PlanOmatic Improves Marketing, Maintenance, and Due Diligence for Rental Property Owners with Matterport

Providing Deep Property Insights

Homeowners are often surprised to learn that some people prefer renting rather than owning a house, but there are a variety of reasons for doing so: lower maintenance, more flexibility to move on short notice, and the ability to live in a desired school district. 

Founded in 2005, PlanOmatic has provided Property Insights, photography, floor plans, and operational solutions for the single-family rental industry, supporting real estate agents as well as property owners and management firms. They cover the entire property life cycle from due diligence that occurs before purchasing a property to placing a tenant and beyond. 

“We help our clients win by making sure they see the value of a property and are able to translate that value into marketing and operational success,” says Kori Covrigaru, CEO of PlanOmatic.

Due Diligence from a Distance

National companies that manage large portfolios of rental properties often send employees from city to city visiting houses on the market to decide if they’re worth buying. PlanOmatic provides its clients with a much better solution by using Matterport technology to create digital twins of more than 400,000 properties, each of which includes immersive, 3D imagery as well as spatial data. 

PlanOmatic’s Property Insights package includes three main pieces: a Matterport digital twin, a property condition report, and a 2D floor plan. With a digital twin, prospective buyers can walk through a property without having to visit in person. They can see what it looks like from every location and angle, both inside and out. In addition to 3D imagery, the digital twin includes precise measurements of everything from floor area and wall height to sink and countertop size. 

Clients often want to know if they can knock down walls or add a bathroom. The immersive 3D tour, as well as the 2D floor plan, which can be generated directly from a digital twin, helps them imagine what’s possible.

“Matterport saves property owners enormous amounts of hassle and time,” says Covrigaru. From anywhere, we can capture vital property details in an immersive digital experience that our clients can use to start making informed decisions in days, not weeks.”

PlanOmatic historically used Matterport Pro2 cameras to capture digital twins for its clients. The company found the Pro2 valuable for offering a high degree of accuracy for floor plans and renovations, and for its long battery life. Today, PlanOmatic primarily uses the Ricoh Theta Z for speed and scale and continues to use the Pro2 for clients who require captures with a high degree of architectural detail. 

More Informed Decisions, More Rentals

Remote due diligence is only the start. Digital twins also help property managers market houses to tenants and maintain the homes after they’re rented. 

Matterport easily integrates with leading rental portals and other property websites, which is crucial now because potential renters expect to see more about a property than they did even a year ago. “The ability to feature a digital twin on rental portals is extremely important to our clients because they rely so heavily on these sites for marketing,” Covrigaru says. 

Still, photography can’t capture a home completely, partly because wide-angle lenses distort the dimensions but mostly because they can’t capture what a house feels like. There’s no flow from one room to another, and the angles of viewing are predetermined by the photographer. “Video is better,” Covrigaru says, “but consumers get impatient with it. They can’t interact with it. With digital twins, they can click on what they’re interested in and virtually walk through the house themselves. They choose what to look at and what to see next.”

Properties marketed with a digital twin receive 38 percent more applications than those marketed only with still photography, and they rent 30 days faster on average and produce 101 percent more leads, increasing returns on properties and saving owners significant opportunity costs since every day a property sits vacant is money lost. 

Digital twins help with maintenance and renovation as well. If a property manager gets a repair request for new flooring or a countertop, instead of sending someone to the home to take measurements, the manager can rely on the digital twin for accurate measurements and other details, such as the size and placement of windows and doors. “An added bonus is that this can be done without disturbing tenants, which can cause delays and inconvenience everyone,” Covrigaru says. 

A Must-Have Going Forward

Most people shopping for a rental house today have already seen at least one 3D tour during their home search, and many naturally wonder why more companies aren’t providing them. “Digital twins are rapidly shifting from nice-to-haves to must-haves,” Covrigaru says. “Five years from now, almost every property will be marketed in 3D. Consumers increasingly demand it because it’s the only way they feel comfortable renting a property without seeing it first.”

A lot of rental companies still do many things the old way, but they face increasing pressure to adapt. “Operational change can be difficult, but it’s where the real magic starts to happen,” Covrigaru says. “We're finding that the companies that use technology to market rental properties better, process things faster, and work more efficiently really stand out and do better.”

ABOUT PLANOMATIC

PlanOmatic provides property condition reports, rich marketing media, and floor plans to clients in the single-family rental industry across the United States. 

http://www.planomatic.com

HEADQUARTERSDenver, Colorado

INDUSTRY Real Estate

CHALLENGEUse technology to conduct remote due diligence, market properties better, and work more efficiently.

PRODUCTS Ricoh Theta Z1, Matterport Pro2 

SOLUTION PlanOmatic uses Matterport digital twins to provide 3D walkthroughs of properties, generate 2D floorplans, and precisely measure spaces for maintenance and restoration work. 

Results

• 30 percent more rental applications

• 30 days faster to rent

• 100+ percent more leads

• Reduce costs with remote due diligence, property tours, and repair prep