With the fast-paced evolution and ever-changing nature of social media and technology, marketers need to constantly keep track of trends in order to provide inventive, memorable services to their clients and their customers. It also helps to foresee future tendencies that may offer groundbreaking approaches and provide entirely new costumer experiences.
When it comes to real estate, it’s pretty clear that in the past 10 years, RE marketing strategies have shifted mostly to advertising online through social media pages, professional business websites and various other channels. But even if you’ve already mastered all these online skills, we’re here to tell you that there’s yet another (somewhat futuristic) medium that has the potential to shake the RE marketing industry to its core. We’re talking about augmented reality.
If the term is new to you, then you should know that AR technology aims to provide a real-world, interactive experience with the help of various gadgets by targeting the human sensory modalities. This experience is so vivid and life-like, it gives you the impression that you’re actually in a completely different place, when in reality you’re just staring at a screen.
Although you might not think much of it at first, check out a few reasons here why augmented reality might be the future of real estate marketing:
Virtual tours from the comfort of your couch
House tours are currently an essential step in the real estate world, one which can hardly be overlooked, because people rarely ever buy houses without seeing them personally. With AR technology, this could all change. You will be able to show your clients around a home completely virtually, with the help of a simple application.
Your potential buyers will get the chance to take a three-dimensional self-guided tour of the new apartment they’ve been eyeing. The entire imagery will be completely life-like and realistic, with the undeniable advantage that your clients won’t even need to leave their own house to take a tour of their new residence. Say, for instance, someone lives in Dallas but is considering a new job in Las Vegas. With the help of AR, the client would be able to look at homes for sale or apartments for rent in Las Vegas without having to travel halfway across the country to do so.
Customizable interior, tailored to client’s needs
Staging homes to meet with client needs and expectations will be a thing of the past once real-estate oriented AR technology gains popularity. With the help of virtual narratives, agents will be able to customize interiors to be in line with potential buyers’ lifestyles. For example, the same apartment will look entirely different to a bachelor than to a family with small children.
On the same note, clients will be able to change the aesthetic of the rooms to match their interests and personal taste. If they do not love the couch in the living room, they can change it with the simple click of a button and can virtually redesign entire spaces easily through a mobile app.
All the information you need is just one click away
Gone are the days when brochures, flyers and catalogs ruled the real estate world! With the help of AR, smart phones and the Internet, all the information you might need about the apartment, the neighborhood and nearby amenities will be at hand in a paperless, eco-friendly way. The possibilities are endless and there’s always more room for improvement, so this feature will likely get better and more informative over time.
A fantastic time and money saver
Since potential buyers won’t have to travel all the way to the open house to take a look at it, AR can actually be a great money and time saver. Agents won’t need to deal with the hassle of staging a property and they won’t need to bother with the scheduling process either. This frees up masses of time for the potential buyer, and also for the real estate agent, who can then tackle other tasks in the buying-selling procedure.
Convenient and user-friendly
AR technology is designed to be as simple as it can be for an enjoyable and convenient user experience. You likely won’t need to decipher complicated RE terms on your own—AR will do it for you and present them in an easily understandable way. The entire process of buying and selling a home will become much easier to deal with and it will benefit all stages of home buying, from the selection process to signing on the dotted line.
Shared social experience
Naturally, in our social media-governed world, AR will enable online sharing so that the entire home-purchasing experience will likely become a shared social experience. You’ll be able to point your phone at a “for sale” sign and not only read all the information there is about the property in front of you, but you’ll also have access to user reviews and have the chance to share everything with your friends and family instantly.
Augmented reality might not be for everybody, but it certainly has perks that can come in handy and simplify a real estate marketer’s life. And while this technology is still in its infancy, it’s definitely worth keeping an eye on it so you can be among the pioneers that offer this unique service to customers.
