Virtual Tours with Corey Graft

Virtual tours are extremely popular with residential real estate but have yet to gain as much traction in commercial real estate. Despite the high cost for the camera equipment, you can get your space photographed for a very nominal monthly rate.

Corey Graft, founder of Halo Virtual tours, walks us through the entire process. Since Covid has changed the world, virtual tours will become increasingly popular if not mandatory.

Check out halo tours at http://halovirtualtours.com


Transcript

Austin:

You heard the term virtual tour? How would you explain that to Somebody? 

Corey:

Right, Austin, I mean, you can ask 100 people what a virtual tour is, and you can get 100 different answers. I think a lot of people have seen what they consider to be a virtual tour in where it’s a nice video walkthrough of a building, or it’s like a photograph that you can sort of scan around. But honestly, there’s so much more, they’re versatile, they’re in depth. It’s really basically creating a digital twin of a building or a space. I mean, you can really glean all kinds of information from a virtual tour. And it enables you to walk around and view a space like, as if you were there in person. 

Austin:

Okay. Yeah. And I know that’s really popular in residential, but it’s a tool that’s really underutilized in commercial real estate, really. So I think it’s gonna be an interesting episode for sure. So we got this massive device here in the background. Can you explain what this is that we’re looking at? 

Corey:

Right so this is one of our state of the art capture tools. And this is what we’re going to take into a space and we actually put this down, and we move it about six feet apart every time we take a scan. And what this will do is it actually spins around. And it shoots lasers that shoots range and distance measuring sensors. And it also shoots photographs as it spins. And so what this is doing is it’s collecting information about the space that it’s in. It’s shooting lasers here to detect how far away objects are walls, whatever it’s looking at, and it uses that to create a three dimensional mesh image of a space. 

Austin:

Yeah, and it’s crazy, because just looking at it, like it’s kind of clunky, you know, like, you wouldn’t necessarily think that it has so much technology going into it, but it almost looks like old fashioned camera, but obviously an old fashioned camera like these shape, this proportions would never be able to have a fraction of the technology that this thing has. 

Corey:

Right. We’re very fortunate that all this technology, I mean, most of this came out of like a military type of application. And then over time, it’s been privatized and we’re able to leverage it to do things that you never thought possible before.  I mean, this, this camera just opens up so many possibilities, not only with marketing space or taking photos of space, but documenting construction, and working with insurance claims all kinds of things. 

Austin:

Okay, so let’s talk about how does the virtual process work

Corey:

So the virtual process is pretty easy, you’re able to book a tour directly from our website. And then we’re able to go ahead and get that scheduled with you. And one of our professionals will come out to your site, and it takes some time, depending on the size of the site, it could take an hour, it could take four to five hours to go ahead and walk through the site, take all of your scans, and then we’ll come back and we run all of the scans into our mesh creation algorithm. And so basically, what that does is it stitches all of these images and measurements together to create this three dimensional model. We call it a dollhouse in our industry and basically like, looking at a child’s doll house, you’re able to maneuver it and look at your property from all angles and zoom in and out. And basically from that, we’re able to use that to create a tour to fit our client’s needs, whether it’s a virtual walkthrough, a video tour created from the from the virtual mesh, or perhaps they’re using it for advertisement for their business.

Austin:

and what do you so you could make a call, go on the website that come out, take the shots, you know, stitch together, on the back end, where do you view these tours? 

Corey:

So you can really look at this tour anywhere you want. So whatever you’re watching this podcast on, you should be able to view the tour on right. So your iPhone, your iPad, your Android, basically anything with a web browser, you’re able to view these tours. I mean, and it’s the first time you hold your iPad up, and you start to walk around a space that you’re familiar with. It’s amazing. You have more questions and than ever before. 

Austin:

Hey, all right. And so I know there’s you know, you’ve got residential real estate, you’ve got commercial real estate with commercial real estate, you’ve got multifamily, you’ve got healthcare, you’ve got retail office industrial, you know, like, Is there an ideal use case? Is there an ideal user for this?

