Langejan is a real estate agency which is established in Kralingen, Rotterdam. In 1867 the company began with buying and selling houses and is nowadays one of the oldest brokerages in the Netherlands. The working area is Rotterdam and they are committed to small and big apartments; family houses; luxury mansions and villas.
For a long time, the real estate market was a highly localized market where people were mostly looking for a house close to work or where they were living. Also the real estate agents had mostly houses or apartments that were close by. But new technologies have created new possibilities.
In order to gain a sustainable competitive advantage, virtual technology can be an interesting opportunity. Virtual reality is immersive multimedia that digitally simulates physical presence in real or imagined worlds, and let the user interact with that world.
IT plays a big role at Langejan. They believe that they’re way ahead of competition in this area. They already use VR goggles for the showing of houses that still have to be built sometimes, but not for houses that already exist. Based on the theory and the conducted survey, it is recommended that the sightings of houses that already exist are also available for VR goggles.
The first motive to introduce the VR technology is that it reduces the time that it requires to do a house sighting. This allows customers to see more houses in less time. Something that could be a great benefit for potential clients that have a busy time schedule. A second motive for VR technology is that a frequently made comment about real estate agents is that it takes a long time to make an appointment with an agent. With the use of VR technology, agents are able to digitally send a virtual tour to clients so that they have already seen some houses before the first meeting. The last argument for the use of VR technology is that agents are able to show clients possible renovations or adjustments on the house.
When looking at technical feasibility the steps that need to be taken are not very rigorous. When the IT structure is adjusted for this software and the website is capable of playing the videos the company will be able to benefit from the technology. And financially we expect the investment could save them up to 38265,80 euros.
In summary we think that the ability of doing house sightings at the office or at home can be seen as an extend of their current business. It is still providing house sightings, but making use of the current development within technology, virtual reality. The transition fits well in the current business, so no drastic changes are needed. The major challenges for Langejan are obtaining the skills for capturing and creating virtual technology content and securing the availability of the content.
