2020 coronavirus lockdown forced innovation for home sales
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic posed challenges to real estate agents in many different ways.
As spring sprung at the shore, the prime time for sales and rentals was plagued by uncertainty about when or if the barrier island resort communities would have the traditional summer that many count on for their livelihoods.
State shutdowns, stay-at-home orders and fears of taking a tour compounded the problem, making it difficult if not impossible to show a home.
Agents needed a way to show and sell homes and they needed it fast. Since necessity is the mother of invention, many agents turned to technology to connect with clients, show homes and hold closings at a time when meeting in person was prohibited.
“Without adapting and trying to utilize the tools in front of us, it was next to impossible to sell a house for a few months,” said Disston Vanderslice of Grace Realty in Ocean City.
He said he works with a photographer who is always talking about new and progressive ideas and he quickly embraced virtual tours and other forms of technology, such as the emerging Matterport system of 3D walkthroughs.
“As soon as the pandemic hit, we wanted to do what’s best for our listings and our owners that trusted us, so I took it upon myself to spend a few extra bucks and utilize these tools to do what is best for clients,” Vanderslice said. “Because by doing so and using the Matterport tours and that kind of stuff, we show the sellers that we do care just as much as they do about getting the house sold.”
Vanderslice said the Digital Age is quickly changing many aspects of people’s lives.
“Everything has been going digital, but when the pandemic hit in March we had to pivot a little bit. We were on hold for about a month or two and then everybody realized we had to pay the bills,” Vanderslice said.
He said the agency started posting on Facebook that it was offering virtual tours or properties.
“Over the course of those next two or three months, I sold four houses fully on virtual tours on places they really hadn’t seen until we went to home inspection and that kind of stuff, whereas if we would have sat on our hands and waited to see what happened, none of those sales would have transpired,” he said. “We sort of had to adapt right away and put to work what we already knew worked.”
The agency already had purchased a Matterport system — a specialized camera that photographs at multiple angles and software that stitches it together into a virtual tour — and was doing FaceTime showings “but it went from a tool to a necessity rather quickly,” Vanderslice said, adding that he thinks buyers embraced it because of fears of the coronavirus.
“Once they realized they weren’t going to get hurt in real estate transactions and that the market was going on a crazy upswing, people didn’t want to miss the boat. So if they didn’t want to put themselves at risk, there was no risk at all for me to go to a house that’s completely vacant, FaceTime them and walk them through everything.”
He said that opened up a new way of shopping for a home — from the couch.
“I actually just finished a deal at 53rd Street in which we have settled and they still haven’t seen the house (in person). They didn’t feel comfortable coming up from Florida. They wanted a place, they saw one of my advertisements, called me. I showed them the place numerous times via FaceTime and it was almost as if they saw the place four or five times with me, but still never set foot in the place,” he said. “I think the buyers really adapted as quickly as the realtors once they realized that if you want to sell some homes you have to adapt.”
He said the Matterport system takes virtual tours to a whole other level.
“Doing FaceTime showings is one thing but when they can sit at 10 o’clock at night and spend an hour going through a house while they are lying in bed, there’s not many better tools than that,” Vanderslice said.
Steve Booth, regional manager for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, Fox & Roach Realtors, said his greatest increase in the use of technology has been keeping in contact with other managers and other offices via Zoom and other platforms, but that agents have done more property showings with their smartphones and virtual tours.
“There’s been a number of things that have opened up in terms of getting information remotely to buyers,” Booth said, noting it has been effective but “nothing beats being in the property and seeing it first-hand.”
“As a close second, yes, we were able to navigate a couple situations where people were locked down by getting them the information they need and the visibility of the property via iPhones, Google and Zoom calls and those types of things,” he said, but noted that the majority of the agency’s technological work has been involving closings.
“We’ve done a lot of the closing work that used to be face to face. Buyers and sellers are signing all of their paperwork in advance and not coming to closing,” he said. “The selling, certainly we’ve done remotely but still a buyer still would really prefer to come down and see it, feel it, be in it.”
