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Steven Cross
Despite half of agents believing that 3D property tours have no future in the industry, the company who introduced it is defending their innovation.
Last week, award winning agency Toop&Toop in South Australia announced what they claimed was a world-first innovation by presenting 3D property tours on TVs.
However, according to the latest Real Estate Business straw poll, 52 per cent of the 152 respondents thought the technology didn’t have a future in the industry.
While 14.5 per cent agents were unsure, 33.6 per cent believed it had potential to be a lasting feature of the industry.
General manager of Toop&Toop Anthony Toop told Real Estate Business that the company has close to ten 3D videos up already.
“But we’re aiming for one a week,” he said. “We’re getting the hang of it now.”
Mr Toop said that South Australia was in a perfect position to embrace the capabilities of smart TVs.
“South Australia has just switched to digital from analogue as of the first of April, so the timing was good because a lot of TV are being sold in SA at the moment," he explained.
“The thing that 3D does is that it’s as close as you can ever get to walking through the property without actually walking through it. It’s great for top-end houses where the owners don’t like people trudging through their home.”
But despite Mr Toop’s enthusiasm, Graeme Stapleton from Elders Real Estate in Dubbo thinks that the technology might be too ahead of its time.
“I think in time, technology is certainly going to control our industry, in fact it already has arguably," he said. "I’ve been in real estate for over 30 years and what we did 30 years ago we certainly don’t do today."
“Things like open homes were never heard of 30 years ago. The agent would put people in his car and take them to house after house. When the ‘open home’ concept came about, there were doubters, but we had to move with the times – plus it made life a lot easier.
“A lot of this technology is going to find its place. But if you asked me to introduce something like that tomorrow, I don’t think I would.
“It would depend very much on cost, and you’ve got to look at your overheads and see what bang you can get for your buck.”
While Mr Toop admits costs are high, he believes the price tag will shrink in the following years.
“The cost is high at the moment, but we’re getting a second camera coming direct from Japan and the cost is noticeably less than the first one we bought," he said. "The price is coming down, and I’m not talking in the next five years, I’m talking in the next few months.”
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