The next generation of Zillow surfing uses an AI-generated
floor plan to bring together listing photos and 3D tours for a more
authentic and seamless virtual home-shopping experience
SEATTLE, June 15,
2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Zillow surfing 2.0 is here. At a
time when so many people are rethinking where and how they want to
live, home shoppers in major markets across the country can get a
deeper sense of a home than ever before without stepping foot
inside.
Zillow's AI-generated floor plan — powered by Zillow tech but
available to use for free on listings anywhere — serves as a
dynamic guide to give shoppers digital insight and detail so they
can more quickly and easily narrow their search to only the homes
they love and want to see in person. Now, Zillow uses machine
learning to not only generate floor plans, but also imports each
listing photo and places it on the floor plan, giving shoppers an
in-person perspective of a home's shape and flow that simply
scrolling through can never do.
"Zillow surfing has always been about imagining all the
possibilities a move could bring, and Zillow surfing 2.0 is
bringing those possibilities to life in a much more interactive,
realistic way," said Josh Weisberg,
vice president of Zillow's Rich Media Experience team. "Now
shoppers can act more quickly and confidently, whether they're
searching in their own neighborhood or hundreds or thousands of
miles away. We're pushing the boundaries of what home buyers and
renters can expect when shopping for a home online."
For buyers and renters, Zillow's AI-generated floor plan means
navigating more seamlessly and naturally through photos, a 3D Home
tour and other listing information, getting a remarkably accurate
sense of a home's flow and space. An hour of teleporting through
interactive floor plans on Zillow can replace an afternoon, or
longer, of scheduling tours and driving around town to see homes in
person.
More than half (56%) of buyers agree they wasted time on
their home search by viewing properties that they would have
skipped if they had understood the floor plan before their visit.
Almost three-quarters (74%) agree that a dynamic floor plan helps
them determine if a home is right for them.1
The pandemic and the supercharged housing market that followed
drove rapid adoption of tech tools that have fundamentally changed
the way people buy and sell. With more virtual tours on Zillow
listings than ever before, it's easier to explore and picture life
in a home. Shoppers can evaluate homes from the comfort of their
couch — assessing condition, validating details, layout, size and
orientation — to make the most of their time. Or they can relive an
in-person tour without traveling for a second visit. That speed is
critical in today's ultracompetitive market, when homes are selling
in just a week nationwide, and as quickly as four days in some
areas.
For agents and landlords, this new and expanded technology means
bringing a listing to life and showing homes to more serious and
interested shoppers. Eighty-one percent of buyers and 71% of
renters said they were more likely to visit a home if the listing
included a floor plan they liked.
Zillow uses panoramic photos captured by an agent or
photographer with the free 3D Home app and a 360-degree camera, and
then applies the company's computer vision and machine-learning
models to generate a 3D Home tour and interactive floor plan. This
includes AI-predicted room dimensions, square footage and the
location of the listing photos relative to the other media. And
now, it also imports every listing photo and places them on the
floor plan to more easily navigate and get a feel for the home.
The floor plan, 3D tour and photos are automatically uploaded to
the listing on Zillow and Redfin, and can also be added to the MLS,
embedded in a website, or shared via email or social media.
That's especially important for agents using Zillow's immersive
virtual tours as a cost-effective way to showcase and share
listings and generate more leads. In a survey this spring, 71% of
sellers said they are more likely to hire an agent who includes
virtual tours and/or interactive floor plans in their services. And
three-quarters of sellers said including a floor plan was a highly
important characteristic for their listing.
"Immersive floor plans give agents the ability to build a
connection between potential buyers and listings prior to any
showings," said George Laughton,
founder of the Laughton Team in the Phoenix area. "They give buyers a sense of
familiarity and make them feel as though they've been in the home
before, helping them establish a stronger emotional connection with
the home."
1 According to data from the Zillow
Consumer Housing Trends Report. The survey was fielded between
March and August 2021.
About Zillow
Group
Zillow Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: Z and ZG) is reimagining real estate
to make it easier to unlock life's next chapter. As the most
visited real estate website in the United
States, Zillow® and its affiliates offer customers an
on-demand experience for selling, buying, renting or financing with
transparency and ease.
Zillow Group's affiliates and subsidiaries include Zillow®,
Zillow Premier Agent®, Zillow Home Loans™, Zillow Closing
Services™, Trulia®, Out East®, ShowingTime®, Bridge Interactive®,
dotloop®, StreetEasy® and HotPads®. Zillow Home Loans, LLC is an
Equal Housing Lender, NMLS #10287
(www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org).
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SOURCE Zillow