Corey:

So really that’s the great part about virtual tours is pretty much everybody has an ideal use case for them, whether you’re in the insurance industry, and you want your clients to document spaces before a claim happens or after a claim when it’s in process. So I’ve seen virtual tours used where they’ll actually go into a space that’s been flooded, and the tour is created and then contractors come through with their FLIR, their thermal imaging cameras, they’re able to picture in the walls, show you where water is, and I’m able to actually embed those photos right into the tour. So that when anybody’s looking through it to decide on your claim, they’re able to pull quickly up and look at the damage in detail and see what’s going on. As far as offices is concerned. Look at marketing in office, right now. What do people want in that space, they want a place where their employees are going to want to come to work, where they’re going to have a lot of amenities. And this is a great way to market themselves not only when the space comes up for sale or lease, but when they’re actually looking to hire people within their company.

Austin:

Right, yeah, no, that makes total sense. Um, and so in terms of like, you know, benefits, what would you say is a top benefit for having a virtual tour?

Corey:

So the top benefit by far is, you’re able to view this tour 24 hours a day, at your leisure from wherever you are. So in today’s climate, there’s never been a better time to not have to go go places and to see things and do things in person. And this is just one step forward in the way of connecting all of the world into a global economy, right. So this is able to enable somebody on the other side of the country to physically feel like they’ve seen a space in person. And so you’re going to enable deals from a distance like you’ve never seen before with this, this sort of technology. 

Austin:

Right? And, you know, how would you compare it to like going in and taking pictures versus conducting like an entire virtual tour?

Corey:

So I know a lot of people ask me that question, but they usually ask, why don’t I just get a video tour? And, and the best answer I can give on that is, whoever’s making that video tour decides what you want to look at, right? Whereas if when you’re taking a virtual tour, you decide what’s important to you to see. So maybe for somebody, they’re interested in what the the lobby in the reception area looks like, within a medical practice, right? But an investor that that might not be what they’re interested in, they might want to see how many exam rooms there are, how they’re laid out within the space, where the plumbing is the MEPs, all of that within the space. So so it really provides a lot of versatility for whoever’s taking the tour. 

Austin:

Yeah, no, that makes sense. We were recently looking at some houses. My wife and I had had virtual tours and, you know, with like you said, with a video tour, it could take a while. Like, if you want to watch it fast, you might miss some things. You might skip over some things.  And I agree like having that customization, you know, I can spend a video might be five minutes long or four minutes long and I have to watch the entire thing if I want to get a feel virtual tour, I might be able to quickly go through all the different rooms I want to in 30 seconds. And it’s up to me how long I want to take 

Corey:

Right, and, what if, Austin when you’re deciding on a space, you don’t know if certain equipment’s going to fit through the door if certain things are going to fit on certain walls? Well, the benefit of these with this type of technology, this camera is able to capture distance with over 99% accuracy. So you’re able to as an end user go in very easily with a very small learning curve, hardly any at all. and measure out distances. You can measure how large a countertop is, how wide the doorframe is, how tall the ceilings are, whatever you want to measure within that. So it’s very versatile, it’s very useful. And it saves a lot of time from having to go back to sites to do to do measurements to capture things to try to remember what they saw? So it’s it’s a very powerful tool. 

Austin:

And so what about like any measurable? Is there any data out there? Like, what is this due to the time in the market? Let’s say you get a virtual tour. Can you measure any sort of like ROI or anything quantifiable? Right, right? 

Corey:

Well, the tours, yes, there, there’s quantifiable data. There’s been multiple studies done out there. Some of the information that I’ve seen from these studies, is up to 31% fewer days on the market for a property with a virtual tour than a similar property in a similar market without a virtual tour. And on top of that, I’m seeing in other studies, it’s saying you’re closing for four to 9%, closer to the asking price, when you have a virtual tour on your property. And then some more statistics that you know, I’ve kind of prepared would be… let me try to recall some of these.  I’ve seen some statistics saying that out of 1000 respondents, 1000 respondents said that they would prefer to view a property with a virtual tour. So you can see how people are fairly compelled by the detail that they’re able to find from this.

Austin:

Right. And really, I mean, at this stage, it’s almost surprising that it’s not mandatory is almost surprising that it’s not a necessity, because you’re simply not allowed to go do a lot of in person visits like that. Or if they are, there’s a lot of restrictions, you know, you got to wear the face coverings, and you got to really careful and stuff like that. And that’s something even though I, I believe restrictions are going to go down, I think that it’s going you know, COVID-19 is just going to forever change the way we do business. It’s speeding up all these things that have been in the works for a while. 

