在加州中央谷经营房地产公司的汤姆•麦克唐纳说:“我干这行已经47年了,刚入行那时所谓的电子化事务,就是通过电报接收合同。”
而最近几个月,同大多数房地产经纪人一样,他的业务比以往任何时候都更加依赖于科技。原因是美国各地为应对疫情采取了一系列限制措施,加州也全面禁止传统的房屋开放日。
少了饼干香甜气息的加持和与陌生人的互动,麦克唐纳和其他房地产经纪人转而寻求能够帮助其在线上展示房源的新工具。与几年前相比,新工具的应用大大提升了客户体验感,让房地产经纪人可以更好地向潜在购买者展示房源,而且整个过程是既简单又经济。
virtual staging应用就是其中之一,它是通过三维建模和 Photoshop软件将造型逼真的家居装饰通过数字化手段添加到待售房屋图片中,形成预览。同时不断增加还有基于成熟虚拟现实技术的各种虚拟漫游。虽然许多谨慎的买家仍希望在签约前亲自看看房子,但是房地产经纪人和企业家们都认为,后疫情时代,这些新的营销工具仍有其一席之地。
温哥华公司Bella Staging的联合创始人金英表示:“封锁期间,由于房屋开放日活动和传统的房屋售前装饰公司都处于停摆状态,我们实际上比以前更忙了。”
Bella是一家专注于虚拟装饰业务的公司。通常房屋在准备出售前都会临时装修一番,以吸引潜在购买者。而虚拟装饰是这一传统模式的数字化形式。以前的做法是租用家具,雇人搬运和布置,通常要花费几千美金。而Bella的做法是通过数字手段将模拟家具“摆放”到房屋图片中以呈现最终效果。根据金的说法,只需要不到100美金,他的设计师和图片编辑团队就可以设计一套房屋的虚拟装修方案。
不过这样做偶然也会让客户产生误解。“有好几次,我们的客户收到房产报价,买家希望这些家具(虚拟的)也包括在内。”金说,大多数情况下,客户明白这只是展示效果。“我们只是帮助人们描绘出房屋装饰后可能的样子。”
另一个使用激增的数字工具是虚拟漫游,它能给买家带来更加身临其境的感受。在高端市场,使用三维建模渲染技术可以构建成熟的虚拟现实体验。但是更常见的(同时也是可以负担的)是使用360度全景照片制作的虚拟漫游。
巴泰克•德罗兹是Kuula公司联合创始人,他说:“房屋有多大?布局如何?这些都能通过虚拟漫游感受得一清二楚。” 德罗兹将其核心产品形容为“就像虚拟参观的幻灯片”。用户自己拍摄照片,然后使用Kuula 软件对这些照片进行处理,创造令人沉浸其中的家庭参观体验。(缺点是使用该软件只展示房屋的实际情况,不支持添加虚拟装饰。)
德罗兹说,特殊时期,人们对虚拟看房的兴趣和相应的网络流量都有显著提升。实际上,在前几年,Kuula一直保持着稳步增长。德罗兹认为停工加速了房屋购买方式的转变,而且这种转变将长期存在,并非只是短期变化。判断依据源于一个简单的事实: 即使在正常时期,开放参观房屋也不是促成买家购买的有效方式。
德罗兹说: “在交通拥堵的洛杉矶,开车一小时,看房一分钟,然后你发现这个房子不是你想要的。”十多年来,诸如Zillow 这样的网站持续将更多的房屋购买手续转移到线上办理,而沉浸式体验则将线上业务直接带入了新时代。
麦克唐纳对此表示赞同,他说:“我认为,这将长期改变房屋的销售模式。人们越来越习惯于坐在自家客厅,用苹果电视浏览房源信息。”麦克唐纳表示,大多数购房者在决定购买前都想实地看看自己的新家,但对于那些跨地域,从未踏足过房屋的抢购者来说,新工具的使用增添了他们的购买信心。
部分得益于这些数字工具(同时也得益于破纪录的低抵押贷款利率) ,整个疫情期间,房地产业务似乎一直表现良好。根据全美房地产经纪人协会的数据,今年五月房地产合同签订量同比仅下降了5.1% 。与经济领域中的许多行业相比,这只是一个小幅度的下滑。
事实上,由于供应紧张,美国房价在最近几个月普遍上涨。尽管居家令凸显了人们目前居住房屋的设计缺陷,但考虑到失业情况和经济的不确定性,对于一些人来说购买新房并非易事。
在线家居设计社区 Houzz 的视觉技术总监黄莎莉(音)说:“疫情期间,几乎每个人都意识到自己房屋的空间设计不合理。”该网站提供名为“看看我的房间”在线可视化工具,购买者可以通过这个工具虚拟地查看家具的样式与尺寸是否适用于自己的居住空间。
如果你想拥有心仪的房子,无论是正在寻找,还是尝试将现有居所变得更加称心如意。现在,能够做的事情比以往任何时候都多。(财富中文网)
译者:Feb
在加州中央谷经营房地产公司的汤姆•麦克唐纳说:“我干这行已经47年了,刚入行那时所谓的电子化事务,就是通过电报接收合同。”
