Real Estate
THE NEW TECH THAT’S CHANGING THE WAY PROPERTIES SELL New technologis set to revolutionise the way properties are presented to potential buyers. These changes are being accelerated by COVID restrictions but as the technology progresses further, virtual inspections are here to stay and will play an increasing role in rural property marketing. Virtual inspections will not eliminate physical inspections, but they will make properties far more accessible earlier in a marketing campaign.
Virtual inspections will also help to engage foreign buyers. A greater appreciation of a property’s attributes can now be gained from high quality images and maps from anywhere in the world, opening the market to far more buyers than has been possible in the past. WHAT DO WE MEAN BY VIRTUAL INSPECTIONS? Virtual inspections range from relatively simple highquality images of key aspects of a property taken by experienced agents using hand-held devices to sophisticated aerial images merged to create threedimensional models. 54
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Some of the tools that are becoming more widely available include: > Mobile phones fitted into a gimbal that stabilises the image as the agent moves around (frequently used in residential inspections). These can be used to capture a wide variety of images across the farm, including infrastructure, accommodation, equipment, fencing and water points. They are also able to be used to provide images of landscapes, pastures and crops. > Drones capturing video footage, panoramic views, high quality two and three-dimensional maps. Drones are increasingly used for videography but new cameras and software that can turn multiple images into maps are now available and increasingly used in other industries. > Aerial images and maps using fixed-wing aircraft can capture images of much larger areas and carry imaging equipment able to record not just visible light but a range of other sections of the light spectrum. > Satellites routinely capture images of all areas of Australia. The images they capture are becoming far cheaper to access and analyse. > Even the now humble Google Earth is widely used to review properties prior to inspections. Not all these tools need be used. They should be selected and combined to present key aspects of the property to potential buyers that engage them and builds interest, encouraging prospects to find out more.
