Everything You Need to Know About Virtual Staging

We live in a visual culture where the average person expects to see images and examples of everything before they make a purchase. For architecture firms and real estate agencies, this has been a point of turmoil throughout the years. An empty space just doesn’t highlight the true potential of a building, room, or area. Fortunately, virtual staging can bring a better reality to life using Matterport technology.

What is Virtual Staging?

Virtual staging is a process that allows companies like ours to fill a digital space with a more complete design. With virtual staging, professionals can easily add high-end design options that will make a space look better than ever. This digital take on modern staging can fill a room with the potential that you want your clients to see.

Using Matterport 3D. experts can bring the full power of an interior design team directly into a digital rendering of a space. This allows us to add furniture, lighting, and other room additions to your digital space so clients can see the space in all of its glory instead of simply looking at an empty room. Just like with traditional staging, which involves physically upgrading a space using modern design and furnishings, virtual staging has the potential to instantly enhance a space.

How Virtual Staging Brings More to a Space

Staging is a popular approach to making an area look better. Even the most beautiful home or design can fall flat if the images shown to clients are always empty rooms. With virtual staging, we can highlight architecture, show off a home, or even redesign a space to demonstrate the potential of that space. By bringing design elements, we can make a space feel more warm, welcoming, or futuristic. It is a great way to impress clients by pairing an original design with an already remarkable area.

Recreating a Room with Virtual Staging

Virtual staging is not only beneficial to those who are working with an empty room. In fact, using digital staging, we can completely redesign a space without the need to empty it first. If your space is full of outdated furnishings, virtual staging can easily remove and replace them to ensure that the area has a perfect look that is in line with what your team would like to highlight in the area.

Conclusion

With virtual staging, giving any room a quick upgrade is an easy process. It is a wonderful way to show off the potential that a home or building might have used modern designs that also work while the individual tours the area. Using virtual staging, it is easy to offer visitors a rendering that will truly demonstrate what can be done with their space, and it can even offer a way to remove the more personal touches in a home that sometimes discourages buyers from making the leap. Virtual staging gives your team more control over an area than ever before, giving you a chance to share the best possible version of it.

What is Building Information Modeling?

Building Information Modeling (BIM) has been around for decades in various forms, but it is now more impressive than ever. This modern approach to technology-based marketing can help professionals in countless industries including construction, architecture, real estate, and the arts. Already, countless companies are turning to BIM companies like Lightbound 3D to bring their visions to life. In this article, we will discuss what BIM is and how it can be used to benefit your business.

What is BIM?

Building Information Modeling is a broader area that now offers various approaches to creating a complete rendering. In general, BIM is used to create a 2D or 3D version of a building, home, or design space. It allows companies and clients alike to fully see the potential of an area using detailed images that can be either digital or composed using true images.

Some people prefer complete digital 3D images while others use augmented reality to create virtual tours. Additionally, virtual staging, which offers us the chance to decorate a space using digital renderings of design elements has recently joined the world of BIM.

The History of BIM

The earliest version of Building Information Modeling first came to light back in the 1970s. Towards the end of the decade, BIM software was first developed to help with modelling older buildings. These approaches offered simplistic models and took a lot of complex hardware to function correctly, which made them highly cost-ineffective.

By the 1990s, we were officially using the term “building model” to describe these digital renderings. The first use of the term “Building Information Model” was used in a paper published by G.A. van Neverveen and F.P. Tolman in 1992, but the full term really wasn’t adopted for another decade. Further down the line, systems like Autodesk and AutoCAD came to light, and BIM as we know it was born.

Modern BIM and its Implications

In the modern world, BIM is quickly becoming a point of focus in various industries. It can be used to offer companies and clients alike a chance to experience an area in a brand-new way. Companies can use it to convince investors to pay for a design, and real estate agencies can use BIM to show off their homes in the best possible light with a bit of modern staging. The possibilities for this kind of technology are endless, and they bring an entirely human focus on engagement in a virtual way.

Conclusion

With BIM, it has never been easier to show off a property to the fullest extent. Second only to an in-person tour—and not always—BIM offers a way for buildings to be highlighted and experienced as if the person was actually there. Using this technology, architects, designers, and property owners gain the ability to show their space in a highly detailed and consistent way that aligns with what they want for their visitors. Whether you want to allow virtual tours of a museum, or you just want to show off your latest home design masterpiece, BIM offers the tools that you need to make it possible.

