Podcast: Using Virtual Experiences to Engage Buyers – Michael Shaw

Michael Shaw of EnvisionVR on the Home Builder Digital Marketing Podcast

This week on The Home Builder Digital Marketing Podcast, Michael Shaw of EnvisionVR joins Greg and Kevin to discuss how virtual experiences can help home builders provide a more immersive, interactive, and engaging experience to home buyers.

Home builders often overlook the challenge some home buyers have in imagining an unbuilt home. Michael says,

“I think it’s just always important for volume home builders and builders to just always remember to always put themselves in the buyer’s shoes. It is sometimes easy to forget that it is hard to understand floor plans and to understand the design. So, it’s always important just to make sure we make a really engaging buying experience.”

A virtual property experience allows a home buyer to see their new home and property before home construction has even begun. With virtual tools, home builders are able to give customers that vision without the costly expense of building a model home. Michael says,

“…a display home, they’re very expensive and they’re very costly, and you can only showcase maybe two or three of your designs at once. Where, when you give your sales agents these tools, they’re now able to showcase your whole catalog in a really immersive way where people can understand it.”

Home builders can foster relationships with potential customers, build brand loyalty, and create awareness by taking advantage of virtual tools. Michael explains,

“But then where our products, and our service, and our virtual experience really come into it is in the marketing and selling side. So, on the marketing side, being able to have our really engaging virtual experiences on your website or on your listing, your property portals, to create that extra engagement and time on page, it’s proven that these experiences do work in that area. Giving that potential bias and more understanding of what they’re about to buy. As you can understand, this is one of the biggest decisions that these people are making in their lives. It’s the biggest investment that they’re making.”

Listen to this week’s episode to learn more about how virtual experiences can help home builders show homes to potential customers before construction even begins.

About the Guest:

Michael Shaw is the founder and CEO of EnvisionVR. He brings a strong background in the construction industry. One of his companies in this sector has been leading the market in substation fit-outs in NSW since 2015. He has also project managed significant developments, most notably a multi-story industrial complex in Mt Kuringai.

Driven by his passion for immersive technology and its potential in the property industry, Michael established EnvisionVR in 2019. The company allows viewers to be immersed in and experience future spaces on mobile phones, tablets, VR headsets, and the web and has quickly become a leader in the field, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with this technology.

EnvisionVR not only redefines the presentation and sale of off-the-plan and unbuilt properties but also empowers CGI studios and 3D designers worldwide, granting them seamless access to the realm of immersive technology.