For the 334th episode of the Mail Right Show, Jonathan Denwood and Robert Newman invited Robert Watts, the co-founder and executive producer of Light Sail VR, to discuss what VR is and shares thoughts on the future of VR in the real estate market. Light Sail VR is a full-service commercial production company specializing in immersive media, which touches categories such as 360 video, 180 videos, and interactive game engine content like branch narratives. Robert Newman is the founder and CEO of Inbound REM, an inbound marketing agency, and has more than a decade of experience in the industry of real estate SEO. On the other hand, Jonathan Denwood is the founder and CEO of Mail Right, a platform combining a range of digital tools into a streamlined, user-friendly package. They create a semi-custom or fully customized WordPress website and offer a suite of marketing tools to help generate leads.
What is VR
Virtual reality, or VR, provides a digital environment and immersive experience that makes you can’t see the real world around you. Anything that is viewed through a headset is considered a virtual reality.
What is the difference between AR the VR?
Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that overlays digitally created content on top of the user’s real-world environment. The difference between VR and AR is whether the device allows you to see the outside world and whether it changes it.
AR is not recommended in real estate because you don’t want to change what a client expects to see; instead, you want to capture it and let the client know how the property is designed. Furthermore, augmented reality glasses are expensive – a pair of consumer-grade AR glasses costs around $2500, and the field of vision is limited, about the size of a postage stamp, making them unsuitable for immersive use.
The Future Use of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality in Real Estate
Although augmented reality is not yet applicable to real estate, it is more likely to be in the future. You might be able to create engaging augmented reality experiences in the real estate market in the future. For example, one can look at a wall or a lighting fixture and see details such as who developed it, the pricing range, and whether you want to add it to your cart. Depending on the end user’s preferences, it can be played in various ways.
VR offers convenience and exclusive access to the end-user, allowing you to transport them to places they could never visit or that are extremely difficult to reach. For example, if the investor cannot fly or leave their country, you may send out a crew to construct either a digital photo reel version or an actual live-action version of the property and offer them a home tour. End-user could see the ceiling and the floor and put the 360 camera in any position that the user would ordinarily stand or sit in that room, giving a perspective of the entire space rather than just one or two like 2d photos. You can see things that aren’t immediately obvious in 2d with 360 VR. It also adds to your overall impression and comprehension of the property.
End users can view residences through a VR headset as if the user were standing there.
Immersive VR and Microsites
There’s a vast difference between experiencing immersive media in a headset and doing it on the website where you’re clicking and dragging. VR headset gives you the feeling that you’re there; you have this thing called prese