Commonfloor.com is a website for home seekers and property hunters who are interested in buying some real estate. To make house hunting easier, you no longer need to turn to the broker anymore. But instead, the portal helps you get in touch directly with the seller or builder with almost no middleman involved. All you need to do is register yourself and enter the keywords for your desired property, such as area, size and budget. The list pulls up, and you are set to go. Simply choose the property that seems interested and all details from the area to amenities and the builder or seller’s name and contact details will be listed to you.
Well, this is nothing great since there are many other websites and apps that can do the same job. Most of these websites list out the property and list some photos of the interior and exterior. To get a better feel and view of the apartment, you still need to physically go and have a check yourself. To make things a little more convenient, Commonfloor.com introduced Retina, the next level of house hunting in India. The app is a little different from the regular Commonfloor app, but takes your experience of property visit to a whole new level. Commonfloor Retina has gone virtual 3D, and the app will give you a complete 360-view of almost every room from the property on the list.
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Commonfloor Retina is nothing but a virtual 360-degree enabled app that requires you to view through a pair of 3D virtual reality glasses. The glasses can be purchased online, albeit for a price of Rs 699 from Flipkart. Alternatively, you can buy and use any similar Google Cardboard or virtual reality glasses from the online stores. The virtual reality glasses can be bought for as little as Rs 199 to a whopping Rs 24,000 and all can do the same job. The only difference between them is the quality and material of the frame and glasses.
The Commonfloor Retina glasses are basically identical to the Google Cardboard and are made from good quality cardboard. It incorporates a cushion for the nose area, a pair of lenses and some Velcro for holding the smartphone on the front. The Retina glasses also features a magnet on the left side for making selections within the menu on the screen.
Using the retina glasses with Commonfloor Retina app is simple, but equally painful. The app is not entirely VR based and one needs to select the property from the listing and click on view before placing it in the glasses. When done, you need to exit and remove the smartphone each time and hit the next property you want to view and the procedure needs to be repeated. It would be nice if the app had a complete VR experience with the menus, and others included so that you don’t need to keep removing the smartphone time and again.
Apart from the irritating menu changing and smartphone mounting, once you are within the viewing mode, the experience is overwhelming. You get to see the entire room or property premises in virtual reality. Move your head around, up or down and you can check out the entire property with a 360-degree experience. Look at the doors and click the magnetic switch on the left, and you can enter into the room to see the next area. It is as similar to a virtual gaming or 3D gaming experience. However, there is another issue that we noticed—the viewing area is not complete 180-degrees and the window of the lenses comes in the way, making it a little disturbing. Nevertheless, you will get used to it.
Checking out the property from the comfort of your home or office is a great experience, and Commonfloor is one of the only such online property businesses in the country that brings it to your doorstep. You can check out properties around the country without the need of visiting the premises physically. Make a choice, or a couple of choices and the physically head to the actual site to make your final decision. This will save on time and money for property hunters. Sadly, they should have considered the cost of the VR glasses as they don’t come in as cheap.
On the other hand, the app is a boon to many property sellers and resellers. Employing the VR app mode, property developers can actually create a rendered 360-degree VR view of the property without actually building a demo flat on site. This app helps promote the builder’s property into many cities as opposed to the area where they are developing the property. When the builder in interested in showcasing its property on the Commonfloor app, he is charged according to the area, and the prices can range up to Rs 500,000 per property site. Don’t worry, the charges are not for property hunters—the service is completely free for viewing.
On a last note, though the VR glasses is a great experience for checking out properties without actually visiting the site, do note that the CF Retina glasses are not compatible with all smartphones. Since smartphones vary in sizes, you will have to opt for the one that fits your smartphone size. You can opt for VR glasses from other companies to suit your device.
On the whole, the Commonfloor Retina is a unique way to showcase the property for sellers and buyers. It saves on immense time and money while hunting for a property. It is one of a kind and VR adoption of the property business is a big welcome surprise. VR put to good use. However, though virtual reality is still in an early development stage, this experience is yet to build up to suit the user’s comfort and budget. For now, Commonfloor is the best option for house hunters if you want to virtually visit the site before buying it. Builders, property developers and brokers can also make best use of the app and the VR glasses to showcase their property from their very own premises.