How Virtual Shopping Can Benefit Small Business Owners During the Pandemic

The pandemic changed the shopping experience for the worse in a lot of ways, but through this transition, we learned more about other opportunities. E-commerce is a growing industry, and the pandemic has proven just how beneficial it can be. Leaning on virtual shopping options can provide business owners with some much-needed perks for their employees and their customers. In this article, we will explore what virtual shopping has to offer.

What is Virtual Shopping?

Virtual shopping is a shopping experience that exists entirely through an interface. In some cases, this might be as simple as a general online story where you click to add items to a basket and purchase them directly. However, a new era of virtual shopping has arrived.

Most individuals are familiar with online shopping in a general sense, but systems like Matterport 3D allow business owners to convert their entire physical store to a fully virtual experience. This system makes it possible for business owners to give customers the tools that are needed to navigate a physical store using virtual tools. The end result is a system that allows customers to walk through your brick-and-mortar store from the comfort of their homes.

The Benefits of Virtual Shopping

Virtual shopping comes with perks for business owners and customers alike. In general, the benefits from this style of shopping allow business owners to serve the needs of all customers in a simple way.

Safety

Safety is a key point of focus for small business owners and large business owners alike at this point. The pandemic has made shopping in-person a risk—and not just for certain groups. By offering a virtual shopping experience, business owners give customers a choice. They empower them to stay home without compromising their ability to browse a store. This change makes it easy for customers and employees to stay safe.

Simplicity

Virtual shopping can be a much easier and approachable experience for a customer. The physical process of getting up, getting dressed, and driving to a location might be more than a person has time for. This is why sites like Amazon are so popular.

Virtual shopping, on the other hand, makes it easy for customers to explore your store without ever leaving home. This means that they can browse, even if they don’t have the time in their day to physically visit you. It makes it easier for them to choose you over the competition.

Conclusion

Offering a virtual shopping experience has so many benefits. Whether it is meeting customer needs or simply showing them how great your store is in person, presenting them with this kind of option can be highly beneficial. It is one way to ensure that every customer can have a complete experience when they interact with your store. In the end, your customers will feel that your store is accessible and easy to work with. Making this transition can really help customers to keep coming back, even if they don’t have the ability to drive over!

Retail And 3D Tours

Retailers today are beginning to recognize that it’s crucial to embrace 3D tours and virtual reality to survive the stiff competition in the digital world. Companies with considerable buying power drive the ever-increasing competitive landscape. Studies have shown that about 75% of online shoppers prefer shopping in 3D. While most buyers shop online because of COVID-related safety concerns, other consumers miss the physical experience of visiting retail stores in-person to browse through product displays.

This is the best time to ask yourself how your retail outlet can take a step ahead in the race to the top. Here is how retail business owners are using 3D tours to reimagine how they do their business.

Transform Your Retail Experiences In 3D

By capturing 3D models of your retail store layout, you can easily plan and manage your merchandise across different locations.

Improve Your Customer Shopping Experience

Matterport 3D tours will help simplify your retail shop management and allow you to create outstanding shopping experiences for your consumers offline and online. You can do this by capturing the digital version of your retail store. When you offer a consistent shopping experience, customers will stick with you through the hard times.

Improve Your Brand Visibility

The internet age has revolutionized the retail industry in several ways over the past decade. Staying visible on search engines like Google is a big plus for your retail brand awareness. Using the next generation of 3D virtual tours, you can showcase your brick-and-mortar store in a new dimension. Therefore, use Matterport to plan your merchandising and promotional rollouts.

Contact us to learn more about using Matterport 3D to elevate your retail business.

LIGHTBOUND 3D LIMITED

25 Adelaide Street East
Toronto, ON M5C 3A1
email: info@lightbound3d.com
tel: (437) 775-9000

3D Real Estate. The future is here.

The need for technology is present in every industry, and real estate is no exception. Don’t worry; homes are not about to become virtual, but the way we view properties is receiving a virtual makeover.

