So, we'll leave it at that. Let's move on in terms of style. What kinds of interior design finishes, what kind of options do we have? Because not everybody's interested in the style that you showed.
- Yeah, sure. Well, it's interesting, if you jump back on our website there's a range of websites, range of styles, that are available. So, from this page if you just scroll down and you'll see you can pick from a variety of interior design finishes.
Retro, Scandinavian, and just your classic, resort, modern, cafe and spa. Now, what do those mean? So, if you click on the download interior style guide here you can see it's a PDF that quickly loads that talks through style. So what is retro?
And as you scroll through it'll show you images.
All of these are virtually staged images, the sofas, the pictures, the frames, the chairs, the stools. Across this PDF we'll demonstrate the power of virtual staging. And to those that understand virtual staging and those that don't will see that this is high quality work.
So, it is to create photo realistic environments. So, each theme is explained. So, you can take this PDF and you can share it with your customers to say, which kind of style would you like your empty show room or show house to be presented in?
And we can provide 3D models and 3D products in order for the space to be virtually staged. So, this gives you a reference basically to understand what each theme and style can look like.
And it goes through all the styles that have been captured around the world. From Singapore to New York to London, it's a complete range. And these are themes that have been professionally put together by interior designers.
We stock and hold the 3D models so that you don't have to purchase them. They are ready to go so that we can speak directly with VRPM to make sure a certain theme when selected can be produced. And we then work closely with them to ensure that your empty space is themed in the right manner. So, you can see that there's a whole sort of range and it's all very realistic. You can see lighting and shading, textures of duvets and curtains and quilts, woodwork.
So, it's taking our existing real world Matterport built environment suddenly into a virtual environment. And the advantage and opportunity is massive.
Certainly if you're wanting to sort of suggest to a hotel or a unfurnished home or office space, have you thought about doing it in a retro style or in an industrial style you can actually draw on this, say that this is the sort of thing that we are talking about.
So, we aim to provide visual aids to support the MSP so that when they're trying to support and sell a virtual staging environment that they can say, right, this is the kind of output that we can produce. These are 3D ready products that can be dropped into your empty space.
- Terrific. So, I have a client, I think they're a good candidate for this. I've taken some of these samples out to the client. Client says yes.
Or at least I'm interested. So, what happens next? How do I go about finding out how much it costs? And where do I begin?
- Okay, so if you jump back on the website we've got a sliding scale of pricing. Let's see, scroll down to get online quote. It takes you on to this tool here and then we start at 20 scans.
So, there's a slider and you can drag that from left to right to change the number of scan points that you actually do. So, as a Matterport operator you're familiar with how many times you have to place the camera in a room or through a particular building. And as you drag that slider from left to right it will tell you how much it would cost.
- Angus, I think many of the places I scan have a 100 scans in them or close to that, so is that what it's going to cost me, $3,200?
- No, I would say that a typical Matterport scan, most scans, as you've done many properties, if I was to go back and scan a property which did take 100 scans I think when it came to virtually staging it you could probably get it down to 60 scans.
So, the reason being that if you're a bedroom, for example, and you've taken four scan points you don't have to virtually stage all four scan points. We'll only virtually stage two, max three. So, the duplicated virtually staged model only contains virtually staged scans.
So, if you are trying to take an open plan living room kitchen, for example, and you've done 20 scans in that space you don't need to actually virtually stage 20 of those scan points. You can probably scan about 11, maybe 12, maybe less.
- So, in my mind, I should be thinking when I'm scanning thinking where would I want the camera to be when I'm doing my virtual walk-thru.
So, let's just say in a bedroom I might take four or five scans to complete that bedroom, but I might put one scan close to the entrance so that I can see the entire bedroom in one view.
Then maybe I have one at the head of the bed. So, in that case I've gone from five scans that are maybe in the Matterport tour to two scans that I'm actually going to use for virtual staging.
- Exactly.
- So, can you say a rule of thumb is divide by two? Or no, just count as I go through a space. Or maybe if I just think about the space to say, oh, it's going to take me four for the living room. It's going to take me two for each bedroom.
