Inman

C.A.R. partners with immoviewer to offer 3-D home tours to Realtors

Source: Immoviewer homepage screen shot

The California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.) has been hunting for an “affordable and accessible agent-centric 3D tour software” for its members.

Now, it’s found a winner.

C.A.R. has announced a partnership with immoviewer to help its members “easily create virtual property tours and boost their business.” The deal underscores the momentum of 3-D real estate marketing.

Real estate agents can use immoviewer’s toolkit to churn out lightweight 3-D tours in 30 minutes or less. They can embed the tours on websites and present them in a webinar-like format to prospective buyers.

Inman has asked C.A.R. for more details, but the deal presumably makes immoviewer’s product available at a discount to members. Immoviewer’s basic product, which provides up to five active tours, is listed at $69 a month on its website. The camera and tripod needed to produce the tours can be ordered there for $399, including shipping.

Screenshot from a sample immoviewer tour

Immoviewer’s tours are comprised of 360-degree photos. Viewers can only teleport between the photos; they can’t glide between vantage points as they can with some other types of 3-D home tours.

But Immoviewer’s tours are cheaper and require less expensive hardware than many competing products.

To produce an immoviewer tour, agents have to use a Ricoh Theta 360-degree camera mounted on a tripod to snap a 3-D photo or two of different parts of a home.

Immoviewer’s virtual showing feature sets its product apart. It lets agents and prospective buyers jointly explore and discuss a tour in a webinar-like format.

C.A.R.’s partnership with immoviewer offers a “cost-effective way” for members to incorporate 3-D home tours into their “daily sales and marketing efforts,” said Don Faught, chairman of C.A.R. subsidiary Real Estate Business Services, in a statement.

“With immoviewer virtual tours, Realtors will be on the cutting edge of innovative technology that buyers and sellers are demanding,” he added.

Immoviewer CEO Ralf von Grafenstein said in a statement that the company enables Realtors “to create, share, and sell with technologies that in the past have been considered exclusive or luxury.”

“This partnership will give more agents than ever the opportunity to use the latest technology available on the market,” he said.

Email Teke Wiggin.