REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENTS INTO A NEW ERA OF 3D POSSIBILITIES

BY MELISSA KANDEL

In an industry where innovation is a fast-moving target, with the volatility to slide in mere seconds from trend to trite, it can be tricky to identify the proptech companies that are truly ahead of the curve.

Enter: Evolution Virtual, a team of 75 artists, designers, technologists and real estate professionals taking what we know about the application of 3D technology in luxury real estate and turning that on its head. Led by CEO Jonathan Oleinick, whose resume includes impressive accomplishments at NASA, Intel, Goldman Sachs, Precision Therapies and Eli Lilly, Evolution Virtual is the future of 3D experiences. And with billions in luxury real estate marketed by the team, it’s easy to see why the future of 3D is now.

Can you tell us a little more about your background and what’s happening at Evolution Virtual today?

OLEINICK: My experience is originally as an MIT computer scientist and about 12 years ago, I started this company. Since then we’ve worked with 700 new development projects around the world and we’ve helped our clients sell and market about $200 billion in luxury properties. At any one given time we work on more than 50 different projects.

As an example, we work with 220 Central Park South, which is one of the most expensive buildings in the world – on average it’s about $10,000 per square foot.

Since the pandemic, virtual has had an incredible impact on real estate interactions. What are you seeing now in terms of how top agents are using virtual reality to market properties and interface with clients?

Since the pandemic, people have become more and more reliant on a virtual means of presenting new developments with better visualizations and a lot more technology. And when I say ‘technology’ I don’t mean Vitual Reality. Though VR is tremendous and has a lot of potential, it’s not quite there yet for people to really walk around and explore a property without a fairly high percentage of them getting sick. VR tech is quite close, and I’d say maybe in the next 12 to 24 months when Apple comes out with a lighter headset, great advances will happen but we’re not there yet. Today, we see people trying on these VR headsets and saying, ‘This is fantastic but is there any way we can do this without putting on the headset?’

And can they?

They absolutely can. We’re introducing very big, curved screens that allow for visuals to be in 3D on the screen – like a 3D movie – and it’s an alternative to putting on that heavy headset. We install these massive, ten-foot screens in offices and sales centers worldwide for agents and their prospective buyers to truly ‘walk through’ a new property at life-sized scale.

I think there’s a big misconception that technology is replacing the real estate agent. How do you reconcile the relationship between real estate and technology?

Real estate technology is about that handshake between people. It allows you to strengthen a relationship by doing something you couldn’t do without the assistance of technology, like be in the presence of somebody without being in the presence of somebody. Using our tech, for instance, you’re standing, let’s say, in a conference room, and a client is looking at you on a big screen, and you’re lifesize to them and they’re lifesize to you. You’re seeing each other as if you’re in the same room but you’re not. You’re hundreds or even thousands of miles away.

That level of connectedness is what people are looking for in real estate technology and it’s the balance of high-tech and high-touch that makes it all work.

What are some trends you’re seeing in luxury real estate developments?

Resort markets are trending on the new development side and that’s where a lot of our projects are happening. We’re working with Montage in Big Sky, Limelight in Mammoth, three different developments in Turks and Caicos, all of these destination locations where luxury buyers have an overwhelming desire to purchase highend residences and live the resort lifestyle.

We also see a demand on the agent and developer side for better technology, to be able to reach out across the country and connect with a buyer in New York who wants to buy in Big Sky or someone in San Francisco who is interested in Mammoth. Through visualization technology, potential buyers are able to be there without really being there. Buyers and agents can share those experiences of being at the development in a very simple, straightforward way that creates a powerful experience and even drives people to purchase property sight unseen.

Is buying property sight unseen typical for these developments you work with?

High-quality 3D visualizations can really drive conversion but what they’re more likely to do is get a prospective buyer to become more engaged because they had such a great experience with the property pre-visit. Then, once they touch down in Turks and Caicos, they can go to the beach and do whatever it is they want to do, but they make it a point to visit the development because of the experience they had when they were able to virtually visualize the property.

It’s funny though because this technology has existed for quite some time but the demand wasn’t there. Developers a few years ago were still saying, ‘Yes, you can do a few sales online but most of the properties are sold in the sales center.’ It was an old-school mentality and the pandemic forced something that was going to take another 10 years – all these technologies that were already available – to the forefront because for a while it was the only way. People were not walking into sales centers, so virtual became the preferred mechanism, which propelled this kind of technology forward very quickly.

Do you think luxury development sales practices will ever go back to that old-school mentality?

No, because people had these fantastic experiences with the tools that are available now. Developers today make sure that even if the final sale doesn’t come fully from virtual visualizations, this tech initiates the conversation and that is a very powerful thing. Then when the buyer does go down to Big Sky or Turks and Caicos or the Bahamas or Vail or Aspen, they might have a lot of ways to fill their time but they’re going to make sure checking out that property they virtually toured is on the list. One of the major benefits of virtual touring is pre-selling, and it generates much more meaningful conversations when the buyer does step into the sales center.

What do you see for the future of virtual technology in real estate?

I will say in general we are pushing heavily towards a desire to have an enhanced virtual tool that can bring a buyer as close to the experience of inperson as possible, like the buyer is standing there at the property with the agent. It could happen through new developments in VR headsets and these lifesized projections we’re doing. Ultimately, it’s about connecting and creating an experience. Luxury buyers demand such a high level of service because that’s what they’re accustomed to getting when they buy a Cartier watch or a Bentley. Luxury agents and luxury developers have to be able to meet and in many cases, exceed those other brands’ customer experiences. It’s not easy but part of that happens with connection and bringing people together over long distances through a screen and very good tech.