Maybe it's going to take me one or two for each bathroom. I'm going to be, to some extent, in control of the cost depending on how many view I want to enable somebody to walk the space.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah true. I would say if you scan a space that's about 3,000 square feet and you've done about 60 or 70 scans I think you could virtually stage that space around the 50 mark. So, around the 50 mark, 3,000 square feet, you could stage it for $1,612.50.
- Okay, and that's a fully loaded price?
- Yeah, that's a fully loaded project managed, designed, produced price, yeah.
- Okay, so expand on that. What do I get, what's the reason that I order a virtually staged space of a Matterport space? A virtual staging of a Matterport space via Imagineer Consulting with Angus Norriss versus just perhaps contacting VRPM directly?
- The advantage of going through us is we've done it. We've been talking with them for about a year about it. We've done it with them. We're also designers, interior designers, 3D product modelists, 3D interior designers and very experienced in that field.
So, we understand the setting and the scene when you're trying to furnish a space. That's very important when you're trying to sell that space back to your client to say this is why we've done it this way. You're client will pick a theme, but we then have to model that theme in that space.
So, we are the design eye that works closely with VRPM to make sure the end product is sent back perfect. It means that you can carry on scanning and producing and finding new business in peace of mind that you got us in the background working all this for you and producing it.
You don't need to get stuck in the weeds project managing, trying to source an inventory, trying to source 3D product models.
It's all free through us. We got it, we've done it and we've got themes to pick from, so it's making your life easier. And our relationship with VRPM will continue to grow. So, our main thing is to provide a peace of mind service and expertise for interior design and 3D product design for Matterport spaces.
- So, in that first part, if I understand correctly, if I was choosing a modern design working with Imagineer I don't need to think about, okay, modern design and let me figure out the two end tables and the sofa and the coffee table and what the light fixture's going to look like and what the wall color is going to be.
Essentially, I'm engaging an interior design expert to do all of that in my behalf with this platform.
- Exactly. As MSP you're giving your client a Chinese menu to pick off and to say I want that flavor go and make it. And you know that we'll go make it and you can carry on scanning or you can go on holiday and we'll get it done.
- So, to carry that Chinese restaurant a little bit further you can order off the menu the you want the Peking duck, but you don't have to know how to make the Peking duck. You're the chef, you make the Peking duck and serve it up out of the kitchen.
- Yeah, and our Peking duck is really good.
- Next time I'm in London. And I also imagine that there literally are, if we stay with that analogy, there are 1,000s of ingredients.
There's literally 1,000s of different virtually staged sofas, couches, loveseats, chairs, end tables, coffee tables and you as the chef, or Imagineer as the chef, your team that includes interior decorators are making all those cooking-chef kind of like.
- Yeah, but we've got a really good a la carte menu going. It's taken somewhat to put together and it's there because it looks really good.
- Yeah, I know, I got a peek at the VRPM website. It looks like when I look at the Imagineer website I actually see more choices of design styles.
- Well, that's the aim. That we want to be able to appeal to the end customer and we know that customers that buy houses and empty properties want to see choices. So, we need to push the technology to provide those choices. And so, we will provide those choices.
- And project manage that. So, I can speak shorthand to you to say, make mine modern style or classic or shabby-chic, whatever it is, and then you all are going to do that.
Okay, so and then think you have a couple special offers for We Get Around Network Forum Members. So, I think the first is a Forum Member if you would like to have your logo or your clients logo in what we call the nadir, the bottom where the tripod is, you can actually have a branding opportunity for you and or your client within that model.
That's no extra charge. That's unique to Imagineer providing that to We Get Around Network Forum Members. And then I believe the other opportunity is the digital library of assets and styles is that there's more options that are available at no extra charge to We Get Around Network Forum Members. Have I summed that up correctly?
- Yeah, you have. On the nadir patch I just need to do some testing and confirmation on that, so I'll get back to you on that, Dan. But, it's certainly something that has been advantageous in Matterport scans to give a signature of work. But, on the 3,000 products library, yes.
To get access to those libraries does cost money. It costs even more money to put them together into convincing themes so that they've been picked and designed in a way that is appealing. So, the libraries that we give access to the We Get Around Network Forum is exclusive to them.
- Terrific, so, if you're not presently a We Get Around Network Forum Member go to WGANForum.com, if you're watching this on our YouTube or Vimeo or in a lot of different places.
