70% less viewing tourism through Matterport 3D tours
-70%
On-site appointments
Minimal
Marketing effort
High
Tenant satisfaction
The Challenge
An inhabited multi-family house was to be sold to an investor. The sale required prospective buyers to inspect the building structure and the sense of space. For the tenants, each viewing appointment meant a significant intrusion into their privacy. A frustrating tourism of viewings developed: countless interested parties came, realized on site that the layout or the ceiling height in the attic did not meet their requirements, and dropped out. The tenants became increasingly annoyed, refused appointments, and jeopardized the broker's swift sales success.
Our Solution
FotoEstate created a highly precise Matterport 3D tour of the central apartments, the basement, and the common areas. This digital twin was integrated directly into the online property listing as a pre-qualification filter. Through interactive "Mattertags," we added important technical information (e.g., the year the pipes were renovated, rental conditions). An integrated measurement tool allowed prospective buyers to measure rooms digitally with centimeter accuracy, so that a large part of the questions could be resolved virtually.
The Result
The implementation of the 3D tour revolutionized the sales process. The number of actual on-site viewing appointments decreased by 70%, which greatly relieved the tenants. Only highly qualified prospective buyers who had already virtually toured the property received an on-site appointment. The sale was completed after only three real viewings under excellent conditions. The tenants were grateful for the consideration, and the agent saved significant travel and coordination time.
Project Deep Dive: Process & Details
The profitable yield property with an occupied threshold
Die Exklusiv-Makler KG was commissioned to sell a fully rented multi-family house in the heart of the university town. The property represented an extremely lucrative investment for capital investors: solid rental income, excellent connections, and long-term value appreciation potential. The owner desired a discreet and swift marketing process to not disrupt the ongoing operations. However, there was a significant sales obstacle: the building was fully occupied. For capital investors, who are primarily interested in the numbers, a viewing of the living spaces to check the substance and spatial effect is essential. Yet for the tenants, each viewing appointment meant a massive intrusion into their privacy. Scheduling appointments between the broker, tenants, and potential buyers proved to be a logistical nightmare, and the mood among the residents was already threatening to turn. A new sales strategy was urgently required to safeguard the tenants' privacy.
The problem with sightseeing tourism
In the initial phase of marketing, numerous prospective buyers contacted us through the usual portals. The real estate agent laboriously coordinated group appointments on weekends. But disillusionment quickly set in: a large portion of the interested parties turned out to be classic “viewing tourists.” Many private small investors were only looking for inspiration or only realized on site that the ceiling height in the attic was too low, or that the layout of the rooms on the ground floor did not fit their plans. For the tenants, this meant dozens of strangers in their living rooms – a situation that led to understandable displeasure. Some tenants then spontaneously refused entry due to alleged illness or disorder, causing scheduled appointments to fall through. For the real estate office, this meant countless lost hours on the highway, frustrated prospective buyers standing in front of locked doors, and an increasingly prolonged sales window, which made the owner impatient.
The Plan: The Digital Twin as a Filter
The responsible project manager of Exklusiv-Makler KG realized that he needed to drastically reduce the number of actual viewings without limiting the reach of the offer. The solution lay in creating an immersive, digital twin of the building using Matterport technology by FotoEstate. The plan was to scan the most representative apartments of the multi-family house as well as the common areas and the basement completely in 3D. This high-resolution tour was intended to serve as a strict pre-qualification filter. Only interested parties who could demonstrably complete the digital tour fully and still express detailed purchase interest afterward were to receive one of the few exclusive on-site appointments. In this way, the burden on the tenants was to be reduced to an absolute minimum while simultaneously maximizing the closing rate per actual viewing.
The 3D scan and the interactive dollhouse
Our scan team arrived one morning and digitized the selected apartments with the high-precision Matterport camera. The recording took only about 45 minutes per apartment, so the tenants were hardly affected. From the scanned data, FotoEstate created a seamless, interactive 3D model of the building. The absolute highlight was the iconic "Dollhouse View" (dollhouse model): interested parties could rotate, tilt, and view the building like a real dollhouse without a roof. This immediately made the spatial relationship between the floors, the staircase, and the individual rooms understandable. In addition, we integrated so-called "Mattertags" – small digital information points. When a user clicked on them, pop-up windows opened with information about the renovation of the riser pipes in 2021, detailed photos of the heating system, and excerpts from the current rental contract. The integrated measuring tool was also activated, with which investors could digitally measure walls and niches down to the centimeter.
The digital relaunch in the online exposé
The virtual 3D tour was directly integrated into the online listing on the portals. It was prominently highlighted in the property description: "Visit this lucrative investment property conveniently from home 24/7 in advance." The result was phenomenal: over 80 percent of portal visitors took the opportunity and explored the building digitally. They navigated through the hallways, checked the condition of the basement, and read the embedded facts in the Mattertags. For the real estate agent, the daily work routine changed immediately. Instead of coordinating appointments, he sent the protected link to the 3D tour to new inquiries. Prospective buyers who ultimately did not like the layout of the apartments filtered themselves out independently and silently. The inquiries that Schmidt still received for actual viewings now came exclusively from highly qualified, ready-to-buy investors who were already very familiar with the property and wanted to clarify detailed questions about the return.
Quick notary appointment and satisfied tenants
Through the digital filter, the actual on-site viewing appointments dropped by a remarkable 70 percent. Instead of countless group appointments with unqualified viewers, only three exclusive individual on-site appointments with serious buyers were necessary. Already after the second appointment, an experienced private investor made a firm purchase commitment. The purchase contract was notarized shortly thereafter without price negotiations. The tenants of the house were extremely relieved about the calm and professional process of the sale. For Exklusiv-Makler KG, this project meant a tremendous increase in efficiency. The time saved allowed the real estate office to invest in acquiring new properties, while the owner of the house praised the swift and discreet handling. The Matterport tour had proven to be the perfect tool for occupied investment properties and sustainably standardized the sales process (similarly convincing results, but for vacant luxury properties, are also shown in our case study on the sale of a penthouse through virtual staging).
What our partners say
"Integrating the Matterport tours into our CAFM systems went smoothly. A huge added value for our inventory management."
"We now only present our construction projects with 3D models from FotoEstate. They make complex architecture tangible and understandable."
"The AR indoor navigation is an innovative solution for our large office complexes. Our tenants and visitors are thrilled."
"The visual preparation of our data rooms by FotoEstate has significantly strengthened our investors' trust. Highest professionalism."
"The CAD transformation of our old plans was extremely precise. We finally have a clean, digital basis for our revitalization projects."
"Through virtual tours, we were able to reduce the number of physical viewings by 60%, which massively lowered our costs."
"Integrating the Matterport tours into our CAFM systems went smoothly. A huge added value for our inventory management."
"We now only present our construction projects with 3D models from FotoEstate. They make complex architecture tangible and understandable."
"The AR indoor navigation is an innovative solution for our large office complexes. Our tenants and visitors are thrilled."
"The visual preparation of our data rooms by FotoEstate has significantly strengthened our investors' trust. Highest professionalism."
"The CAD transformation of our old plans was extremely precise. We finally have a clean, digital basis for our revitalization projects."
"Through virtual tours, we were able to reduce the number of physical viewings by 60%, which massively lowered our costs."
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