Efficiency in the Closing Process with 3D Tours

Taking a property listing from posting to closing can be a complicated process. Creating efficiencies in each step can be simple and is essential to completing it with consistent success

Whether you're an agent or client, the process of listing a home and searching for one is a multi-stage effort. This is something we realize at The Kite Team as a part of the larger Keller Williams Infinity Group, and in our first post of this series we covered maximizing the client and agent connection where they meet in the first stage of closing a deal.

In this post, we'll dig into the many efficiencies that are created throughout the home sales process, for clients and businesses alike, by implementing Matterport 3D informational experiences.

You can listen to our complete story by watching the webinar, but here are five of the most impactful efficiencies we've found at various points of the listing and home buyer lifecycle.

1. Time to an offer on listings with 3D virtual walkthrough cut in half

Purchasing a home is among the most important decisions a person makes in their life and clients want to be confident in their choice. What we've seen is confidence translate into a shortened closing cycle, with listings featuring Matterport seeing an offer in half the time as those without.

Understanding the steps in today's home buying process is essential to our ability to not only reach them at the beginning (which now overwhelmingly starts online) of their search, but also prove to be a valued resource throughout. Reality capture with the 3D walkthrough provides this resource.

The immersive, informational experiences we implemented with our listings gives clients the unlimited ability to explore a property, reassuring their decision-making process and creating buyer confidence ahead of closing.

2. Reduced 90% of photographers' back-end, post-processing time

Capturing visual representations of a property is crucial to the successful marketing of any listing. It's important to show off every feature in giving the most accurate, complete view of the space. First impressions can be everything and images provide that initial window into a client's vision of their life, their home, in that space.

The attention to detail and importance of shooting a property (not to mention time spent traveling from location to location) can make it very time-consuming. What people don't always think about is the amount of time it takes to put images together after the shoot itself, in post-production. Ask any photographer; it's a significant amount of work and it can often (as our own photographer can attest to) eat into personal time. What if we could automate that part of the process?

This is a question we asked ourselves and found an answer to by implementing Matterport and its AI-powered software that generates our images. While eliminating 90% of backend work creates obvious efficiency within our photographer's schedule, it's also has allowed us to streamline our listing marketing processes overall. Expediting production of our visual assets has made possible the creation of a high quality and unique experience for our clients on a large scale.

3. Improved speed-to-market of listings with a complete collection of assets

Being complete and comprehensive with our listings includes more than 3D tours alone. Details matter and the more information available to a prospective home buyer, the better. For us, this means listings also include high-res 2D photography, accurate measurements (our days of manual measurements are over), and the schematic floorplans that can be made as a result. And it can all be done with Matterport.

With the most accurate and complete representation of a property that comes with our 3D tours, these other assets simply add to that effort to be transparent and build confidence in buyers knowing they can trust what they're seeing. The fact that this speed also comes with the highest of quality really makes it the best of both worlds. Being highly informational and collaborative, these assets have made access to the necessary details accessible to everyone in our posting process. This is especially true for our transaction coordinators, who can get complete, detailed listings together without ever setting foot in a property. Overall, we've seen our timeframe for posting to the MLS go from 4-7 days down to just 2-3 on average.

It's also worth noting that while the time saved from editing is certainly a part of this speed-to-market, the simple integration these assets have with the MLS (as well as social platforms) is what's truly making that acceleration possible, and of course this really makes our sellers happy.

4. "Sight-unseen" sales opportunities increased

Many Realtors are familiar with instances where a client is looking to relocate long distance. Turns out, according to a recent study of US migration patterns, 22% of newcomers to metro areas come from abroad. The value of complete details and navigating 3D tours of properties is magnified for these individuals where time and travel are a significant roadblock. There are also specific cases where this type of situation is particularly common. One such instance is with military families who frequently transplant between bases where they're stationed.

"As a military family, it was great to be able to walk through the property without ever visiting the home," says the Svedarsky family. "I was confident when we made the decision to go with the place because of the 3D tour."

In the short time since expanding our use of Matterport, we've encountered two cases where military families were looking to move to the area and were too far to easily visit. On both occasions, we were able to place these families in their next home, all while completing their search from the comfort of their previous home.

We've managed to stay in contact with these families, and we know they're extremely happy to have had the whole process streamlined to accommodate their circumstances. It's a process that would be much more difficult, stressful and likely costly had they not had access to these immersive experiences.

5. Contracts are less likely to fall through

One of the most frustrating situations a real estate agent can encounter comes from contracts that ultimately don't close. The wasted time and effort that results isn't ideal for anyone and represents an obvious drain on efficiency. They are an unfortunate reality of the real estate business, but limiting their likelihood can be done by counteracting the conditions that make them happen in the first place.

Uncertainty—the more of it that exists in a buyer, the more likely a contract is to fall through. Today's homebuyer is especially idealistic in choosing a home and, understandably, buyers want to get it right. The ability for a client to check and double check the boxes of what they're looking for in an ideal home can't be overstated. Information is the key to confidence and confidence is the key to closing consistently.

There's been a noticeable difference in the reliability of the offers we've received since offering access to these immersive experiences. Using 3D reality capture puts our properties on full display, adding a degree of certainty to what's on display in what can be an uncertain process.

Dan Bennett is the Marketing and Systems Head for The Kite Team – Keller Williams Infinity Group

To view the original article, visit the Matterport blog.