Marketing luxury properties requires agents to up their game. And marketing properties to the tech elite in one of the most expensive markets in the country requires the latest and greatest tools.
Simple photography or videography is often no longer enough to show off a property with sensuous curves and long lines. A property with multiple buildings, multiple floors or unique features — more than a house and detached garage — needs a creative way to tie it all together.
Circle Visions has stepped in to meet those needs. The company ties together 3-D videography with animation to offer potential buyers a multidimensional look at what could be their next home.
Founder and producer Bob Yuan said that his clients already include several notables in the Bay Area realty scene, including Sotheby’s, Pacific Union and Hill & Company.
Video, animation, 3-D, aerial and a website
The company’s staff of eight uses high-end technology that combines high-quality video with animation using 3-D images to create an immersive experience that captivates the viewer while giving a real sense of what it feels like to be in the house.
“We provide the entire end-to-end service, including photography, filming, aerial, 3-D Tours, animation and a dedicated property website to really showcase the home,” said Yuan. “There were not many Realtors using videos to sell homes, and what there was was not good quality.
“Any of those one components is not enough, so we combined them,” Yuan said. “It’s not just one thing that will sell that luxury property. It’s a combination of things.”
Wrapping emotion into the product
Emotion often plays a big part in the buying decision, Yuan added.
A beautiful and impressive online presentation must have the “wow” factor since first impressions are important. Buyers in this price range may be from out of town — or from outside the country — so an accurate online depiction is key.
Yuan also said in a statement that high-producing agents realize that a history of investing in high-quality property presentation enhances their own professional reputation. A list of attractive, high-tech property websites to their credit can be a powerful tool to show to potential homesellers and win new listings.
“We recently filmed an $11 million renovated property in Pacific Heights with Circle Visions,”said Rebecca Hoffman of Hill & Co. in San Francisco, in a statement. “The developer and investors were very happy with my online sales presentation and even happier when the house sold in about three weeks.”
Yuan said that the company now has about 20 clients, some of them repeat business.
“We started in East Bay, with Bay Sotheby’s,” he added. “We’ve been discovered since then by Realtors in San Francisco and now have clients all over the Bay Area.”
He added that his company’s services and the look and feel of each end product is a reflection of the personality of the Realtor and the characteristics of the home. Some finished projects have an elegant and artistic feel, and other have an edgy and urban feel, with quick cuts between shots and animations.
He said the largest project his company took on was a three-building complex with a 12,000-square-foot home, a 8,000 square foot sports complex, and a five-car garage with a banquet hall above it.
