One of my favorite novels is The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. I read it in as an Undergraduate in college and I instantly regretted majoring in accounting. At the time, I thought I could become the next Howard Roark because the authors succeeded in making architects seem like superheroes. To my chagrin, no one was able to make accountants less dull. As years progressed and went on to study real estate in Graduate school, I discover that architects have to be business people too and cater to the whims of investors. After many years working in the field of real estate, I could not see how my favorite protagonist can succeed without a little marketing.
As a real estate professional, I have to market my services to real estate developers because they are interested in selling their inventory (I am not trying to offend any architects by calling their design inventory). Today, architects can convince more clients to hire them by using the same tools that developers are using to sell home to their clients. Architects should embrace new technology and present their prospective clients with better 3D renders. Many people lack the same vision that architects have and need visuals to grasp what the architects mean when they talk about s specific design.
One of the latest tools used in real estate marketing is virtual reality. This tool is extremely powerful because it enables clients to be fully immersed and envision themselves in the project after completion. As someone who studied real estate and worked in the field for many years, I predict that the use of virtual reality for real estate will grow in popularity. Moreover, one should not forget that technology grabs people’s attention. A virtual tour of a property will be much more attractive than a dull PowerPoint presentation. An architect should employ a 3D artist or learn to 3D themselves. This is a growing trend in many parts of the world such as Eastern Europe because of the need for high quality renders. If the demand keeps growing, VR real estate and AR real estate solutions will take over and will render all other solutions obsolete.