Proptech columnist Craig Rowe reviews Giraffe360, a virtual tour creation and listing marketing solution for real estate agents.
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Giraffe360 is a virtual home tour and marketing platform
Platforms: Web; mobile responsive
Ideal for: Listings agents, teams, brokerages
Top selling points:
• Ease/speed of use
• Marketing value-adds
• Integrated computer vision AI/LiDAR
• Automated edited/tour production
• Flexible publishing formats
Top concern(s):
None with the product itself, only the industry’s willingness to make immersive, digital home tours a common practice.
What you should know
Compact, quick to capture and championing a minimalist user experience, Giraffe360 is promising the industry that creating a 3D walkthrough of a listing really is that easy.
Once the Gen 4 Go Cam is mounted and turned on, agents need simply push one of two buttons: Still Photo or Scan. The latter button is for 3D tours, floor plan creation and video creation, the company’s latest update. You have 30 seconds to leave the room before the camera starts. Most rooms take about 60 seconds to scan, and a house of 2,000 square feet takes about 20 minutes.
Know that “about 20 minutes” is camera time, so yes, you may need an hour to move some things around, wait out the sun’s movement and other such basic logistics.
The still photo button does exactly that, the output from which can be used like any other high-resolution interior shot.
The software assembles all home scans without user input and delivers them to a browser-based dashboard, from which users can edit, publish, download and, in summary, control all of their listing visuals. This includes floor plans, placement of interactive in-tour item tags, image inserts, brand and logo watermarks, and other such clever on-screen accouterments.
The Projects dashboard makes quick work of organizing marketing content. You can create and link lead-generation calls-to-action to videos and tours, input agent contact, customize room photo labels and even blur or obscure personal items that may have been forgotten about during the capture process.
The software even uses its computer vision to create property descriptions should you need them. They can be adjusted for tone, manually edited and easily output.
And on that note, tours and videos can be formatted for publishing on more than its native player, ideal for agents who are active on TikTok or YouTube, for example.
Giraffe360’s brand was inspired by the natural advantages on perspective nature granted the eponymous mammal. It can see above and beyond what’s merely in front of it.
In the case of real estate marketing, a home is more than what’s in front of us. It’s not merely a flat, poorly lit living room or bland rear garden. Giraffe360, and its many colleagues — Matterport, iGuide, Ricoh Tours — are asking the industry to help buyers gain a new perspective on the typical home.
With the help of its LiDAR-equipped camera, dynamic floorpan navigation, AI-image stitching and in-app video editing capabilities, the U.K.-based Giraffe360 (the U.S. office is in Miami) makes a great case for its use in homes of all price ranges.
If you’re reading this, I hope it’s because you already use web-based home tours or believe you need to start. It stands out to your seller. It demonstrates effort, marketing savvy and a commitment to making your entire industry better. Stop giving consumers an excuse to say you didn’t earn your commission.
The solutions offered by Giraffe360 and the entire category of companies to which it belongs have moved past providing a better home search experience, beyond clever marketing. These technologies serve a higher purpose now, they energize home data to catalyze its evolution into property intelligence. Everything within range of their lenses now has a purpose — the height of a wall, the floor finish, the brand of dishwasher.
The application of computer vision and LiDAR, combined or alone, is as compelling an advancement for the industry as the Internet.
And you don’t want to be the person who shrugs that off, do you?
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe
Craig C. Rowe started in commercial real estate at the dawn of the dot-com boom, helping an array of commercial real estate companies fortify their online presence and analyze internal software decisions. He now helps agents with technology decisions and marketing through reviewing software and tech for Inman.
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