He did say Ocean City is somewhat unique in that most of the buyers have already spent time there so a virtual tour does not involve as many surprises.
“A lot of our buyers are familiar with the island to begin with, having rented here, grown up here, vacationed here with their family. They are familiar, so they can get a pretty good feel in Ocean City for the property remotely,” Booth said. “People are comfortable with what the island is. They are comfortable that they are making a good investment. That underlying safety helps a little bit in terms of remote showing,” Booth said.
Earlier this year, Brian Logue, an agent with Berkshire Hathaway, included a link to a 3D virtual tour with his listing for 57 Walnut Road, which was featured in the House of the Week column.
He said his company uses Asteroom, what he described as a cheaper, more user-friendly version of Matterport.
According to industry reports, Asteroom’s technology uses cell phone cameras instead of expensive hardware. Once agents finish collecting the 360-degree images, they upload them to the cloud where Asteroom’ stitches the images into a 3D dollhouse within 24 hours. Every Asteroom tour also includes a 2D floor plan with dimension estimates.
In fact, Logue said, the agency partnered with the startup over the summer when it became clear the industry needed to turn to new and innovative ways to connect with clients and show homes.
According to an article by Jim Dalrymple II of inman.com, “the new partnership means that agents at Fox & Roach will get discounted access to Asteroom’s hardware and imaging programs, among other things. Fox & Roach will in turn support Asteroom’s technology.”
Former Facebook data scientist Eric Tsai co-founded the company in 2018 and now serves as CEO, the article stated.
Dalrymple wrote that both Matterport and Zillow have smartphone-based 3D tour products, as well as free versions of their technology, “but Tsai argued that Asteroom’s friendliness to DIYers, as well as its ability to produce floor plans and dollhouse views, is combined not something offered by any other company at a similar price point.”
Ami Menz, of Coastline Realty in Cape May, said her agency had been using technology to connect with clients prior to the pandemic but started doing it a lot more.
“Sometimes people can’t get down here even before the coronavirus, so we would do a video and send it to them,” she said, noting she had used FaceTime a lot.
Menz feels the biggest benefit of technology such as Asteroom and Matterport is allowing people to see a home from anywhere immediately.
“Matterport and the video tours helped people who couldn’t get to the home quickly enough — that’s how hot the market is and with inventory being super low, you may have 10 showings the very next day so if you can’t get down here the very next day, you get your realtor in there and video tour,” Menz said.
She uses the technology more as a way to get people to visit the home than to try to sell it.
“Most people shop online, so the more you give them online, the more they want to come down to see it,” she said. “I think having four or five pictures is not really going to entice people to come down. But if somebody sees multiple photos, video, floor plans, it’ll give them more to look at and they might get a little more excited to make that call and come down.”
Menz said the technology benefits both buyers and sellers.
“For sellers, having all of those extra bells and whistles helps increase the number of buyers who might now have all of the information they need to come down to see it,” she said.
She described Matterport as “like you are walking through the house.”
“It creates a 3D vision of it. You can see what the house looks like — the floor plans, walking through, into and around the kitchen. You literally feel like you are in it. It’s not like just a quick video tour, you can actually manipulate what you are looking at. The buyer sitting at home can actually manipulate the 3D floor plans to get an idea of what it’s like walking around the house.”
She added that there is a measurement mode in which potential buyers can find out whether their favorite furniture will fit in a room.
“Let’s say they have a gigantic couch that they love and want to bring with them. Is it going to fit?” Menz said. “Or if there is a queen bed in the property, will a king fit in there?”
She also mentioned people with mobility issues can use the mode to discern whether there is enough space between objects to navigate safely.
Menz called it another tool for realtors to showcase a house in a better way. She said she currently is working with would-be buyers from Washington state.
“They want a house here so bad but they are not going to drive and don’t want to hop on a plane because of the coronavirus, so video tours and Matterport are super helpful for them,” Menz said.
Find her listing for 1151 Indiana Ave. in Cape May at my.matterport.com/
show/?m=tnD9p3z4cFq&mls=1.
