Mechanicsburg photography firm shifts focus to live 3D tours from home

A Mechanicsburg real estate photography firm is offering real estate companies a way to continue touring houses despite the state-wide lockdown.

360 Tour Designs has taken 3D photography of houses on the market for real estate companies for five years but previously offered the service as a way for potential buyers to see a house before they toured it.

Real estate firms across the state are currently unable to take their clients on tours of homes in compliance with Gov. Tom Wolf’s recent order for all non-life sustaining businesses to close their doors.

Because 360 Tour Designs already offers 3D tours to its clients, it was a no-brainer to offer the service as an alternative to live tours, said Greg Drake, the company’s co-owner.

“We’ve had this 3D imaging capability for a while and it allows you to virtually walk through a home by five to eight feet at a time,” he said. “This new service is a modification of that. Now you can sit down in front of it and over the phone, the realtor can walk you through the address.”

The change to the service is the simple addition of a phone call but a guided tour by a realtor offers much more than what a potential buyer can see from the 3D tour without a guide, said Drake.

360 Tour Designs is a franchisor with 18 franchisees in 15 states. The company primarily works with realtors, offering basic photography, 3D imaging and home staging.

If real estate agencies continue to be unable to show homes to buyers into April, 360 Tour Designs will be looking at other alternatives like getting cardboard virtual headsets into the hands of buyers.

Buyers could place their phones into the virtual headsets and use a virtual reality app that would let them see the 3D images as if they were standing in the house.