The American virtual tour company Matterport has announced an advancement of its partnership with virtual home staging company roOomy which opens up new avenues of revenue for retailers and gives home hunters another reason not to visit a property in person. Matterport's residential real estate customers now have the option to virtually stage their 360 degree home tours with roOomy's technology.
The two companies started working together in 2017, and now under the new agreement prospective buyers can not only virtually tour a perfectly staged home which is reality is unfurnished, but they will also be able to make in-app purchases of the furniture featured in the virtual staging.
Recent research from Redfin showed that in the States staged homes typically sold for around $11,000 more than un-staged homes. Now that companies like roOomy are offering affordable convenient options for realtors to stage their listings virtually rather than physically, their demand has followed that of virtual tours in recent times and can only be expected to increase further with this week's partnership between two big names in both industries.
"Virtual staging is one of the key services our customers consistently request. Our partnership with roOomy provides real estate professionals, home buyers or renters, and retailers with completely new ways to promote, choose, and furnish the homes they want to live in," said Jay Remley, Chief Revenue Officer of Matterport.
Once an agent has their Matterport tour of the unfurnished property they can upload it to their roOomy account, select the type of furnishings they would like in the virtual tour and pay by the square footage. They then receive the virtually staged tour in their Matterport account ready to be uploaded to a portal or website listing.
The partnership is likely to lead to a surge in the adoption of virtual staging and thereby reduce the need for in-person visitation in an already booming US housing market. It also opens up a new revenue stream for furniture and fittings retailers and brings further commercial opportunities for Matterport which recently announced its intentions to go public through a SPAC.