Digital viewings a tough sell
3D open houses can’t replace in-person walk-throughs, real estate expert says
If pandemic isolation has taught us anything, it is how to meet our wants and needs without ever leaving home. Buying a home may be the final frontier of shop-at-home culture.
The real estate industry is making it easier than ever to tour properties online, and even though most consumers will never buy a house sight unseen, realtors say COVID-19 is changing the house hunt for the long term.
People have been buying condos and houses online from around the globe for years. Now, the remote purchase process is relevant whether the sale is down the street or on the other side of the world, and real estate agents have adapted, says Ontario Real Estate Association president Sean Morrison.
In the absence of open houses and in-person tours, realtors have used technology to help their clients through a difficult time. But livestreamed tours and 3D showings won’t replace in-person walk-throughs when it comes to the biggest purchase most consumers ever make, he says.
“I think there will be some effects to the market, but I don’t see a big shift to going online when we’re able to go back to face to face,” Morrison said.
But Costa Ntoukas, CEO of Toronto’s BrokerBay, says technology is so good that the efficiencies it injects into the business will inevitably play a bigger role post-pandemic.
BrokerBay sells brokerage operational systems that automate many of the day-to-day administrative functions of its 26,000 brokerage clients — analytics, listings notifications, showing management, offer processing and feedback.
Last month, it launched an interactive 3D virtual-showing system that puts the agent and the buyers in the same room, overlaying the tour with video conferencing.
It allows for the same kind of interactivity as a family web chat, so buyer and realtor can tour a home together, stepping through the virtual rooms and zooming in on features of interest. It is compatible with the Matterport, iGuide and Realvision 3D tours commonly used in the industry.
The controls can be passed back and forth between client and agent and appointments can include tours of several homes.
“We’ve taken the virtual tour process, we’ve made it fully interactive in real time with video conferencing so everyone can now collaborate on the exact same tour. I can see what you do, you can see what I do,” Ntoukas said. Home buyers can see the home’s features, take measurements of the windows and walls, study the make of the appliances and ask questions in real time.
If a couple happens to be in two different cities, they can still tour the home together. If they want to take the agent from the basement back to the kitchen, the realtor can hand over the controls.
The whole thing is tied directly to the industry’s Multiple Listing Service. It’s a system that is especially pertinent in the age of COVID-19, but it will remain relevant, Ntoukas says.
“I truly believe in every industry you’re going to see a lot more happen virtually,” he said. “For real estate this is going to be a medium that is going to replace 15 to 20 per cent of showings for the foreseeable future.”
Century 21 realtor Brad Miller of Oakville has tested BrokerBay’s interactive showings and says it will be a lasting tool for out-of-town buyers. Given that real estate is a relationship business, it provides an opportunity to build a rapport and fill in the blanks for buyers.
“Instead of having to go out and look at 30 homes, you can probably narrow the list down to two or three. That’s a pretty significant paradigm shift,” he said.
That was already in play, but in the past eight weeks, everyone has had to do a video call or meeting.
“The familiarity and comfort level of doing that has changed. Now people are probably a little more willing to go down that road,” Miller said.
Still, there are elements a virtual tour can’t provide.
“You can’t see the fine details of the craftsmanship in a 3D tour. When I walk through a house, I’ll walk through door frames and I touch the paint finish. That tells me a little bit about the quality. Was it sanded between coats and was it sprayed or was it painted with a brush? Truly, what is the size of the windows,” Miller said.
“You don’t always get the feel for the neighbourhood, you don’t necessarily get the sense of the maturity of the landscaping, what do the neighbours look like, how far is truly from your front door to the school,” he said.
There’s also the reality that most people can’t translate the dimensions of a room to their experience of that space.
New-construction homebuilders have been selling houses and condos off plans for years.
Jill Lalonde, vice-president of sales and marketing for Mattamy Homes, agrees that conceptualizing space remains the biggest hurdle in virtual selling. That’s why model homes are considered so valuable as sales tools.
“You can walk it, you can touch it, you can smell it, if you will. It hasn’t gone away, that importance,” she said.
But more than half the houses she has sold in her 22 years with Mattamy have been purchased without the aid of a model home and, Lalonde points out, houses continue to sell even though COVID-19 prompted the company to adopt virtual sales centres.
All the builder’s plans are online. They include 3D self-guided virtual tours or interactive floor plans. The only thing missing is the sales agent and that can be booked online too if the buyer wants a representative to walk them through the plans.
Lalonde says virtual sales tools offer a different kind of value — convenience.
“(Buyers) want a choice of inperson appointments or they want to shop online in the safety of their home at 10 p.m., in their pyjamas on their couch,” Lalonde said.
Virtual sales tools have been around for years. “It’s just because of the circumstances, agents are being forced to adapt and embrace it,” said David Elfassy of Sutton Group Admiral Realty in Thornhill. COVID-19 has prompted agents to use Facebook Live and 3D tours — sometimes in tandem — open-house alternatives that sellers have resisted in the past, he said.
“Sellers have always wanted us physically there. We’ve given them the option but they’re, ‘No, we just want to do the status quo.’ Whenever something is new there is resistance. We’re not going to argue,” Esfassy said.
COVID-19 “gives us an opportunity to say, ‘This does work and it does capture a wider audience,’ ” he said.
Toronto Bosley Real Estate agent David Fleming believes that technology will help buyers narrow the choice of properties they want to visit. But he scoffs at the notion of selling a $2-million home that a purchaser has never toured.
“If you’re going to spend $550,000 on a one-bedroom condo in a market as frenetic as ours by looking at a virtual tour, I have no words to describe what you’re inviting into your world,” he said. “When COVID first happened, there were some very smart, entrepreneurial people who said, ‘I’m going to build the best virtual tour there is.’ This does have a place in the future. Any new marketing vehicle would,” he said. “But is this going to replace people going to see properties? Of course not.”
But Elfassy says the COVID-19 crisis has opened the industry’s eyes to the potential of technology.
“As terrible as the global situation is, this is an opportunity for agents,” he said. “When this passes, the smart agents will have marketing tools, experience on how to leverage your everyday sales pitch with technology, and that is going to give them an advantage.”
“Is this going to replace people going to see properties? Of course not.”
DAVID FLEMING BOSLEY REAL ESTATE