Technology evolves fast, and the process of viewing a house has needed to change pretty quickly to overcome the challenges of the pandemic. We have used Matterport to solve this challenge and offer an immersive viewing experience that benefits both real estate agents, homebuyers, and sellers. Take a look at how 3D virtual tours could benefit you as a seller or broker:

1. Open house events are a no-go for many people at the moment, but a 3D virtual tour is a pandemic-proof solution that requires no in-person contact.

2. Homebuyers are attracted to listings that offer 3D virtual tours, and statistics show that 74% of agents using Materport win more listings than agents that do not.

3. As a home seller, you want to create as much interest in your property as possible to attract a buyer. Research shows that 3D virtual tours make 95% of people more likely to call about properties to find out more.

4. 3D virtual tours help your property listing to stand out. Virtual tours provide an immersive experience that allows potential buyers to get a better feel for your home.

If you are not already enjoying the benefits of 3D real estate, you are missing out. So, why not find out how using 3D virtual tours could benefit your home buying and selling process.

Home Buyers Want 3D Tours

Buying a home is a significant decision, so it pays to have as much information as possible about a property before committing to the purchase. Viewing a home and seeing it in person has always been an essential part of the house buying process, as it enables you to get a much clearer idea of whether it is the perfect property for you. Unfortunately, the pandemic has made it challenging for potential buyers to visit homes and view them, which has taken away a fundamental part of the buying process. Many homebuyers are apprehensive about attending open house events due to the potential health risks resulting from the pandemic.

To overcome the challenges they face as a result of the pandemic, real estate agencies are needing to find innovative solutions to ensure that the home-buying process can continue. For many homebuyers, viewing static images of a home online is not enough to help them make an informed buying decision. Instead, homebuyers want a more immersive viewing experience. 

The Need for 3D Tours

With the help of 3D tours, such as Matterport 3D Virtual Tours, there is a solution that enables homebuyers to view properties as a walk-through tour. Statistics from Matterport show that 90% of buyers would be more compelled by a property listing that featured a 3D tour. This overwhelming demand for a virtual tour shows that this effective method of seeing a property could be the future of home buying and the best alternative to open house events.

For more information on Virtual Tours contact us.

LIGHTBOUND 3D LIMITED

25 Adelaide Street East
Toronto, ON M5C 3A1
email: info@lightbound3d.com
tel: (437) 775-9000

Building Information Management and the Future of Construction

Building Information Management is slowly, but surely transforming the construction of projects.

In its simplest form, it is an advanced model-based property technology tool that provides architectural and engineering insights to planning, design, and construction.  

This modelling technique is indispensable because:

• It provides advanced visualization of structures and construction blueprints

• It facilitates the exploration of various design options

• It gives a complete overview of the project in 4D 

Some of its core functionalities include:

1. Reducing cost by improving productivity

Throughout the construction phase, this interactive tool cuts down on approval time and operational processes. Ultimately improving communication and creating more space for productive advancements. Thanks to its centralized nature, there are minimal errors, hence reduced reworks. 

1. Improves coordination and collaboration

Besides cost reduction, it also provides stakeholders with an overall view of the construction project, highlighting progress, cost estimation, and assessment schedules. Also, different teams can work together coherently to improve the speed of delivery and encourage transparency. Sharing and assigning of sub-tasks becomes manageable to allow proper tracking.

1. It enhances sequence planning

Monitoring and evaluating sections of the construction project have been made easy through the BIM model. Each sequence is accurate, and there are minimal errors when moving from one level to another. 

1. It provides a real-time representation of data

Visual data such as 3D models and wireframe visualizations create a distinct aspect of the construction process, helping the involved parties to consider all the parameters. This changes the normal human perception and enhances creativity levels. Through such simulations, it becomes easy to identify possible models and make abstract adjustments without affecting the final design.

Undoubtedly, Building Information Management transforms construction project ideas into successful, tangible solutions by reducing production time, increasing operational efficiency, and improving communication across teams. 

Contact us to learn more about BIM services.

LIGHTBOUND 3D LIMITED

25 Adelaide Street East
Toronto, ON M5C 3A1
email: info@lightbound3d.com
tel: (437) 775-9000

The Importance of Staging

You’ll always be able to sell a house. But quickly, and for as much money as possible? That’s far from guaranteed. Thankfully, there are a few tried and tested methods for ensuring that you can get the full asking price for your house.

