REINZ partnerships opens doorway to virtual reality

REINZ partnerships opens doorway to virtual reality technology

The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) is delighted to announce that it has formed a strategic partnership with virtual reality (VR) company iStaging and with IT company kloudpro to provide agents with virtual reality tools in a move that could help add significant value to the industry.

Virtual reality technology has been around for a number of years now, but very few New Zealand real estate agents are using it as part of their marketing toolkit when it comes to selling property.

Bindi Norwell, Chief Executive at REINZ says: “The use of VR tools overseas by real estate agents is quite high, whereas only 4% of New Zealand agents are using virtual reality according to our own industry research however, the trend is increasing. We think the partnership with iStaging to provide the VR tools and with kloudpro to provide our members with training on how to use the technology is an excellent opportunity to embrace this digital selling tool and in turn provide a greater customer experience when it comes to viewing a property. Especially given its ease of use and cost effectiveness.

“Virtual reality is a tool that can be used by all sectors of the industry. For our residential members it’s a great way for people to visit open homes any time of the day or night, for our property managers it’s a great way to showcase rental properties, for commercial and industrial agents they can use the tools to showcase buildings, our business brokers can virtually walk potential purchasers through a business for sale and for our rural/lifestyle members what a great way to showcase the view from the back paddock,” continues Norwell.

Johnny Lee, CEO at iStaging says: “Real estate and virtual reality are a perfect match providing potential purchasers with a great customer experience, so we’re really excited to be working with REINZ to bring VR to its members. One of the first questions agents ask us when we talk to them about VR is ‘won’t this reduce the number of people at my open homes?’. What we’ve found through our experience from working with agents all over the world is that it actually increases the quality of leads for them.

“The other thing we’ve found is that it stops open home visitors from saying that the house looks different to the pictures, as people have already had the opportunity to virtually ‘walk’ through the house, so they are really excited about seeing the house in the flesh,” concludes Lee.

REINZ’s research into the use of virtual reality indicated that 43% of agents had considered using VR at some point in the future. As agents have been asking REINZ for guidance and help on how to use virtual reality for some time now, this partnership will also offer members with a free training session from IT company kloudpro in order to help them with getting the software set up.

Ben Keehan, Director of kloudpro says: “As an agent myself I’ve been using iStaging for my virtual reality tours for vendors for 8 months now and everyone that sees the tours loves them – it’s just like Google Street View and it’s really easy for customers to use. The iStaging VR Maker app enables users to capture from their smartphone and itself is pretty simple to use, but for those who need a little bit of extra help I’m delighted to act as that first port of call to help agents with the tech side of things.”

REINZ Members should visit https://reinz.co.nz/member-benefits for more information, discounted rates on the iStaging software and to register for free online webinars each Wednesday from kloudpro.

ENDS

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