而最近几个月,同大多数房地产经纪人一样,他的业务比以往任何时候都更加依赖于科技。原因是美国各地为应对疫情采取了一系列限制措施,加州也全面禁止传统的房屋开放日。
少了饼干香甜气息的加持和与陌生人的互动,麦克唐纳和其他房地产经纪人转而寻求能够帮助其在线上展示房源的新工具。与几年前相比,新工具的应用大大提升了客户体验感,让房地产经纪人可以更好地向潜在购买者展示房源,而且整个过程是既简单又经济。
virtual staging应用就是其中之一,它是通过三维建模和 Photoshop软件将造型逼真的家居装饰通过数字化手段添加到待售房屋图片中,形成预览。同时不断增加还有基于成熟虚拟现实技术的各种虚拟漫游。虽然许多谨慎的买家仍希望在签约前亲自看看房子,但是房地产经纪人和企业家们都认为,后疫情时代,这些新的营销工具仍有其一席之地。
温哥华公司Bella Staging的联合创始人金英表示:“封锁期间,由于房屋开放日活动和传统的房屋售前装饰公司都处于停摆状态,我们实际上比以前更忙了。”
Bella是一家专注于虚拟装饰业务的公司。通常房屋在准备出售前都会临时装修一番,以吸引潜在购买者。而虚拟装饰是这一传统模式的数字化形式。以前的做法是租用家具,雇人搬运和布置,通常要花费几千美金。而Bella的做法是通过数字手段将模拟家具“摆放”到房屋图片中以呈现最终效果。根据金的说法,只需要不到100美金,他的设计师和图片编辑团队就可以设计一套房屋的虚拟装修方案。
不过这样做偶然也会让客户产生误解。“有好几次,我们的客户收到房产报价,买家希望这些家具(虚拟的)也包括在内。”金说,大多数情况下,客户明白这只是展示效果。“我们只是帮助人们描绘出房屋装饰后可能的样子。”
另一个使用激增的数字工具是虚拟漫游,它能给买家带来更加身临其境的感受。在高端市场,使用三维建模渲染技术可以构建成熟的虚拟现实体验。但是更常见的(同时也是可以负担的)是使用360度全景照片制作的虚拟漫游。
巴泰克•德罗兹是Kuula公司联合创始人,他说:“房屋有多大?布局如何?这些都能通过虚拟漫游感受得一清二楚。” 德罗兹将其核心产品形容为“就像虚拟参观的幻灯片”。用户自己拍摄照片,然后使用Kuula 软件对这些照片进行处理,创造令人沉浸其中的家庭参观体验。(缺点是使用该软件只展示房屋的实际情况,不支持添加虚拟装饰。)
德罗兹说,特殊时期,人们对虚拟看房的兴趣和相应的网络流量都有显著提升。实际上,在前几年,Kuula一直保持着稳步增长。德罗兹认为停工加速了房屋购买方式的转变,而且这种转变将长期存在,并非只是短期变化。判断依据源于一个简单的事实: 即使在正常时期,开放参观房屋也不是促成买家购买的有效方式。
德罗兹说: “在交通拥堵的洛杉矶,开车一小时,看房一分钟,然后你发现这个房子不是你想要的。”十多年来,诸如Zillow 这样的网站持续将更多的房屋购买手续转移到线上办理,而沉浸式体验则将线上业务直接带入了新时代。
麦克唐纳对此表示赞同,他说:“我认为,这将长期改变房屋的销售模式。人们越来越习惯于坐在自家客厅,用苹果电视浏览房源信息。”麦克唐纳表示,大多数购房者在决定购买前都想实地看看自己的新家,但对于那些跨地域,从未踏足过房屋的抢购者来说,新工具的使用增添了他们的购买信心。
部分得益于这些数字工具(同时也得益于破纪录的低抵押贷款利率) ,整个疫情期间,房地产业务似乎一直表现良好。根据全美房地产经纪人协会的数据,今年五月房地产合同签订量同比仅下降了5.1% 。与经济领域中的许多行业相比,这只是一个小幅度的下滑。
事实上,由于供应紧张,美国房价在最近几个月普遍上涨。尽管居家令凸显了人们目前居住房屋的设计缺陷,但考虑到失业情况和经济的不确定性,对于一些人来说购买新房并非易事。
在线家居设计社区 Houzz 的视觉技术总监黄莎莉(音)说:“疫情期间,几乎每个人都意识到自己房屋的空间设计不合理。”该网站提供名为“看看我的房间”在线可视化工具,购买者可以通过这个工具虚拟地查看家具的样式与尺寸是否适用于自己的居住空间。
如果你想拥有心仪的房子,无论是正在寻找,还是尝试将现有居所变得更加称心如意。现在,能够做的事情比以往任何时候都多。(财富中文网)
译者:Feb
“I’ve been doing this for 47 years,” says Tom MacDonald. “I started when something electronic was the acceptance of a contract with a telegram.”