Go to WGANForum.com join and when you join you'll automatically get an email from me that includes 50 plus membership benefits including the promo code for what we've just discussed for Imagineer related to the branding opportunity and the virtual staging.
And if you are already a WGAN Forum Member, or a We Get Around Network Forum Member, just Private Message me. In the subject line put virtual staging promo code and then I'll write you back with the promo code for imagineerconsulting.io So that when you go to this instant quote page here, so right here, imagineerconsulting.io/matterport-tours-virtual-staging -- so that's Matterport tours virtual staging with hyphens.
When you come down here just put in anything else you wish to ask us just say, hey, Angus, here's my promo code for WGAN and it'll work. So, we've covered a lot of ground. What questions have I not asked you that I should have asked you?
- Time of turn around I suppose. How long long does this sort of process take?
- How long does this process take, Angus?
- Well, it can be, depending on the number of scans involved and the intricacy it can be anything from a 48 hour turnaround through to 14 day at max.
I'd suggest, because this sort of process can't be designed first, so if you've got a client who's designed by committee it slows the process down.
Which is why I said picking off the menu it can speed the process up. So, we are trying to get good turn around time, but we have instant gratification, instant turn around in this world today so we're trying to make these things seamless and easy and faster.
So, I would suggest that you don't promise anything longer than 14 days or don't promise anything less then a 24 hour turn around.
- I'm going to add to that, forgive me for jumping in, but I'm going to say tell your clients at least 10 business days. So, that's 14 running days, so that's two weeks.
And oh by the way, if you get it a lot faster than that, so you've under-promised and over-delivered, under-promise over-deliver. And oh by the way, even if it came back right away, I mean, this is something I think some of us might be guilty with Matterport we shoot today, we deliver it today. The client thinks it's super-easy to do all this we should charge less for it.
It actually may be if you tell them it's 48 hours to turn it around that there's, you know, nevermind that it got turned around quickly there's a lot of work that takes place even if somebody else is doing the work for you.
So, I would always suggest just tell people, if you're talking about one unit two weeks. It's at least 10 business days and if you get it back super-quick you might still decided to sit on it so that your client is not always expecting you to turn things around so quickly because it's not always a perfect world as we know. So, does that help? Am I helping in this process?
- Yeah, certainly, so turn arounds times.
And I'll be adding a FAQ to the page which will help MSPs to answer those awkward questions often asked by they types of people that they could be introduced to because of this service, architects, surveyors, interior designers. These are questions that we're going to start being asked, which we're not normally asked. Things like where does your furniture come from?
Why do you shoot the light like that? Why have you have been, why is the outside view not the exact same view? So, the FAQs, which are questions I've been being asked over the last year, I've captured, so it's a kind of cheat sheet.
I been there and done the hard work. I'm trying to share it with you and it will be very interesting to see how you qualify because it's a new art, it's a new skill. It's an added bow to your inventory and your arsenal. So, as a Matterport operator it's not for everyone, but for those, the brave, it is a new service.
- Here's two FAQs, don't know if you know the answer. The first, and these come from We Get Around Network Forum Members asking these questions. How do you keep this MLS compliant?
Well, on of the WGAN Forum Members suggested by keeping at least one actual scan of the empty space in place that that might help with being MSL compliant because you actually showed what the space really looks like. Do you have any thoughts on this topic?
- Sounds like a legal issue and I'm not a lawyer.
- I'm not a lawyer, I don't give legal advice. One thing I did not see, Angus, and would suggest that you push back a little bit with your supplier to see if it's possible. I personally would like to have a legal disclaimer line to say this space has been virtually staged.
- Yep, I know.
- I'd like to see that at the menu level where you see Matterport and Terms. I'd just like to see one extra line of text added that says, "This space has been virtually staged."
- Very good, okay.
- If it's not there then I would certainly encourage when you figure out that branding piece, me personally, even if I was putting the We Get Around Network logo in it or We Get Around Atlanta logo or our client or best case, our client and us, I'd still want text that says, "This space has been virtually staged."
So, I'd suggest that you address that not from a legal standpoint of MLS complaint. Leave that up to the Matterport Service Providers and in their markets, but I still believe that that would, in my case that's what I would want to do is disclose. Because this stuff is so good it looks totally realistic.
And I don't want anybody to think that they're renting an apartment that comes with that furniture. I'd want to be able to say that this space has been virtually staged.
