How Augmented Reality Will Unveil Benchmarks For On-demand Real Estate Business

The real-estate industry is a tricky one to ace. It has been the reason for the flourishing growth of economies as well as the root cause of economic depression, point in case the 2008 recession. Nevertheless, it remains an industry that is always in hot demand. After all, people need homes – either to live in or to act as investment vehicles.

In the past 5 years, irrespective of the motive, the method of buying real estate has also evolved significantly. Mobile apps have found their way into the devices of real estate buyers as well as servers, convenience being the most obvious reason.

Real estate has become easily accessible just like the on-demand taxi-hailing apps. One can find properties, book property tours, concierge and even make the first steps to the purchase without having to get out of the home. One can find a new home to move in without having to step out of their current home.

With every passing day, technology is making it even easier to find your next best home. The augmented reality aka AR, which has been showing a world of promise for other industries can also give a helping hand to the on-demand real estate business.

Source: Statista

According to a recently released report by statista, it is expected to have over a billion users of augmented reality by 2020.  The AngelList reveals around 546 startups being listed in the augmented reality race until today.

In another report published by Market and Markets, it is believed that the AR market will cross the mark of US $61.39 Bn by 2023, in comparison to the $2.39 Bn in 2016. Having said this the AR market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 55.71%.

Source: Markets and Markets

Augmented Reality In The Real-Estate Business

Before we cut to the chase, you need to know the several challenges that is plaguing the real estate industry, the most pressing among them being the shortage of time.

A time-bound challenge

Until now the industry practice is such that a single realtor chases multiple leads at the same time. They present the same properties to multiple prospects. Showing multiple properties increases the chances of buying as well as helps in liquidating stocks fast.

But, driving from one property to another and giving an elaborate property tour can be time-consuming. Especially when prospects are available only during weekends and holidays with few hours at their disposal. It is here that augmented reality can prove to be a problem-solver.

The immersive reality technology can help prospective buyers a real-life preview of properties that could become their future homes.

The prime benefits of augmented reality in on-demand real estate business can be depicted from two perspectives – the buyer and the seller.

Benefits to the buyer

Buyers, who are always on the fence when planning to buy a home, stand to gain a lot with the AR infusion in real estate. Here are some possible benefits that will become mainstream in the near future.

Remote property visits

You can be at Amsterdam yet take a closer look at a villa in San Francisco. That is a convenience facility that augmented reality could bring to home buyer. It enables them to remotely visit properties of their interest without having to be there physically.

But, isn’t that what video calling also does? Augmented reality core function is to embed data snippets across physical objects. So, when you are remotely watching a property, it is not just an online inspection. It is more of a virtual tour that is enriched with data about the house, its measurements, specifics about each room, furnishings and much more. The good news is that, you don’t need a realtor to assist you to find all this information. AR can take on the job of property demos upon itself.

Self-exploration of homes

In addition to remote property visits, augmented reality can also assist home buyers in exploring homes through self-navigating controls. Having an augmented reality app can showcase the house as it would appear after fitting all the furnishings as desired by the user. It gives the closest experience of evaluating a home just like one would get to live in it.

Panoramic view of properties

While pitching a property for sale, the view outside the property matters as much as the interior view. In fact, quite often, it could be the deciding factor that would end up in a deal. Augmented reality can infuse external views of the property seamlessly into a mobile app thus giving buyers a panoramic view of the property.

Benefits to the seller

A closer look at the benefits that augmented reality can bring to on-demand real estate offerings:

Wider buyer reach

Augmented reality for real estate can spare realtors from the need to provide a physical presence for each property demo. As a result, they are able to reach out to a wider buyer base and pitch the properties available with them for sale/lease/rentals. This would help cast a wider net and increase the number of property deals closed than otherwise through physical walkthroughs.

Immersive marketing

One of the key traits of augmented reality is that it gives users an immersive feel of physical places and surroundings. It places them right into home interiors along with data snippets that highlight key features of the home. For instance, the quality of the paint, the type of flooring, floor space measurement and much more.

In other words, it will help the sellers to provide an immersive marketing experience that is unlike traditional real estate marketing. It also spares them from the trouble of having to repeat the minute detail to every prospect from time-to-time.

Last Few Things

There is a wave of change that is about the sweep across the real estate industry. It is not in the form of a new way of interior designing, construction method or anything. It is through augmented reality.

AR with its immersive experiences can interest home buyers and sellers a better way to transact real estate transactions. It will remove the pebbles in the shoe that makes property walkthroughs cumbersome for both the parties.

Despite the popularity and ‘n’ number of experts working on the same, it is believed that the true potential of AR is yet to be unveiled. I managed to find and outline some of the possibilities.

The future could hold more surprises. Who knows, We may never visit a property ever again before deciding to buy it. Augmented reality might make that happen. Well, this indeed calls for a lot of fun ahead.

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.