One of the ways is through staging. So what is staging? It’s essentially working to make your property as attractive as possible so that it makes a positive first impression when people view it. All too often, homes are presented “as is” -- and while that’s unlikely to be bad (you live there, after all), it’s also unlikely that the look will be the most appealing to people viewing your home. Staging helps a person looking at your home to look beyond the personal touches that you’ve added and to see the potential of the property if they lived there.

Through staging a home, you won’t just make your home look better -- you’ll be helping potential buyers too, who will be able to visualize the space and see the potential. It also allows you to emphasize key rooms in the property rather than focusing on all the rooms equally (since not all rooms are equal!).

Virtual staging is growing in popularity because it’s cheaper, faster, and offers more features than physical staging. Virtual staging has clear advantages of in-person staging, especially during a time when more and more people are looking online to scout a potential property. We are a Matterport 3D approved service provider that can provide fast turnaround virtual staging photographs. 

Contact today to learn more about our Virtual Staging services.

LIGHTBOUND 3D LIMITED

25 Adelaide Street East
Toronto, ON M5C 3A1
email: info@lightbound3d.com
tel: (437) 775-9000

Before Virtual Staging

After Lightbound 3D Virtual Staging

Virtual Open Houses and Their Current Influence in Real Estate

Open houses may never be the same

Open houses have and always will be a huge part of selling houses. However, due to the pandemic, open houses may never be the same. Potential buyers are no longer willing to go into crowded open houses, mainly because of the associated health risk. Realtors are compelled to deal with this issue, and one of the solutions they have found is doing Virtual Tours!

Using Matterport 3D technology, the potential buyers can take a private tour of the listing without being exposed to health-oriented risks. With immersive 3D, the buyer can actually feel like they are IN the home!

Reasons Why Virtual Tours Are the Way to Go

Sectors such as real estate have experienced unexpected revival despite the effects of the current pandemic. More people are looking to move closer to their loved ones, resulting in an increased demand for houses in different places, including Toronto.  This demand is anticipated to go even higher as more people accept that it may be necessary to live with the pandemic.

Virtual tours are expected to be popular even after the pandemic because people have realized that it is a much convenient way of viewing and selling real estate

The Benefits of Virtual Tours in the Retail Environment

We have all been hit by the consequences of the pandemic, one way or another. Many of us have adapted quickly and created a nook that they can call the home office. Others, especially small businesses, had to go through a fast digital transformation to survive the many restrictions.

Among these, grocery stores, supermarkets, and local shops have been at the mercy of lockdown measures for months, which have not played in their favour. However, when used well, technology can represent the bridge to connect your business to your audience, locally and globally, independently of what the current restrictions are.

As this type of technology has been developing fast over the past months, the shopping experience has become better and more real. Today, projects such as the one brought forwards by Lightbound 3D, in a partnership with Inabuggy and The McEwan Group, allows your customer to stroll through real supermarket’s aisles.

Whether you are the proud owner of a small local shop or a larger supermarket, the Matterport 3D technology, alongside the virtual shopping tours it enables, allows you to build real relationships with your audience.

Streamlined Service for Your Customers

One of the most significant challenges for larger supermarkets and small shops alike is the management of personnel. The question of whether it makes more sense to stay open for longer or increase efficiency during peak times has always been there. However, today, you won’t need to compromise between the two. Virtual shopping tours are the closest technology has ever been to offering a real experience to customers. At the same time, it gives you the chance to keep your virtual shop open at all times to best suit the needs of your customers.

Making Your Products More Accessible

While an astonishing number of small businesses still don’t have a website, the ones that do just offer a small eCommerce store. While this can help your business display some products, it might still be a very different experience than the one of walking through the aisles of your supermarket.

Matterport 3D technology and systems, instead, offer a real-life experience that allows you to display all of your products in the best way possible. Customers are also able to zoom in and pick their favourite - which is something that no other technology can offer today. 

Giving Your Customers a Real Experience

During the current pandemic, we have all become more aware of how much we rely on technology. However, we have also discovered how much some systems make us notice the difference with real-life experiences. For example, eCommerce sites give us the chance to order goods and get them delivered to our doorstep. All this with minimal interaction.

