iStaging Partners Up With REINZ to Open the Door for Virtual Reality Technology in New Zealand
TAIPEI, Taiwan, April 4, 2018 (Newswire.com) - iStaging is delighted to announce it has formed a strategic partnership with The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) and with IT company kloudpro to provide agents with virtual reality tools in a move that could help significant value to the industry.
Virtual reality technology has been around for a number of years now, but very few New Zealand real estate agents are using it as part of their marketing toolkit when it comes to selling property.
Real estate and virtual reality are a perfect match providing potential purchasers with a great customer experience, so we're really excited to be working with REINZ to bring VR to its members. One of the first questions agents ask us when we talk to them about VR is 'won't this reduce the number of people at my open homes?'. What we've found through our experience from working with agents all over the world is that it actually increases the quality of leads for them.
Johnny Lee, CEO at iStaging
Bindi Norwell, Chief Executive at REINZ says: “The use of VR tools overseas by real estate agents is quite high, whereas only 4% of New Zealand agents are using virtual reality according to our own industry research, however, the trend is increasing. We think the partnership with iStaging to provide the VR tools and with kloudpro to provide our members with training on how to use the technology is an excellent opportunity to embrace this digital selling tool and in turn, provide a greater customer experience when it comes to viewing a property. Especially given its ease of use and cost-effectiveness.
“Virtual reality is a tool that can be used by all sectors of the industry. For our residential members it’s a great way for people to visit open homes any time of the day or night, for our property managers it’s a great way to showcase rental properties, for commercial and industrial agents they can use the tools to showcase buildings, our business brokers can virtually walk potential purchasers through a business for sale and for our rural/lifestyle members what a great way to showcase the view from the back paddock,” continues Norwell.
Johnny Lee, CEO at iStaging says: “Real estate and virtual reality are a perfect match providing potential purchasers with a great customer experience, so we’re really excited to be working with REINZ to bring VR to its members. One of the first questions agents ask us when we talk to them about VR is, "won’t this reduce the number of people at my open homes?". What we’ve found through our experience from working with agents all over the world is that it actually increases the quality of leads for them.
“The other thing we’ve found is that it stops open home visitors from saying that the house looks different to the pictures, as people have already had the opportunity to virtually ‘walk’ through the house, so they are really excited about seeing the house in the flesh,” concludes Lee.
REINZ’s research into the use of virtual reality indicated that 43% of agents had considered using VR at some point in the future. As agents have been asking REINZ for guidance and help on how to use virtual reality for some time now, this partnership will also offer members with a free training session from IT company kloudpro in order to help them with getting the software set up.
Ben Keehan, Director of kloudpro says: “As an agent myself I’ve been using iStaging for my virtual reality tours for vendors for 18 months now and everyone that sees the tours loves them – it’s just like Google Street View and it’s really easy for customers to use. The iStaging software itself is pretty simple to use, but for those who need a little bit of extra help I’m delighted to act as that first port of call to help agents with the tech side of things.”
REINZ Members should visit https://reinz.co.nz/member-benefits for more information and to receive the special code for discounted rates on the iStaging software and to receive free training from kloudpro.
About iStaging
iStaging is a leading provider of out-of-the-box augmented and virtual reality solutions for the real estate and furniture industries. Headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, the company also has satellite offices in San Francisco, Shanghai, and Paris. iStaging aims to help people transcend space by crafting immersive visualization products that empower the world interact with distant places or objects.
About REINZ
The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) is a membership organisation representing more than 14,000 real estate professionals nationwide. REINZ specialises in all facets of real estate including residential sales, rural, auctioneers, business brokers, commercial and industrial sales and leasing and residential property managers. Members of the REINZ aspire to best practice standards and are bound by the REINZ Codes of Agency Practice and Individual Membership. The REINZ brand is a mark of quality having been in business for more than 100 years.
About kloudpro
Kloudpro is a technology training company that helps real estate salespeople on how to improve their business with technology. Kloudpro specializes in iStaging solutions, specifically the VR Maker app and VR Editor. They provide weekly seminars and personal one-on-one training sessions.
Press contacts
- iStaging: Jasmine Chang at jasmine@staging.com.tw or +886-2-2993-1333#129
- REINZ: Dee Crooks, Head of Communications at REINZ, dcrooks@reinz.co.nz on 09 356 1753 or 021 953 308
- kloudpro: Ben Keehan at getben@kloudpro.kiwi or +64 21 738 769
Source: iStaging Corp.