Corey:

It is I mean, you couldn’t be more right. I mean, a year ago, maybe half of us use zoom on a daily basis. I would say a lot more of us use it now. And just to elaborate more on that. Think about the time saved, think about your ability to prequalify people to even visit a site in the first place, I know a lot of people in this industry are starting to use these type of virtual tours to say, look, you want to get in the door to see this property, you need to take the virtual tour first to make sure it’s for you. And honestly, it’s it’s very helpful saving time on both ends of a real estate deal. 

Austin:

Yeah, and honestly, it is surprising to me. I mean, you know, and understand a lot of people have been in this industry in a long time, and that’s the way they do things, just the way they do things they don’t want to change but man, like, your time is money, you know, and the amount of time spent showing people locations, like physically showing them like walking up. I mean, you know, just when I was looking at different spaces for my businesses and my gyms, you know, I mean, we went to we had to go to so many different locations, right and physically because you got, you know, you see the pictures but physically walking in the door. And not only I mean, you know, I’m the business owner, I’m going to be very particular about it, obviously, but like, just the amount of time from the landlord’s perspective and the realtors perspective, like the on both sides.  Yeah, sure, like they’re paid a commission or whatever. But just think about like, the if you’re saving them time, you now have something that you can negotiate used to negotiate with the representing broker, right landlord if you’re the landlord, so it just, it doesn’t make sense to me not to do and so that kind of leads me to my next question is like, Alright, so I get it virtual tour makes sense, you know I’m sold but you know, there’s probably a handful of companies doing this, why would I want to use Halo over you know somebody else? 

Corey:

So I’m glad you asked I think we have a very unique value proposition within the marketplace. So what our mission is, is to use the best technology in the industry to deliver you the best tour or catalog of your property and we try to do it for the lowest upfront cost that you’re gonna find out there. 

Austin:

Okay, so like there’s no barrier to entry is the absolute lowest with Halo than any other virtual tour pretty much 

Corey:

From all of the prices I’ve researched. We are the lowest upfront cost get a tour online

Austin:

Okay, um, yeah. So, you know, once somebody comes out, you know, they take the photos, they do the scan. I mean, how long are you looking like, what’s the process like from by the time it’s literally online ready to go, they can showcase this put on their website, whatever. 

Corey:

So it depends on whether or not you want a site plan, a schematic drawn up alongside the tour. But typically speaking, you can consider your tour to be live within two days of us being on site, sometimes one.

Austin:

And is there any geographic limitations, there’s like certain places you you are limited to?

Corey:

The only limiting factor is the ambient lighting in the room. You really need light for these same sensors in this camera to work well. There’s circumstances where we could take you know, portable powered lights and make something work but you realize, 

Austin:

I should actually clarify like, Is there any like States or locations or cities that you won’t go to? 

Corey:

No, call us. We’ll go there. 

Austin:

Okay, both in the US, right, like continental US pretty much. 

Corey:

Yeah, pretty much. And if we can’t get there, we will find you a service professional that will fit your needs. 

Austin:

Okay, is any international yet or just us? 

Corey:

I’ve not personally worked internationally, but that’s not something that would be out of the question.

Austin:

In recap, I mean, sounds like the, you’re going to have your listing up for less amount of time. If you go with a virtual tour, you’re gonna get a better price for it. And you’re going to save a lot of time. So, yes, it seems like the way the future you know, I can’t imagine very much longer where people are not using virtual tours as a standard. So it’s just like one of those things that you should get ahead of the bell curve on. 

Corey:

Oh, it absolutely is. And if if your listeners would like to try one of our tours and take it out, they’d be able to do that on our website, it will be halovirtualtours.com.

Austin:

Okay, yeah, we’ll put that in the show notes. And I’ll drop your email address as well. If anybody wants to get in touch with you, then they can reach out. Cool, man. Well, hey, it was great having you on the show. Great. Catching up, 

Corey:

Austin. Yeah. Thanks for having me. I appreciate your listeners taking the time to learn about what’s out there and hopefully further their business as well. 

Austin:

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it’s one of the many tools out there, but I think it’s a pretty cool thing to have in your back pocket. So appreciate it.

Corey:

Yeah, I think it’s a great force multiplier in today’s market. So thanks, Austin. 

Austin:

Alright, see you guys.

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