Welcome to Episode 15 of the Proptech Podcast. My guest in this episode is Tom Dorawa, founder of Virtual Tours Creator and possibly one of the most positive people in proptech. Virtual Tours Creator is a platform that makes it ridiculously easy - and affordable - for agents to create virtual reality walkthroughs for the properties they’re selling. In this episode, Tom explains the difference between a video walkthrough, a virtual tour, and augmented reality. Now I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been really clear on the differences so this explanation is really helpful. I hope it will give you an ‘aha!’ moment that helps you to see how extremely valuable a virtual tour can be to property buyers - and even landlords. And if it’s cheap and easy to do - why wouldn’t you offer this as a service?

(00:11): Tom gives us his elevator pitch

(01:47): Tom explains how a sales and marketing guy got involved in virtual reality in real estate.

(03:52): How realestate.com.au and Nigel Dalton helped Tom stress test his idea.

(05:23): The difference between virtual reality and augmented reality.

(07:18): Does virtual reality solve a problem for agents or is it just nice to have? Tom explains how it solves current problems you do probably have right now.

(11:23): What you need to create a virtual tour.

(12:49): The data that virtual tours provide to agents

(14:43): Virtual tours and videos are NOT the same thing. Tom explains the important distinction.

(15:08): Shoutouts to Matterport and Diakrit

(17:54): The user case for virtual reality in property management

(22:02): The future of virtual reality

(24:14): Only 3% of listings on the Australian market are currently using virtual reality.

(25:46): The return on investment for using virtual reality.

(30:15): Tom gets out his crystal ball and tells us about XR which comes after AR and DR.

(33:28): Using virtual reality to stand out as an agency.