However, we all love going to the local store and feel part of the community. This is where technology has failed us until today. With the new virtual tours, you can have all this while still enjoying a safe and personalized shopping experience.

A Clean and Safe Environment for All

The pandemic has had a substantial impact on the way we conduct our jobs, interact with others, and even go about simple actions in our lives. While some restrictions and lockdowns are slowly lifting, the consequences of how we have lived the past months are not bound to disappear any time soon.

Therefore, many shoppers and buyers will still be skeptical about visiting any store during the busiest times of the day. Some might even prefer to keep socialization to a minimum for weeks to come to preserve their health. So, businesses have to adapt to this new way of operating while still offering the services they have been so successful for in the past.

Virtual shopping tours can be the solution to start creating a safe environment for your customers - while still operating as usual.

Creating a Relationship with Your Audience

Going to a supermarket or grocery store is not only about convenience or comfort for many families. It is also about being in a familiar place, where to interact with the community. These are aspects that the pandemic has affected the most. However, now is time for local businesses to start mending those relationships and, if in-person interactions are still not so safe, technology can help.

Virtual shopping tours can be an excellent occasion for your audience to go back to their familiar and comfortable routines while having access to the products they have always loved from a safe environment.

While this technology has started to revolutionize the global retail environment, we only know the few benefits it has yielded so far. However, it is developing fast, and new advantages and experiences are always around the corner.

How Does Drone Video Help with Real Estate Marketing?

Flying drones have seen a huge surge in popularity over the last few years. Hobbyists and professionals alike have been using tools like this to take advantage of the sky, but few fields have felt their impact as strongly as real estate. But how exactly do drones help people to sell properties? Let’s find out.

A New Perspective

Seeing a house from above can give a much better impression of its shape, the land it’s on, and the surrounding points of interest. It can also make a house look larger and more impressive, making this an excellent tool for real estate agents looking to sell more properties. This would have been impossible in the past without a helicopter.

Whole-House Tours

Many of the world’s most popular drones have been designed so that they can be flown indoors. This gives realtors an excellent chance to give people a tour of a property without ever having to visit. This sort of option has never been more crucial than in 2020, with many people unable to go to viewings when they are interested in a new home.

A Professional Look

 

Companies like DJI have been making huge leaps when it comes to image stabilization in recent years. Many of the world’s drones can hold a camera far stiller than a human can, creating beautiful shots that look like they were made by a professional videographer.

Drones are only going to get more important to realtors in the coming years. While tools like this may seem like toys from the outside, they often offer incredible benefits to the professional world.

Are you interested in learning more about how we use drones to serve our clients? Contact us!

LIGHTBOUND 3D LIMITED

25 Adelaide Street East
Toronto, ON M5C 3A1
email: info@lightbound3d.com
tel: (437) 775-9000

Virtual Tours for Schools

The current pandemic has influenced several aspects of our daily lives, including the way we build relationships or live our professional lives. One of the hardest aspects of the hardest is the educational environment, including schools, universities, and campuses. However, nobody's education, career, or goals should stop because of the pandemic!

Today, technology is on our side, and with exclusive virtual school tours, it is possible to explore every nook and corner before getting there. Moving to a new campus or joining a new classroom can be an intimidating moment for any pupil. Virtual tours can help them prepare at their best and join the new environment with unparalleled peace of mind. Here's how.

Exploring Campuses Without The Rush

Open houses and tour visits before the first day at a new school or university are a must for any student. These are important moments when they have the chance to explore the place that will be their second home for the months or years to come.

Visiting a campus or building is undoubtedly the best way to become familiar and comfortable with it. However, because of the current pandemic's consequences, this is not always possible to do in total safety. Virtual school tours are ideal for giving your future students a chance to explore the premises at their own time and without a rush.

Getting Familiar With Your New Home

The first day at school or university is among the most intimidating and overwhelming for everybody. One of the aims of open houses are to allow the students to become familiar with this new environment. However, now that these are not as safe anymore, it is necessary to find an alternative way to facilitate this important introduction. Virtual school and campus tours allow students to get to know the names, facilities, and routes. So, the pupils your school is about to welcome can focus on what's important during the first days in the new environment.