MacDonald heads up his own realty group in California’s Central Valley, and like most realtors, his business in recent months is depending on technology more than ever before. Jurisdictions across the U.S. have responded to the coronavirus with an array of restrictions, including a total ban on traditional open houses in California.
So in the absence of baked-cookie scents and mingling strangers, MacDonald and other realtors are turning to tools that help them show off houses online. This allows for more immersion than was possible just a few years ago, and makes it easier and less expensive for realtors to put a property’s best foot forward.
These new tools include so-called “virtual staging,” in which images of a property have lifelike decor added to them digitally using 3D modeling and Photoshop. They also increasingly include digital walkthroughs of various kinds, verging on full-blown virtual reality. And while many serious buyers still want to see the property in person before signing on the dotted line, realtors and entrepreneurs believe the new marketing tools will stick around well after coronavirus pandemic is under control.
“Because a lot of open houses and conventional staging companies were not operational during the lockdown ... we were actually busier,” says Young Kim, cofounder of Vancouver-based Bella Staging.
Bella specializes in virtual staging, the digital evolution of the common practice of temporarily redecorating a house to impress potential buyers. But instead of renting real furniture and hiring movers to haul it in, which can cost into the thousands of dollars, Bella adds furniture to photos of an empty house using digital wizardry. According to Kim, his team of designers and photo editors can virtually stage an entire house for under $100.
That occasionally leads to confusion. “There’ve been times our clients have had offers on a property, and the buyers wanted the [virtual] furniture included,” says Kim—but for the most part, clients understand that virtual staging is an exercise of imagination. “We help paint the picture of what it can be.”
Another digital tool that has seen a surge in relevance is the virtual walkthrough, which gives potential buyers a more immersive sense of the space. At the very high end, those can be built as full-blown virtual reality experiences using a 3D-rendered simulation. But more common (and affordable) are walkthroughs created using 360-degree photos.
“It gives you a feel for the place. How big it is, what’s the layout,” says Bartek Drozdz, cofounder of Kuula, whose core product he describes as “like Powerpoint for virtual tours.” Users take their own photos, then use Kuula to arrange them into an immersive home-tour experience. (One downside is that Kuula doesn’t allow for the addition of virtual decor, instead capturing a house's real-life appearance.)
Drozdz says he’s seen a significant uptick in interest and web traffic during the pandemic. But growth at Kuula was steady for years before the coronavirus hit, and Drozdz sees lockdowns as accelerating a longterm change in homebuying, rather than a temporary shift. That’s because of a simple reality: even in normal times, open houses aren’t always an efficient way to shop for a home.
“In L.A., with the traffic, you have to drive for an hour to see a house you don’t like the moment you walk in,” says Drozdz. While sites like Zillow have been shifting more of the homebuying process online for well over a decade, immersive experiences take that to the next level.
MacDonald agrees: “I think this will change longterm how homes are sold. People are becoming very comfortable with sitting in their living room, using their Apple TV to look at real estate.” MacDonald says most shoppers do still want to see their new home in person before committing to a purchase, but the new tools give added confidence to some, such as cross-country movers, who snap up properties without ever setting foot in them.
Thanks in part to these digital tools (but also a lot of help from record-low mortgage rates), the real estate business overall appears to be holding up during the pandemic. In May, according to the National Association of Realtors, contract signings were off just 5.1% compared to the year before. That’s a minor drop compared to many sectors of the economy.
In fact, with supplies tight, U.S. home prices have actually gone up on average in recent months. Combined with job losses and economic uncertainty, that might make it tough for some people to buy a new home, even as stay-at-home orders have highlighted the shortcomings of their current one.
“Almost everybody during this pandemic is learning how their space isn’t working for them,” says Sally Huang, who directs visual technologies for online home design community Houzz. The site offers an online visualization tool called “View in my Room” that lets shoppers virtually check the size and style of furniture against their living space.
So whether you’re on the hunt for a new house to love, or trying to love the house you’re in, you can do more of that work online than ever before.