Be Ready for the Metaverse with Virtual Tours
What is the metaverse?
You know us, we love anything virtual so we couldn’t resist sharing our thoughts on the metaverse…
We may be hurtling towards the end of 2021 but arguably the buzzword of the last 12 months only surfaced on 28th October. It was on this date Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook as Meta, and the term ‘metaverse’ was shunted into the forefront of public consciousness.
We’re by no means saying that the metaverse wasn’t a thing before Zuck’s rebrand but we are saying that his overhaul of Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram and Oculus under the umbrella term of ‘Meta’ kick-started a more wide-spread conversation.
In fact, Google searches for the term ‘metaverse’ skyrocketed between October 24th and October 30th in the wake of the rebrand.
Google searches for the term ‘metaverse’ in 2021.
You might be thinking what on earth is the metaverse? Well, for starters it’s not technically on earth but we’ll refer to the experts to define it:
“Broadly speaking, the technologies that make up the metaverse can include virtual reality—characterized by persistent virtual worlds that continue to exist even when you’re not playing—as well as augmented reality that combines aspects of the digital and physical worlds. However, it doesn’t require that those spaces be exclusively accessed via VR or AR. A virtual world, like aspects of Fortnite that can be accessed through PCs, game consoles, and even phones, could be metaversal.
It also translates to a digital economy, where users can create, buy, and sell goods. And, in the more idealistic visions of the metaverse, it’s interoperable, allowing you to take virtual items like clothes or cars from one platform to another.”
Whilst you still might be slightly confused (and fairly so), the metaverse has been popping up just about everywhere. That includes this whacky announcement from the Tourist Board of Iceland parodying the Mark Zuckerberg ‘Meta’ keynote.
What does the ‘metaverse’ have to do with real estate?
The key question, which I’m sure you’re whispering under your breath.
Being fans of everything virtual, we had to dip our toe into this metaverse and find out just what was going on in the property metaverse world.
As with all big tech trends, they start to extend their tentacles into every foreseeable space and with the metaverse, it’s no exception. Believe it or not, metaverse and real estate have a deeply entwined destiny, albeit most of it will be saved for future generations.
In the metaverse, this totally virtual world, people will need land and with it they’ll need virtual real estate. Believe it or not, there are already real estate firms buying and selling virtual land in the metaverse. Here’s some of our favourite findings online:
Metaverse Properties (a real business) check them out here.
This company bills themselves as the world’s first virtual real estate company and specialise in buying and selling virtual space in the metaverse. Their mission is to build a premier metaverse experience. Being totally honest, we’re not entirely sure what they do beyond buying and letting virtual land but try and wrap your head around that one.
People are paying real money for virtual real estate in the metaverse – read here
We’re fans of virtual but this is totally wild. There are punters out there trading cold hard capital for virtual real estate. It’s crazy but it shows how seriously some people are taking the metaverse. The highest selling virtual plot went for $1million.
So, whilst this is all a bit tongue in cheek, we do think it’s exciting that real estate and property are taking centre stage in the metaverse. We’ve been banging the drum of virtual and visualisation for years, so we’re well positioned for when the metaverse eventually takes over the world.
Be ready for the metaverse with virtual tours
Our CGI virtual tour service is basically a primer for the metaverse. Our visualisations are so detailed and totally 360 degree that you basically enter a fully virtual world. If you haven’t experienced one of our visualisation projects, take a look here.
We go way beyond the basics of photo-real virtual tours. We build out whole development plans including trees, lawns, garage doors and even cars parked on the driveway. Like the metaverse, this is to give your customers a fully immersive virtual experience that enables them to envision living in their new build home even before they’ve bought it.
William Davis Homes – Wellington Place an example of EyeSiteView CGI visualistion.
The idea with a CGI virtual tour is that buyers can visualize your property listings, even before they are built. For a new build property developer, this is an extremely valuable tool because they can bring property to market quicker and have more flexibility over the types of showhomes they can showcase.
Virtual Tours and Physical Visits
Now, for the same reason we’re still not totally sold on the metaverse, we think that everything virtual works best in combination with the physical. And just as we aren’t ready to plunge our entire lives into a virtual metaverse, we also think CGI virtual tours are best utilised in combination with physical visits to homes.
We know that for a customer looking to buy a house, nothing beats the sensation of walking over the welcome mat and getting a sense of the size and space of a showhome. The beauty of CGI virtual tours is that customers can then share the layout and detail of their favored property with their family and friends, all from the comfort of their sofa.
Forget the metaverse, for now
The metaverse could be exciting but for now, we’ll focus on the present. We’re all for pushing virtual but buying and selling fully virtual property, still feels a bit far fetched to us. What we do know is that CGI tours are the best way to give your customers a virtually immersive experience of a new build property, from anywhere they choose.
If you’d like to find out more about virtual tours and other interactive sales tools, get in touch with us today to book a demo.