Finding An Easy Way To Get Around

Covid-19 has made it difficult to move around safely and made it necessary to minimize in-person interactions. Giving your students the chance to familiarize themselves with the premises can help you manage people's flow in a building or campus in a better way, thus protecting your pupils and teachers.

While this should not be the only precaution taken to contain the spread of Covid-19, it can help you welcome students who are already comfortable with the premises, at ease in the new environment, and ready to learn and build life-long relationships with others around them.

Contact us to learn more about our Virtual Tours for your school, community centre, church, business or real estate listing.

email: info@lightbound3d.com
tel: (437) 775-9000

The Benefits of Virtual Staging

The property market is always in development, and new trends take over regularly. While some come and go, one aspect has constantly been gaining more importance: customization.

Buyers want to feel at home and imagine themselves in their new living room sipping wine and warming up in front of the fireplace. Even with an effort of imagination, this is not always possible, especially in homes that are still owned by the previous owner or in new properties.

Staging these homes, one of the most successful real estate marketing strategies, is incredibly effective. However, it does not come without a prohibitive bill.

Today, thanks to Lightbound 3D virtual home staging, it is possible to give potential buyers a taste of what their next home will look like - at a minimal cost.

Help Potential Buyers Feel at Home

One of the greatest benefits of real estate staging is that it can change the feel and atmosphere of a room or the whole property. Potential buyers can then feel at home or start imagining themselves in their new property. This is a great advantage and can even set a property apart from any other that the potential buyer has been viewing.

Save Money While Making the Property Look Beautiful

Home staging is one of the best real estate marketing strategies, and it has been seen to improve and speed up the property selling process. However, sellers need to rent furniture and, in some cases, even engage a designer. In turn, this can translate into costly bills that not all sellers are ready to pay.

Virtual staging of homes and properties can be a great solution to provide your clients and potential buyers with this service - at a minimal cost.

Additionally, you can even redesign some features that can increase the property’s curb appeal without great investments.

For example, you can show what the garden would look like with a more enclosing landscape or the view that the top floor’s balcony would have when better redesigned.

Allows for Safe Viewings

Because of Covid-19, most house viewings and selling processes have been affected. While the property market has not been hit as hard as other industries, the pandemic has forced and sped-up some drastic changes in this sector.

One of the major ones involves the way home property viewings are conducted. Indeed, it is no longer safe to spend time indoors with others, and such consequences are bound to last for months to come. Virtual staging is an efficient solution to allow potential buyers to discover the best properties on the market in total safety.  

Gives Buyers Time to Explore the Property

Buying a new home is among the biggest and most significant investments for most families. While it is understandable that an owner would want to sell their property fast and efficiently, it is also crucial to give your buyers time to explore what their lives would be once they have settled in.

Virtual staging does just that - it allows them to explore every nook and corner of the property at their own time, allowing them to start planning for their own style and furniture.

Before Virtual Staging

After Virtual Staging

Virtual Shopping and The Retail Environment of the Future

Walking around the aisles of a local grocery store is an experience that is part of our lives. You might do so in a rush of getting home after a hard day at work, in the company of your family dunning a Sunday shopping trip, or looking for a ready meal to enjoy while catching up on your favourite TV shows. 

In any case, going to the supermarket is an important event which has been impacted by the consequences of the current pandemic. While ordering your food online can do the job, there is nothing quite like walking around your local grocery store. 

Today, thanks to the partnership between Lightbound 3D, InaBuggy and The McEwan Group, you can go back to stroll through the snacks aisle and take your time looking at your favourite products.  (Want to experience it first hand? Skip to the bottom!)

Matterport 3D and Virtual Shopping systems have brought us back the enjoyment of visiting the local store - but it is only the beginning of how virtual tours are changing the retail environment. 

Indeed, supermarkets have started to catch up with the idea that online shopping and retail - as well as the consequences of the pandemic - are not going to disappear soon. So, they have started to invest in systems that can offer their customers a real, social experience. 

Here is how, encompassing small startups and larger supermarket chains, virtual tours are becoming the way forward. 

A Safer Experience for All

The covid-19 vaccine is becoming a lot more than just a distant mirage, and some of the restrictions are lifting across the globe. Nonetheless, some other pandemic consequences are still as present as always, and they are not bound to leave us for many months to come. 

Indeed, public places and gatherings still involve some risks that we don’t want to expose our families to or run ourselves. Something as simple as going to the local grocery store to pick up food for the week has become more of a mission we gear up for with face coverings and hand sanitizer. 

But what if technology can give us back a safe, enjoyable experience? Virtual shopping tours and Matterport technology offer us an unprecedented chance to browse the aisles and shelves in total safety. 

Whether you wish to enjoy this moment with your little ones or with others in your household, this powerful - yet user-friendly - technology has made it possible. 

Groceries at Your Fingertips - At All Times

Whether you are a quick-shopper or you love browsing the shelves of your local store for the best deals, going to the supermarket is almost always an event we plan for. When deciding when to go, the store’s opening times or busiest hours are something we all consider - especially when planning to buy a whole week’s worth of food. 

However, some local shops might be open only for certain hours during the day or affected so much by the local restrictions following the spread of Covid that their operating times are restricted. 

A virtual shopping experience offers you everything you have always wanted - a perfectly-presented, clean, and quiet supermarket where you can take all the time you need to select the best products. And, you can do so when it’s most convenient for you and from anywhere. 

The Matterport 3D technology is supported on most devices, including laptops, phones, and tablets. It allows you to walk around the aisle, check the shelves, and even zoom in to have a better look at what you are buying. All this has never been possible with standard eCommerce websites. 

Looking at The Future of Grocery Shopping

It is undeniable that the pandemic has had a significant impact on almost all aspects of our lives, from our jobs to how we go about our days. Some of the consequences of this historical time are not yet even clear to us. However, we do know that technology is an irresistible force that is changing our daily lives, mostly for the better. 

In this case, it gives customers a chance to enjoy their shopping trips in a safe, comfortable, and extremely convenient environment. Instead, to shop owners, this technology might mean that they can open their doors for longer and provide a much better service to their audience. 

So far, we are only aware of the tip of the iceberg of the benefits that technology can bring to the world of retail. However, for now, virtual shopping allows you to take a trip to your local store, browse the shelves, make the most of daily offers, and even let a snack tempt you! 

Do you want to experience Virtual Shopping first hand? Click here to see what we help create!

www.inabuggy.com/mcewan

Using Drone Cameras in Real Estate Marketing

Creating a compelling, direct, and exclusive marketing campaign for your properties can be challenging, especially if you are operating on a budget or with limited resources. 

Nonetheless, taking beautiful pictures of the properties you are trying to sell is the best way to increase the chances of a sale. Using drone cameras in real estate marketing allows you to take exclusive shots of the properties, highlight beautiful features, and save money. Here's what to expect.

Benefits of Using Drone Cameras In Real Estate Marketing

• It can help you create more dramatic images and compelling videos that will reach potential buyers' eyes and hearts.

• It allows you to create more interesting virtual tours to show the property to potential buyers - even in times of Covid-19 and social distancing measures.

• It gives you the chance to highlight more property features from a unique point of view.

• Drone video and drone photography in real estate marketing offer you the advantage to give potential buyers an idea of the surrounding area and landscape without requiring them to visit the property in person or spend time exploring the surroundings. 

• Real estate video and photography created through the use of a drone are still relatively new in the industry. Indeed, not many estate agents have invested in this technology yet, which gives you the chance to enjoy a unique selling point and advantage over the competition.

• Aerial pictures are undoubtedly a way to interest potential buyers, making the property look fantastic and show beautiful imagery. Nonetheless, taking photos from a helicopter can be extremely costly and difficult to arrange. Drone photography is the obvious choice to get the best of both worlds!

Selling A Property in the Times of COVID-19: Here Is What's Changed

The pandemic - and ensuing social distancing measures - has influenced many aspects of our daily lives, and it has not spared the way we sell our properties and find the dream family home. Luckily, on this, cutting-edge technologies such as Matterport photography and 3D virtual tours are on our side. 

Indeed, visiting houses during this unusual time can be unsafe and challenging. Of course, staying within closed spaces with other people is not recommendable. But, so, how can you show the wonders of a property to potential buyers?

Matterport photography, a three-dimensional camera system that allows creators to bring to life fully-immersive, incredibly realistic experiences and virtual tours, gives you the chance to explore every nook and corner of a property together with a potential buyer.

The high-quality imagery and accurate measurements collected by these systems can also give the real feel of a property's space, style, and character.

The advantages of using virtual staging to explore a property include the fact that this system allows you to picture potential buyers in it, presenting it as a white canvas to start designing an ideal space. 

Ultimately, a high-resolution virtual tour allows potential buyers to take their own time to understand if that property is right for them truly. When these virtual tours are hosted by the owner or knowledgeable estate agent, buyers will feel like they have all the support needed throughout such a crucial process. Such high-end technology can enhance the property-viewing process, giving a chance to buyers to keep exploring options and selecting the home of their dreams - all in complete safety! 

Housing Market, COVID-19 and 3D Virtual Tours

We’ve seen a dramatic change in our business since the pandemic ground everything to a halt in March. Yes, the economy is coming back slowly, there is definitely activity but it’s different. We’ve always marketed our platform as convenience - why just take photos and videos when you can have the whole space on in immersive 3D on your device, showcase it to prospects and walk-thorough anytime you want! Who would not want that?

When COVID hit it changed everything. All of a sudden families were stranded at home and there was a renewed focus on nesting, akin to what we saw immediately after 9-11. What does “home” mean - the answer is different depending who you ask, it’s a space for work, as space for leisure, a shelter and a gathering place for the family. Perhaps they were thinking of moving someday, get a second home or just improving the one they have. Well that moment arrived overnight - it is here now.

While the economy may be in a recession mode from the pandemic with forced shutdowns, the real estate market remains strong, thanks in part to good mortgage rates and the desire of many people in the city to relocate. Knowing they can work from anywhere, why not also love where you live. Technology has played a major role!

How Matterport Virtual Tours changed Real Estate

We scan you space in 3D to create virtual tours. These are immersive, meaning you can experience the space from the first person, akin to a video game. We’ve developed a streamlined process that help realtors get exposure for their listings 24/7, in a physically distant and safe manner. With Matterport, you will be able to engage prospects and carry on business quickly and efficiently from any location, regardless of timezone.

In a survey conducted last month and published Aug. 5, Redfin said that 25% of respondents indicated that the pandemic has made them want to move or has sped up their plans to relocate.

Source: Redfin

Take your real estate marketing to new heights. Learn how we can help getting your home sold quickly with a Matterport 3D Virtual Tour of your home. We use only Matterport 3D and the most advanced cameras to capture the essence of a space for exquisite tours.

We are open for business during COVID-19, but things will be different!

We are encountering a higher demand for our services, helping organizations stay open virtually and augmenting real estate listings with immersive 3D Matterport tours.

In order to keep everyone safe the following protocols are followed, no exceptions:

1. Properties must be vacant and prepared to be imaged. In case of commercial properties, only required essential staff should be present.

2. We will address your project requirements prior to appointment. Under no circumstances shall anyone other than us or essential staff be present at location.

3. If you suspect you have been in contact with Covid-19 or don’t feel well, please take care of yourself, be responsible and let us know! We are in this together and we offer you the same courtesy.

4. We follow strict safety precautions as recommended by health authorities. This means we move slower, wear protective gear and sanitize our equipment between appointments.

Now more than ever it matters what we do. We can beat this thing but only if we work together and practice social distancing. Stay well!

Walk through a space as if you were really there with Matterport VR

Experience a space from anywhere with Matterport VR. Built-in to every tour we make!

Advocating for a more fair and efficient real estate industry

Justo Using Disruptive Technology to Shake Up Real Estate Biz

In the increasingly pricey Greater Toronto Area housing market, every dollar counts for both the buyer and the seller. With land values and speculation driving home prices ever higher, brokerage commission fees are often overlooked as a factor in how much a purchaser pays or a seller receives for their home. The typical commission paid to agents of both buyers and sellers averages at 2.5%, typically totalling 5% of the home's selling price, and adding thousands of dollars to the cost for both parties.

Read full article at Urban Toronto