Sparrow: 3D Study
Executive Summary
By Kori Covrigaru
PlanOmatic, the biggest and fastest provider of Property Insights and marketing services for the single-family rental industry nationwide, partnered with their client, Sparrow, a leading provider of well-kept single-family rental homes nationwide, to measure the impact of using a Matterport 3D Tour for rental property marketing.
Challenge
Sparrow had 2 main challenges to address in this study:
1. They needed to determine if there would be an ROI if they invested in 3D tours on all properties nationwide. The ROI would be measured in lead generation, self-showing tour activity, website views, and days on market.
2. They wanted to pilot the operations and technology needed to roll-out 3D. Could PlanOmatic perform the 3D service in Sparrow markets? Could the Sparrow IT team accept the 3D tour and include it in the feed to their website and to Zillow?
Solution
The data showed that using a Matterport 3D tour to market a property online has a significantly positive impact on leasing activity. Additionally, we confirmed that the operations and technology needed for a nationwide roll-out is ready to go.
Details
ROI
The data showed a positive impact on leasing activity, specifically:
• Zillow Leads per day per property increased 18% when a Matterport Tour was used to market the property in Charlotte, NC, compared with properties that only had photos
• Website page views per day per property increased 66% in Charlotte, NC and increased 58% in Dallas, TX when a Matterport Tour was used to market the property, compared with properties that only had photos
• Days On Market decreased 25% in Charlotte, NC and decreased 9% in Dallas, TX when a Matterport Tour was used to market the property, compared with properties that only had photos.
Operations & Technology
The PlanOmatic team was able to perform the 3D service in all markets for Sparrow, while keeping a consistent turnaround time and meeting the standard SLA expectations.
The Sparrow IT team was able to retrieve the 3D tour URL, embed it into the Sparrownow.com website, and also include it in the feed to the Zillow Group Rentals Platform. We confirmed that the 3D tour was visible on the following websites:
• Sparrow
• Zillow
• Trulia
• HotPads
3D Tour Concentration
One additional finding from the study is that 3D Tours are gaining traction in the Single Family Rental Marketing space. In 2021, in Maricopa County (Phoenix, AZ), 3% of all available Single Family Rental Homes used a 3D tour to market. In 2022, that number has more than doubled to 8%. Here is the current 3D Tour concentration of each market
in the study:
% of all available Single-Family Home Rentals that have a 3D tour
San Antonio, TX — 15%
Charlotte, NC — 12%
Phoenix, AZ — 8%
Dallas, TX — 6%
Method
We tracked 233 properties across four markets: Charlotte, NC, Dallas, TX, Phoenix, AZ, and San Antonio, TX. We created a test group in each market by adding a Matterport 3D Tour on approximately half the properties in each market, and compared that to a control group (the other half) that received the normal marketing services from Sparrow’s existing solution. We created this test group and tracked the properties from January 10, 2022 to March 23, 2022.
