Zillow was one of many companies to turn to virtual tours when the pandemic proved that an answer to a contactless world was needed sooner rather than later.
Continuing on that path is HouseLens, a visual marketing service platform that is out to help companies better promote their listings virtually. Zillow has entered a partnership with this company to provide its Premier Agents with special access to HouseLens Certified Artists to make better photos and 3D home tours.
Included in this partnership is a promotional discount offer for the remainder of the year.
Acquired by Seek Now, a disruptive, tech-backed, inspection platform and service provider to the P&C Insurance industry, HouseLens has taken the top spot in 3D tours development for the US real estate sector.
David Pedersen, Seek Now’s Executive Vice President of Enterprise Growth and Strategy, said:
"We are excited to support Zillow’s efforts to connect today’s home buyers and sellers faster, in a no-contact environment, making the digital home shopping experience more efficient than ever.”
HouseLens has facilitated more than 100,000 shoots since it was launched and it’s not stopping there.
Pedersen said:
"With our recent acquisition of HouseLens, we began integrating and leveraging Seek Now’s proprietary technology platform to scale and expand our network of coast-to-coast professional artists, inspectors, and services."
Zillow’s 3D Home comes as an app and is free to download. The app allows real estate professionals and sellers to capture 3D imagery-based tours of homes using just an iPhone.
This strategy comes after Matterport launched its own app with similar features. After the 3D Home tours are published on Zillow, potential buyers and renters can take digital walkthroughs of a listing without leaving their own homes.
As more companies turn to virtual tours to continue the process of buying and selling homes with the added safety net of touchless features, 3D home tours seem to be the next commonplace feature for buying and selling property, moving forward.