More and more, brokers are banking on a video game headset to sell the city’s priciest pads.
Brokers hope that the virtual reality headset Oculus Rift will allow apartment-hunters to view their future home’s pre-construction, according to the New York Daily News.
“The idea is to provide the most immersive experience possible,” Cory Haber, the president of Rubicon Media, which is developing the program, told the Daily News. “You’re tricking your brain to make it believe you’re somewhere else.”
Using the headset, buyers can “walk through” an apartment at their own pace with the aid of a video game controller. Users can poke around the apartment, open doors and even lean out the window to check out the view.
And Haber has already inked deals with top city brokers, including “Million Dollar Listing New York” star Ryan Serhant and Urban Compass President Leonard Steinberg, to use Oculus Rift to market unfinished apartments. The firm ArX Solutions also has a technology that utilizes the Oculus Rift.
“This is like ‘The Matrix,’” Serhant told the Daily News. “All of a sudden, you’re zapped into the apartment. People don’t know what to say because they’ve never seen anything like it.” [NYDN] – Christopher Cameron