AR is one of the services we have been successfully offering to our clients for more than 4 years. It is still something very new, but it really took off once we started working with the real estate developers, this is how we’ve got a big chunk of our experience in AR.
Oh, by the way, for those who don’t know, Augmented Reality (AR) is an interactive experience of a real-world environment where the objects that exist in the real world are enhanced by computer-generated perceptual information, or simply AR overlays computer-generated imagery on real-world environments. Think about Pokemon Go. This is the most popular version of augmented reality in action.
Why did the real estate development sector adopt AR so fast?
Well, first of all, and this is a no-brainer: it helps increase sales.
Let’s see a few scenarios of how you can use AR in your business if you build and sell real estate. This is especially good right now, during a pandemic when you cannot meet people physically.
1.Mobile AR application is used by a sales rep
One of the main things you can do with augmented reality is to show the interior options in future apartments while you are working with prospective clients in the office, it becomes a part of your sales funnel. You might not even start building the apartment complex, but you can start doing pre-sales, based on the project documentation, confirmed timelines, and your investment plan. But instead of using flat images, you can enhance the whole experience, “the look and feel” by immersing your clients in an experience which is a lot closer to reality.
AR is the best visualization tool you can use to sell apartments because you enable your client to interact with his future apartment. They can see everything in 1 place and grasp the idea of how it would feel like to live there a lot faster than from 3D visualization. They can understand dimensions and make better choices of what suits them, their wives, husbands, children, dogs, and also in-laws.
Here is a step by step process of how it is done:
- The client comes to the office,
- Then the sales manager starts to help them choose an apartment based on their requirement.
- And then the sales rep takes their tablet and opens your AR application.
- Then they take a catalog, open plans, and focus their camera on the apartment plan. Suddenly, the model of this apartment appears on the plan in 3D!
- The client sees everything in 1 place and the deal is closed easier because the rep can work with objections and questions right away, while they are doing the “virtual tour” together. The rep shows the interior, dimensions, they even sell the future in this apartment. AR is a great sales instrument!
But what if you need to present the apartments online? Here you go
2. Mobile AR app used at a client’s convenience (at home, at work) with a marketing kit.
Just imagine. Your client gets back home with the brochure, opens an app and your presentation in AR starts. The client can see the dimensions, different interiors, audio guide on zoning in the apartment. You can give your client a full presentation and sell your apartment (actually any product) via an AR app.
This is how it works:
- A client has your brochure
- She opens it, downloads the VR app in the mobile app store
- And then the presentation starts. She points her phone camera on the plan in the brochure and sees her future apartment in 3D
This approach helps your client see apartments, dimensions, interiors, etc., and even experience how it feels to be inside.
Here is a real case. Our client, a property developer in Ukraine started showing their apartments in AR/VR to their clients a while ago. And one of their customers came to their office. The customer wanted to purchase a small studio apartment of 40 square meters (around 430 square feet). But when he saw it in AR, he changed his mind and bought a 60 square meter one (646 square feet), because the first one felt too small.
Let’s see, what else we can do with VR...
3. Advertising in a shopping mall
When you think of lead generation you have a lot of ways to do it. One way is to set up a pop-up store in a shopping mall, where you can broadcast everything from your tablet to a TV screen.
When people are walking through a mall they get attracted to unusual, innovative, sometimes flashy things. Shoppers usually have a lot of time to wander around and be curious, and at the same time they get information overload from all the shops and merchandise, so you need to stand out. If you show them AR, they will absolutely come up to your pop-up store and will want to check it out and at least ask some questions.
You can do a presentation of your building, asking people to download your AR app and set it up with their personal data.
We did it in Ukraine in a big shopping mall and we also gamified it - we added a quest into the experience.
Here is how it actually looked like:
This is how it works:
- Visitors start playing. Their task is to find 5 specific items inside apartments.
- While they are searching for items - the sales manager talks about this apartment while the visitors are doing the quest.
- When the visitors finish the quest, they get a substantial discount for the apartment.
- They leave their contact. Then a sales department rep calls them later and closes the deal.
However, my favorite thing you can do with AR is an AR App used on your stand at a trade show.
4. AR App for trade shows/exhibitions to attract attention
When your company participates in a trade show, you need to do something extraordinary with your stand/kiosk that will attract attention.
We have done it many times ourselves. One of our cases: we get 70%+ more clients than a usual exhibition stand because we use AR
When people see how we showcase an apartment first they ask us for a contact of the property developers and then they ask if they can do it for their own business.
That's why AR works very well during exhibitions.
5 Creative advertising, infomercials, and content for social media, posts, etc
And last, but not least - AR is great when it comes to content creation. When you have an innovative instrument you can do a ton of great content.
For example, everything below was done from our AR/VR scenes:
These are 5 main areas where AR does miracles when it comes to selling real estate.
But there are a lot more areas when AR can actually save lives, but this is another story.
Let me know what you think and if you have any questions, please, post in a comment below.
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Founder at ImaginusVR • 3D/AR/VR • Investor • Business Optimisation and Investment Consultant for SMEs • Blockchain Enthusiast