As we move into an increasingly digital age, successfully bringing real estate properties to life requires the use of various modern technologies. High-quality visuals and interactive content continue to be crucial—and the likes of social media, 360-degree drone footage, and Canva-based flipbooks help bring those aspects of digital storytelling to the next level. 

These are the same reasons that give augmented (AR) and virtual reality (VR) so much potential to enhance real estate outcomes. These technologies, which leverage digital overlays and 3D near-eye displays to immerse viewers in virtual environments, are most popular for their applications in gaming. However, the market for AR and VR is set to grow in value from $4.04 billion to $26.20 billion in the next five years alone for one key reason: their use cases are expanding across various industries. From education and manufacturing to healthcare and retail, they're becoming more versatile, posing more opportunities for real estate applications. 

Not convinced? These key industries prove that AR and VR definitely have a place in real estate.

Eyewear: showcasing the product

With glasses and sunglasses alike coming in countless frame shapes, sizes, designs, and lens technologies, more consumers opt to shop online due to the convenience and accessibility of modern eyewear platforms. That’s chiefly due to the fact that online retailers strategically leverage emerging technologies to closely match the physical buyer’s journey. One critical aspect they focus on is the process of finding a perfect fit, which can be difficult to do remotely. To address it, they take advantage of AR to provide a virtual glasses try on tool. As seen on the website of major eyewear retailer LensCrafters, this feature digitally imposes a user’s frame of choice on their face via a camera, allowing them to see how they fit as if they’re physically trying the glasses on. 

That’s where AR can aid real estate outcomes. With the necessary AR-powered eyewear, agents can show prospective buyers what a property looks like, whether or not they’re physically there. These virtual showcases will allow them to fully immerse themselves as they view and walk through multiple listings despite staying in a single location, which can save time and resources. That can make tours more accessible for those on a busy schedule—or individuals, couples, and families who simply want to relocate from somewhere further away—potentially helping expand customer bases and sales opportunities in real estate.

Product design: interactive visualization

This industry experiences constant evolution due to how often consumer preferences change, which is why product designers need to be agile and quick to adapt to them. That’s the main reason they use emerging technologies like AI, AR, and VR. These give them the ability to visualize and alter designs remotely, allowing them to continually tweak them before release without the need to produce physical prototypes. The fact that AR and VR can create immersive digital environments also means that product designers can interact with a design and directly alter them in real-time, further streamlining processes like designing, prototyping, and testing. 

Real estate can reap similar benefits from these technologies, especially when it comes to the interior design involved in virtually staging a property. VR, in particular, can aid in generating 3D layouts that alter everything from a room’s color scheme to furniture placement, helping buyers better visualize what it would be like to live there. Designers can also tweak those layouts during a showcase itself depending on how a buyer would like to see how a property can potentially be used. With industry leaders like Meta coming out with a virtual home furniture layout app for its Quest 3 VR headset, it’s equally clear that even unfurnished properties can leverage these design benefits. It can take the measurements of real-world objects, like kitchen islands and flat-screen TVs, and digitally impose these pieces onto an existing space to see how they can fit in. That can help buyers see how different rooms in a property can be used when designed in line with their preferences—and potentially increase an agent’s chances of closing sales. 

HR: immersive employee training  

The improvements made to the buyer’s journey don’t need to be limited to using AR and VR to help them make more informed decisions. As seen in Bank of America’s modern HR tactics, these emerging technologies can also be used to improve employee training and ultimately enhance that journey from the very beginning. The company now uses a VR training program with roughly 900 simulations in over 700,000 practice sessions annually. The goal of this strategy is to prepare employees for every possible interaction they may run into, effectively giving them the skills they need to elevate the customer experience and more consistently create positive business outcomes. 

As a result, Bank of America reports that its employees retain up to 90% more of the information they learn compared to traditional training methods, and that’s something real estate agencies can benefit from as well. An AR or VR training program can help agents run through a number of simulations designed to hone their communication and negotiation skills and allow them to try out various sales techniques risk-free. Similarly, these emerging technologies’ ability to create digital environments can help agents familiarize themselves—not just with the features of a property, but the neighborhood it’s located in—without leaving the office. That can give them all the information they need to more successfully appeal to buyers and address all their questions and concerns with ease.