An estate agency is to use Google Glass to offer futuristic viewings to clients looking at its homes for sale - including live viewings with agent-to-client dialogue via the internet.
Manxmove on the Isle of Man is piloting the project and has a test example of the virtual viewing on its website here.
Agents at Manxmove will wear a head-mounted micro computer proving images and an audio commentary (the test also includes a gentle music track background, too).
This futuristic £1,300 micro computer is tiny and, at first glance, looks just like a regular pair of glasses, yet it is as powerful as some desktop PCs, with 2GB of RAM, voice activated heads up display, as well as built in satellite navigation and full internet access explains Manxmove director Graham Wilson.
However, more importantly for us, is the facility to record top quality full 1080 HD widescreen video and quality audio he says.
He currently describes the Isle of Man sales scene as a buyer's market. The number of properties that are available to potentially view is huge, so our new Virtual Viewing experience is designed to allow clients to narrow down their initial search to a more manageable number he says.
He also believes the virtual viewings will reduce wasted visits.
Unusually, the agency is to offer customised live tours for specific clients.
Google Glass has full wireless capability with real time communication facility, which means that a prospective purchaser from the other side of the world could request a live virtual viewing with one of our agents on a specific day and specific time and be guided around a property live, whilst communicating directly with the agent says Wilson.
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Comments
An innovative addition to an industry which is becoming more technologically advanced. This will not only make it more convenient for buyers to gain 360 degree views of properties, but will hopefully whittle down potential buyers before viewings, a brilliant idea!
Interesting concept. Estate agents in this day and age constantly need to be evolving and innovating, so it's refreshing to see something like this. I'm not saying it will catch on or become commonplace in the next few years, but if you don't try out new things, you just end up being stuck in the past the whole time. Well done, Manxmove.
Sounds like an expensive and needless gimmick to me, but good luck to them. Who knows, it could be the future for estate agency.