All the intangibles revealedduring commercialproperty tours, like a building's patinaor its interior design, or how it just feels to walk into the lobby, help landlords win overpotential tenants.

But what happens when an international pandemic like the coronavirus makes it impossible for brokers to invite prospective tenants and clients on-site for personalized tours?

For some, it means business activity subsides until the crisisends.

Others are sealing the deal from the comfort of their own homes. Whilevirtual reality and remote building tours arent new to the brokerage industry, the pandemicmay hasten their move into must-haves.

Texas-based landlord Boxer Propertydecided to go full-throttle into the virtual realtyspacewhen the COVID-19 pandemic forced potential tenantsaway from the company'soffice buildings.

Boxerhad already deployedvirtual realitytechtoolsthat allow tenants to capturerealistic, multidimensional views of itsproperties online.

Years ago, we started taking pictures of suites, and then we started doing videos, Boxer Properties Marketing DirectorHeather Shuttleworth said.Then, werecently got aMatterportcamera, and we are doing the full 360-virtual tour experience at several of our properties.

Even though 3D tours are effective, Boxer still wanted a more personalized approachduring the COVID-19 crisis, so the firmupped theante and now offers liveSkypeproperty tours hostedbyBoxer employees.

They can talk to [the leasing agent]face to face and see the space through the camera, Shuttleworth said. If they want to walk through it on their computer they can, but we are kind of missing the personal touch there and people often have questions and want to look at something more closely in the space.

The Boxer team isalready receivingpositive feedback; and at least one Skype tour recipientsigned up for a lease right aftertaking aremote interactive tour.

Co-living and microstudio multifamily provider Common says 30% of its rental applications come from the firms online virtual tour experience, whichthe firm hasoperated in some form sinceits inception five years ago.

But Vice President of OperationsEric Rodriguez saidCommon, much like Boxer Property, kicked its existing remote solutions up a notch when the coronavirus crisis sent New York and other areas into lockdown mode.

With the firm already offering FaceTime andGoogleHangouttours with live specialistsprior to the crisis,the transition to conducting everything remotelywas an easy one.

It has always been part of our concept, Rodriguez said of the firms tech-first approach.

Rodriguez saidCommonhas always believed its mission is to get more peopleinside the property at all times of the day. In good times, that involves both in-person tours and VR-guided tours. In bad times like these, it means doing everything remotely without missing a beat.

The firm believes all multifamily leasing in the future will depend heavily on remote access and virtual reality components to stay competitive.

Generally the property management industry is shifting toward that convenience-first perspective, he said.

Real estate brokerage Younger Partners out of Dallas has been offering virtual toursof its Greenway Tower listing in Irving, Texas, for quite some time.

The brokerage doesn'tviewremote-viewingor virtual tours as new concepts,nor do they see their emergence asrelated to COVID-19.

I think it's becoming more and more a must-have, founding principal Sean Dalton said. Everything is changing in our society as far as [everyone] wanting things now and quicker. Everyone wants thingsto get done faster ... and I think these virtual tours allow people to be more efficient with their time.

Greenway Tower's owner poured millionsof dollars intorenovating theproperty, and the virtual tours were put into place with the help of an app to simplyget more eyes on the building and all itsimprovements, Dalton told Bisnow.

This is exactly where virtual technology succeeds best.

We felt that this was an opportunity to really get the building into [prospective tenants]hands rather than pulling them out to Las Colinas.

Original post:

CRE Industry Keeps Deals Afloat Through VR Technology, Skype And FaceTime - Bisnow