Real estate agents are using 3D cameras so prospective buyers can experience a home through virtual reality.
MarketWatch reports that a few San Francisco tech companies, such as Matterport and Circle Visions, are leading the way in housing VR. Matterport uses augmented reality, which superimposes graphics and other information onto real settings, during walk-throughs. Builders in the process of constructing a home can use tech from Circle Visions to view an interactive blueprint through a VR headset.
While the new 3D technology is still a little buggy and laggy, brokers say they can see a world where standard home photography is replaced.
But as useful as virtual reality is for helping you start your home search, Steven Giles, a broker with Douglas Elliman Real Estate in New York, says that seeing an existing home in person is best. “A lot of these technologies are very realistic in the way that you can experience the property, so I would say that the virtual tours are quite close, but nothing substitutes the real thing.”