Home buyers know how time consuming buying a home is when they are driving from showing to showing and taking time out of their weekends to attend Open Houses. Real estate agents feel the same. Sitting in traffic to see a house that you may not like the minute you walk through the door can be frustrating and make you want to give up on buying a home.
With Virtual Reality (VR), home buyers don’t have to go from house to house anymore or cut out hours of their busy schedules. With Virtual Reality, home buyers can come into their real estate agent’s office and tour as many homes as they would like without leaving the office! VR technology is making it easier for home buyers and real estate agents to buy their dream homes.
What is Virtual Reality?
Back in the 1960’s, Morton Heilig invented the Sensorama, a simulation machine that played a 3D film along with aromas, wind, and stereo sounds. This would immerse the viewer into a whole different world. Now, through the technology that Samsung and Facebook’s Oculus, it is easy for people to experience Virtual Reality.
Virtual Reality has started to be incorporated in our everyday lives. It is used for military and space training as well as for therapy and medical treatments and research. It’s only a matter of time that it breaks through in the real estate industry, making it easier for home buyers to tour potential homes.
What You’ll Experience
Once you arrive in your real estate agent’s office, you will wear a pair of Virtual Reality goggles. These will allow you to experience what it is like walking through the house. You can look up and down, side to side, to get a full view of the property.
Keep in mind, this can only be done on properties represented by agents who have set up and invested in Virtual Reality tours.
What This Means for Real Estate
What does Virtual Reality technology mean for the real estate industry? It means that home buyers will be able to view any home, anywhere right from their real estate agent’s office or the comfort of their own home. If a family is relocating to another state, or even another country, they will be able to view as many homes as you’d like without traveling for hours.
Of course, most home buyers will want to see the property in person. After they have narrowed down their search through Virtual Reality tours, they can schedule at time with their agent to tour the house.
What We’re Waiting For
This all sounds so amazing, right? So why aren’t more real estate agents taking part in Virtual Reality tours? First off, it can be a little pricey. Second, it’s new technology. When new methods are introduced, no matter how awesome they are, people are hesitant to be the first to try them. Third, technology is always advancing and can always be improved, so maybe we are just waiting until some of the glitches are ironed out before Virtual Reality takes the real estate industry by storm.
About Agent Lady: Cherise Wynne is a leading real estate agent in Philadelphia, helping home buyers and sellers navigate the City of Brotherly Love, with a special focus on first time home buyers. To chat about getting started with your first time home buying experience, click here.
