Virtual Reality and How It Will Impact Multifamily

Virtual reality, is an artificial world of images and sounds created by a computer; however, it is also so much more than that. What is predicted to be a $150 billion industry by 2020, virtual reality allows people to escape to completely new lands and travel across the world, in an instant, allowing them to experience things that they may otherwise never have been able to experience in the real world.

Recently, Facebook purchased virtual reality company Oculus for $2 billion. In addition, other large brands are investing heavily in virtual reality, from Google to Amazon, Intel, Sony, Microsoft and BMW.

Virtual reality works with special goggles, once one puts them on, he or she is truly transported, through visual and audio stimulation, to another place. They could go sky diving and then ride the world’s largest rollercoaster, all from the comfort of their couches.

So if people can experience that from their couches, imagine how this can impact the multi-housing industry and get more residents into a community. Virtual reality can affect both pre-construction and existing buildings. With pre-construction, a community can now sell to potential residents all over the world, without them ever needing to leave their living rooms. A complete 3D environment can be created, down to every detail, from the weaving in the pillows to the texture of the leather sofa that will make the home look real.

Potential residents can use those special goggles and sit back for a guided tour of what the building and community will look like after it is completed. Even better, depending on the type of goggles they have–the two most popular being Google Cardboard and Oculus Rift, they may even be able to walk from room to room, as if there were really there.

In addition, if the building has already been built, a 360 degree, live action video can be created where a potential client can have the same experience of being immersed in the building as if they were experiencing it in reality. To make the experience personalized, a community can even have a realtor from their building provide a guided tour.

In the end, as virtual reality becomes more and more mainstream, this will allow the multi-housing industry the ability to reach out to tens of thousands more potential residents and allow them to dramatically increase sales, without anyone ever leaving their chairs.

Rami Kalla is the founder of Point In Time Studios, a Phoenix-based video production studio with a specialty in Virtual Reality. He has worked with the student housing and multi-housing industry since 2003. Rami has had the privilege to work with amazing brands such as Ford, PetSmart, Coca-Cola, McDonalds, AOL and Asset Campus Housing. For more information about Rami and Point In Time Studios, please visit www.multi-housingvideo.com.