- Yeah, that's true. And it will continue to get better and better. It's been early days I think for this camera and for this technology. We've been waiting for it for some time. And so, I believe in time it'll get better and better and people will think I can't believe that's not real. So, over time it'll just continue to improve.
- Okay, what other questions haven't I asked you that I should ask?
- No, I think we've answered most of it.
- Before we close and we'll wrap it up here, but I think we should take it back up to the big picture. There's some of us who've actually been waiting about six years for this.
There really was a video put out by Matterport by one of their co-founders back in 2014, as I recall.
I bought my Matterport camera in July of 2014 and I distinctly remember seeing this video which we've now published in the Forum saying, hey, you can change the wall colors, you can add furniture. Okay, six years later, it's now possible.
Matterport has opened up their platform with their APIs an SDKs to enable third party companies to do solutions like this.
And I think that from a Matterport Service Provider perspective with this virtual staging now enables us to have an entirely new service to offer that may mean we're scanning spaces twice, unfurnished and furnished, in order to help our clients generate revenue sooner.
- Yes, yeah, exactly.
- It may also mean for Matterport Service Providers that we're now able to call on clients that we haven't called on or prospects that we haven't called on in the past because we haven't had a solution like this.
So, again, I think of property managers or property owners that have or property builders that have multi-family rentals or multi-family homes for sale or even commercial spaces. It may not immediately be obvious if you're thinking about you're existing clients.
They may not be the right clients for this solution, but it may open a door or open many doors for potential new prospects.
- Yes, it's the opportunity to talk to architects, to asset managers on the commercial side. So, the asset managers sit in huge firms of commercial real estate firms. They manage the assets. The asset being a building.
Their job is to make sure that building is realized in many different ways. This is a new way for them to realize it. Re-skin it, re-furnish it without actually buying the furniture. So, asset managers of commercial real estate companies are key targets and they've got a lot of money.
- And perhaps a lot more money than what we are all used to if we've been calling on real estate agents or estate agents as you call them in the U.K. So, the ability to virtually stage Matterport spaces may open up new clients.
And new clients or prospects that have way more money to spend because they're used to spending a ton of money on actual staging of real spaces. And again, even if your client is still perhaps old-school, committed to doing physical staging of spaces there's no reason to un get them to do that, but get them focused on getting cash in the door sooner.
Because cash is king and that actually does matter. Even if a place is going to sell, even if they say, oh, we'll sell, oh, we'll rent the space.
I'm telling you somebody in that food chain cares about cash flow and cash is really important. And if you can spend some money earlier to virtually stage a space in order to generate revenue sooner you're going to be the hero of a lot of people.
- And if you can speak to the procurement guy, because he's all about risk, he wants to make sure that his building and the cost of that building are not over resourced or over stocked or over furnished.
And he wants to visualize and imagine what that could look like. So, the procurement guy, the asset manager, these are guys that we never used to speak to and we're now talking to them.
- You're meaning generically, meaning he or she at these companies. This is a whole new title of a potential prospect within a larger organization that may immediately recognize that virtual staging is an immediate game changer.
- Yes, exactly. And with the dawn of smart cities people are wanting to do things in a virtual environment to Imagineer what that could look like.
I mean, the reason I call my company Imagineer is because it's engineering that leads to imagination. We bring those things together. So, this is the sort of solution which I believe is timely.
- Awesome. Angus, thanks for being on the show.
- Can I just say one thing, Dan? It was Mike Marron that I met a year ago who inspired me with this technology that is the brains behind this. He is the co-founder of VRPM and it's people like him that have made this happen. He's worked very hard to make this happen. And I'm grateful to Kenny Bailey who also has helped me get this proposition together. We work transparently with them. And do we hope that we can provide these services together, ongoing, as a team.
- Awesome. Angus, again, thanks for being on the show.
- Okay, all the best. Thank you, Dan.
- We've been visiting with Angus Norriss.
He is the founder of Imagineer Consulting. Imagineer Consulting based in the U.K and a value added reseller of the VRPM virtual staging of Matterport spaces. Again, Angus, thanks for being on the show.
I'm Dan Smigrod, Founder of the We Get Around Network Forum and you've been watching WGAN-TV Live at 5.
- Thank you, Dan. |
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