As real estate agents clamor to get buyers in homes, they’re chasing 3D models at record speed

• Due to the coronavirus, real estate agents are now wanting to show houses in virtual reality. Realtors are panicking and looking to learn Matterport or hire contractors. 
• Drone pilots trained in drone mapping offer a unique advantage over contractors who traditionally offer 3D modeling for real estate.
• Traditionally, Matterport contractors who create 3D models for realtors only create interior models… leaving the door wide open for those who know how to create exterior 3D models.
• Drone pilots who understand close proximity flights gain further market share with the ability to acquire imagery needed to create 3D models in complex environments.
• Drone mappers offer a profitable option without georeferencing

The PROBLEM – How the Virus Outbreak Is Making Real Estate Marketing Impossible

Real Estate agents face a large and ever-growing problem throughout the industry. In the wake of the coronavirus, buyers simply are not attending showings. Even sellers don’t want potential buyers rummaging through their homes and potentially infecting the family. Realtors face a rapidly growing problem when buyers don’t want to travel and sellers don’t want to see the buyers.

Leveraging Virtual Reality Can Help Us Address This Issue

Realtors have been asking, how can we show houses in virtual reality? Buyers can experience the interior of the home through VR goggles or by simply exploring the 3D space through the Zillow app. Real estate agents allow buyers to control the experience but have become quickly asking the photogrammetry community, how can we create exterior models?

Traditionally speaking, most realtors have trusted services like Matterport or service providers to scan homes and create 3D dollhouses using Matterport. Typically, the service providers have offered 360 photos on the exterior of the home to augment the lack of exterior environment or exterior model. Matterport software is by far the most trusted 3D modeling service to produce beautiful life-like models of houses that buyers can experience right from their iPhones.

Curb appeal simply hasn’t been perceivable by buyers viewing these Matterport 3D models. Until now. Using drone mapping and a process called photogrammetry we can build life-like 3D Models of the exterior of houses.

Using photogrammetry software like Pix4D or Drone Deploy, drone mapping has never been more convenient and affordable. By setting the starting view of the 3D Model in Sketchfab, we can showcase curb appeal in the most appealing angle possible! Even Insurance adjusters have also been known to hire drone pilots to help inspect and map in the wake of the virus!

Drone pilots who have been trained in using drones to create 2D maps and life-like 3D models have a unique advantage to earn revenue in the wake of the coronavirus. Drone Mappers can easily map houses to create exterior 3D models to merge with interior 3D models to offer realtors a VR experience like never before.

Whether the buyer’s experience takes them directly from Zillow to Matterport, or they view the models on a VR headset – anyway they can experience homes inside and out! As they say, location… location… location…

Now buyers can experience curb appeal, the landscaping, and the location.

Pilots need to remember that convenience is king! Make delivery easy to realtors but make the models easy to navigate for buyers! This is why we have been recently training pilots to merge their drone maps with 3D models from Matterport. Buyers can now experience the exterior of the building, click an annotation link and move right inside to showcase a famous actor’s once adored art studio.

More good news for drone mappers! Since realtors are looking for life-like 3D modeling, georeferencing or the need for GCPs….is well, not needed. 3D Modeling is more focused on visual appeal rather than absolute accuracy. If drone pilots won’t need GCP’s, this will keep their operating costs quite low and increase profits.

The only issue is that most drone pilots aren’t familiar with creating interior 3D models using Matterport.

How Using 360 Degree Cameras With Matterport Results in an Efficient and Compressed Workflow

Thanks to Insta360 working with Matterport, creating 3D models has never been cheaper, easier or even more efficient. After modeling a few homes with the Insta360 One X, I realized that using this 360 camera was so much better than the full-size Matterport option….Why? Well, remember, most people are looking at the models on their phones. Hyper resolution cameras really don’t matter that much…yet. The Matterport version of the hardware has to physically spin during each scan taking approximately a minute or two between scans moving the heavy object around.

When using the Insta360 One X camera, we can easily and quickly move from scan to scan making interior acquisition almost 4x faster than using the traditional Matterport camera. Drone pilots are used to creating efficient complex systems to get more for their money. Interior mapping should be no different.

We recently released all this information to our members through our community to give them a head start to the opportunities. Don’t forget, drone video has always been low hanging fruit for real estate agents. Primed to use drones, this new technical deliverable offers a higher barrier to entry for sophisticated drone pilots. 

How Can You Learn To Use 360 Degree Cameras and Matterport?

Well here is the last morsel of good news for trained drone mappers, the learning curve to learn photogrammetry inside is about 1/1000th the size of learning how to map with drones. The cards are stacked quite high for drone mappers right now as learning to use 360 cameras and Matterport is a cakewalk compared to learning the nuanced systems of drone mapping

Drone U plans to have a webinar soon to highlight the potential opportunities they can take advantage of without getting into too much detail. Check out the free webinar.  

We will be teaching a live, telecast online class to go over the process of creating interior and exterior 3D models that are easily accessible for buyers. Join me to start taking advantage of this unusual time in history. 

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