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Get ‘Transported’ into real estate’s new VR home tours

Have suggestions for products that you’d like to see reviewed by our real estate technology expert? Email Craig Rowe.

Transported is a platform for creating and sharing 3-D and virtual reality (VR) home tours.

Platforms: Browser; mobile-optimized
Ideal for: On-site sales offices

Top selling points

  • Room teleporting
  • No hardware upsell
  • Sound enhancements
  • Easy website page embeds

Top concerns

Services are still restrained geographically, as they handle property image capture. This should change as adoption continues and its network of service providers increases.

What you should know

Transported is another fun, effective entry into the ever-growing VR home tour market.

The software offers a more interactive, sci-fi interface from the get-go, allowing users to select distinct properties to tour by “tapping” information cards in the headset display.

This feature makes Transported ideal for static showrooms and retail offices with multiple listings to show buyers.

Transported: Virtual Reality for Real Estate from Transported VR on Vimeo.

Tapping a detailed property card transports the viewer into that listing’s world, which can include an exterior walk-up or instant leap into a specific room via the pop-up list of rooms and tour points.

Transported tours aren’t digital regurgitations of properties; they’re full resolution, surround video with a natural, “walking” flow from space to space.

Subtle waypoints hover on the screen for instant access to adjacent rooms or highlights. For example, users can be looking down a hallway toward a patio, touch the button, and instantly be placed there.

Creators can insert an exterior soundtrack to enhance the patio visit. Customers can be fed the sound of bird songs, wind or general outdoor noises to enhance authenticity. A library of tracks and white noise is included with every tour.

Short text descriptions of features and amenities augment the tour and pop up as the viewer tours a listing.

Transported was built to work with multiple cameras and devices to eliminate the need to rent or buy specific hardware.

While no camera capable of VR is “cheap,” some are certainly more affordable than others. Transported has an extensive list on its website.

As a technologist, I love to see companies push each other in a space. It’s healthy. Transported published a pricing comparison of its features against Matterport’s.

For a more detailed comparison, see this page.

Transported tours are processed almost immediately after finalizing and can take as little as 24 minutes to create, according to the company. They can also be built on Macs and PCs, and agents can build profile pages showcasing their tour collection.

Viewers can stroll through a tour on Google Cardboard, Oculus Rift and the Samsung Gear VR. Non-immersive VR tours can be experienced on dedicated tour webpages and mobile devices.

Agents can also share their tours on social platforms

It wasn’t long ago that I was cynical of 3-D and VR home tours. Now happily convinced otherwise, I’m excited to see where Transported goes next, and how the (current) industry leader responds.

Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe.