I wrote about Obeo’s virtual remodeling feature when first I discovered it (they call it Style Designer). As far as I’m concerned, this one feature is a total category killer among virtual tours. Panoramas? Check. Ken Burns zooming tricks? Check. Cheesy music loops ripped-off from CHiPs and Charlie’s Angels? Check. But to give the buyer the ability to re-envision the home — that’s worth talking about.
I’ll talk about the full tour when we’re done with it, but here’s a before-and-after example of virtual remodeling:
Before:
Cathy and Mark Deermer, our factotum-like handyman, worked hard to make this kitchen pop. My contribution: The white walls. They had been a custard yellow, and I thought they were making the room too warm and dark. Now this kitchen looks like candy — the elaborate girly kind of candy.
After:
I agree with Cathy and Mark that kitchens should be girly, but, even so, I really like masculine kitchens. This is how I redesigned that kitchen in Obeo’s Style Designer.
How long did it take? Less than two minutes, although I could see people spending hours remodeling our homes. I want for people to spend hours remodeling our homes.
Note the reflections along the left-most face of the cabinets. Compare the surfaces underneath the microwave oven. I feel like we should be paying royalties to Pixar for results like this.
I invest a lot of invective beefing about vendors, but I am delighted to be able to rejoice when a vendor gives us a feature we have wanted for years — in a slick, fool-proof interface at a reasonable price. I promise to be astounded if Obeo does everything this well, but they are doing this perfectly.
This is the kind of technology that sell houses. And to that I can add but one carefully-considered sentiment: Hot damn!
Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate marketing, real estate photography, real estate training, technology
Will says:
In my opinion it’s a neat toy that gives real estate porn geeks a few minutes of fun but I really don’t think anyone is as excited as you are by this. I also do not think it sells houses. Virtual tours, frankly, suck. They suck because they are warped photos which fail to actually tour. They do not draw the eyes to the “surfaces underneath the microwave” without you telling me to look there. They do not tell me about any benefits. And they do not create a feeling of what the house is really like.
On top of all this you are telling the buyers that “hey, if you don’t like it you can change it” yet, in my experience, people are all talk when it comes to aesthetic changes. They want what they want as they want it. Now. Especially if they have a lot of choice (as in AZ)
And while it seems “straight forward” to a geek. It really isn’t. Show this to my mother (in her early 60’s) and she wouldn’t know what to do with it. She would give up and move on to the next property with a straight forward set of photos or video tour.
Gregg, be careful not to outgeek your clients.
March 21, 2008 — 10:39 am
Vance Shutes says:
Greg,
Last month, I attended a workshop where Obeo demo’d this product, and I came away equally impressed. While I agree with Will’s comments that it’s quite “geeky”, what struck me most about it is that the agent keeps the tour going after the sale. The buyer of the home can then revisit the tour whenever they want to “test out” design ideas. Each visit is just another opportunity for the buyer of MY listing to see MY brand again. It’s the gift that keeps on giving!
March 21, 2008 — 11:34 am
Doug Quance says:
I think the magic in this “geeky” tool is that for the buyer who can not “see” past color schemes, etc. – it helps them to visualize what CAN be.
Some folks simply can not visualize.
March 21, 2008 — 12:57 pm
Sean Purcell says:
Will,
Agree with you on the problems with virtual tours as well as the possibility that some won’t have the patience to use this new technology. But don’t see how you can say this won’t help sell homes.
When I was a young pup agent one of the first things I was taught was to get the client to envision their funiture in the living room and their bedroom set in the master. We would often ask what color they would paint the kitchen, in the hopes of gaining a “buying sign”. I think a lot of that is pretty simplistic in today’s world, but the concept still holds. Get people to envision the home as their own and you are one step closer to making it theirs. (Not to mention the “sticky” nature of this tool for a wide range of marketing ideas.)
March 21, 2008 — 6:27 pm
Leigh Brown says:
Definitely intriguing, and a lot better than the sad little color CD that Lowe’s used to offer. I just wonder where one finds the time to implement all of the cool tools available-outsourcing?
March 21, 2008 — 6:50 pm
Robert Kerr says:
I’m sure the house I looked at last week had been “virtually remodeled” by the listing agent. He made no mention beforehand and when I toured the property, I was disappointed and felt deceived. It was a complete waste of time.
Obviously, YMMV, but I won’t be touring any of the listing agent’s other properties. I can’t trust his information to be accurate.
March 21, 2008 — 7:28 pm
Nancy says:
As a potential buyer in the Phoenix market, I have to tell you that while this little tool is “neat”, it wouldn’t inspire me to buy this house. What it tells me is that a) up front it’s liveable but to get to “b” I have lots of money to spend. C’mon – new tile??? You’ve got to be kidding me!
March 22, 2008 — 6:28 pm
Greg Swann says:
> new tile??? You’ve got to be kidding me!
In the only cross-sale I’ve done with Russell Shaw, the buyer had bought top-quality Travertine for the whole house before we had a signed contract. I’m doing my best to get everything we could get out of the seller, and the buyer is loading up his garage with everything he’s going to change. Different people like different things. Virtual remodeling may not be of benefit to you, but we sell in neighborhoods where construction dumpsters are as ubiquitous as German SUVs. Two doors down from the Vermont house, the owners are adding a huge new master suite to a house that’s already very large.
March 22, 2008 — 9:15 pm
Cathleen Collins says:
A year or so ago I took buyer clients to a house that met all of their criteria. It was perfect, except for the kitchen cabinets that had been painted denim blue. The buyers couldn’t see past the paint so passed on the house. In reaction, I started experimenting with tools like Benjamin Moore’s and CBN Selector. But like Leigh Brown observed,
Outsourcing is indeed the answer. If I’m representing the buyer who has expressed interest in a house that is listed with the Style Designer, that buyer can be as much a Luddite as Will’s 60-ish year old mother… Won’t matter because I’ll help the buyer to navigate the software to change the denim blue cabinets to cherry.
March 23, 2008 — 11:39 am
Nancy says:
>>>>>Different people like different things.<<<<<
My point is this – just like a previous poster wrote – when you pull out the smoke and mirrors to sell a house, you walk a double edge sword. I’ve gone to view houses that looked great on MLS thanks to these tricks and when I got there I felt like I had to shower when I left because the place was just a wreck. And not just a cosmetic wreck either. I wasn’t interested in hearing about potential at that point. The phrase “it is what it is” comes to mind, and while it’s nice to see potential, it’s also most fair (and legal) for a buyer to see the truth up front, especially when you are the seller’s agent. I also don’t want to waste my time looking at something that is falsely advertised – thinking bait and switch here.
If your client has that kind of money, fine, an after the fact blow out use would be helpful. But in general I can see where a selling agent with questionable ethics might take some inappropriate liberties up front in an effort to move a house. And that isn’t right.
March 23, 2008 — 12:32 pm
Greg Swann says:
Nancy, what you’re describing is fraud, grounds for a lawsuit. What Obeo is offering is an added-value service on top of their completely factual virtual tour. If buyers want to play with different design ideas — and many do — they now have an easy way to do it. But no one is misrepresenting the property — which in this case is a turn-key home in excellent condition.
March 23, 2008 — 1:52 pm
Nancy says:
>>>>no one is misrepresenting the property — which in this case is a turn-key home in excellent condition.<<<<
And I’m not insinuating that YOU misrepresented THIS property to your buyers. My comments were directed at the extremity of the “conversion” perhaps stoked by previous misrepresentation of other properties by other agents. Could those misrepresentations define fraud? You bet.
Like it or not, misrepresentation in your industry happens. IMO, your enthusiasm for the product in question should not have stopped short of acknowledging the proper light in which a selling agent should use this product. You stated: “This is the kind of technology that sell houses. And to that I can add but one carefully-considered sentiment: Hot damn!”. As a potential buyer – I saw a red flag and chose to throw in my 2 cents. If I missed the implication of integrity, forgive me.
I don’t know you personally or professionally. But I’ve read OF you, which is why I visit your blog. I think you have some great ideas. I like your marketing and, if I were selling a house, you are probably one of two agents I would interview. Alas, I am but a lowly buyer in a modest price range with a laundry list of wants. So, IMO, tempering statements such as the one you made would have been more in the best interest of your industry in general because desperation underlies the attitude of many agents out there selling in my price range.
Enthusiasm is a wonderful thing. It shows you are passionate about your work. I’m just as passionate about several areas of my life as well, especially as a potential buyer in this market. I’ve dealt with several agents, few of which I would implicitly trust to use this product correctly. And that’s pretty sad.
Let’s just agree to disagree.
March 24, 2008 — 6:55 pm
Greg Swann says:
> Let’s just agree to disagree.
My apologies to you. It was not my intent to be disagreeable. You’re definitely right about my enthusiasm. 🙂
March 24, 2008 — 7:10 pm
Steven Stearns says:
Greg, and all –
…thanks for the feedback! The StyleDesigner always makes for lively discussion – and we know the discussion can go on and on – especially among buyers!
Obeo wants Realtors to have the tools they need to be the experts in the home ownership cycle – just a fancy way of saying keep the buyer coming back for more -from their Realtor.
And it is especially good to read about how this product has the general ease of use and the stickiness to keep people on a listing.
To underline what Greg said – Obeo is offering a tool for consumer choice, not a way to deconstruct a listing.
Keep an eye on it – in the coming months, we hope to keep making it better with your input and buyer suggestions.
Just put it out there and let us know!
steven.stearns@obeo.com
March 25, 2008 — 2:47 pm
Miguel Maher says:
Technical question: HOW are the original photos uploaded to the software?
I breezed through Obeo’s site, but could find no details. The demo starts with the photo already uploaded.
You’ve had pictures of your own kitchen run through the software, so you should know how the process begins. But if I didn’t have you to ask, would I really have to “Chat Live With An Obeo Representative” just to get a basic understanding of how the product works? Or am I missing something basic on their web site?
What I’m trying to determine is how dependent on Obeo am I for this process to work? Does their graphics data depend on virtual-tour-type photos which they have to take themselves? Or does the StyleDesigner magically work with pics from my own digital camera?
March 26, 2008 — 10:20 am
Greg Swann says:
> HOW are the original photos uploaded to the software?
Obeo contracts a local pro photographer to take the photos used for the virtual tour, for the panoramas and for the virtual remodeling. It’s possible to add your own photos to the virtual tour, as well. I don’t know if they would let us use our photos for the virtual remodeling. The photos we start from are 5 megapixels, sometimes larger. The big photos the pro shared with us were smaller than that, but still very data-rich. My guess is that bigger is going to be better when defining the alpha channel for the virtual remodeling.
March 26, 2008 — 10:34 am
Steven Stearns says:
Miguel,
Greg gave a great answer. To offer some more information:
-StyleDesigner is an add-on to our Obeo HomeSite marketing packages,
-We provide full service photography for the HomeSite and use those photos in the StyleDesigner.
-Currently, we are not working with contributed/user-generated photos to create the StyleDesigner.
-Obeo is about marketing your listing-photos are just part of it. We get over one million visitors a month-those are buyers-coming to Obeo.com We have great statistical reporting for you on line open house, too!
-Obeo is very, very affordable – to get prices, please call 800-729-6236.
Thanks again,
Steve
March 26, 2008 — 11:20 am