Creig Northrop showcases Matterport in their listings, improving sales transactions by 10%

The Challenge

Elevate marketing strategy with innovative technology, enhance lifestyle branding to motivate prospective buyers, and maintain top leadership position

The Wall Street Journal and Real Trends have named the Creig Northrop Team (CNT) the #1 real estate team in Maryland by transaction volume since 2006, managing well over 1,000 listings per year. The team relies on a strong, differentiated brand associated with tech-forward solutions to retain their leading position in the residential real estate market.

The Creig Northrop Team is constantly hunting for cutting-edge tools that reinforce their lifestyle brand, give sellers the confidence to list with them, and motivate clients to buy.

The Northrop Team was introduced to Matterport in 2015 by top Matterport Service Partner HomeVisit, and they immediately recognized that buyers and sellers would be surprised and delighted at the never- before-seen, immersive 3D experiences. They were eager to include Matterport on 100% of their listings that would benefit from this service, but were unsure how to scale the service quickly across their large listing volume.

Decision Criteria:

• Innovative technology not utilized by competition

• Scalable across high-listing volume

• Reinforce lifestyle marketing

• Compatibility across digital marketing channels

• Enables agents to win more listings and sell homes faster

• Enables buyers to tour homes easily and at their own convenience from remote locations

Much of our success is due to stellar customer service and selling a lifestyle along with the home. With Matterport, we can allow homebuyers to feel like they live in the house before they even set foot inside. It isn't a make-believe thing. We';re adding realism to real estate, and people are making faster decisions about purchasing because of it. - Creig Northrop, The Northrop Team of Long & Foster Real Estate

The Solution

Partner with a Matterport Service Partner

After an extremely positive consumer response to their Matterport pilot, the Northrop Team incorporated Matterport 3D Showcase as a standard part of their marketing offerings and increased their listing capture rate with the Matterport system.

They achieved rapid rollout and scaling across their listings by leveraging their relationship with HomeVisit. HomeVisit now dedicates 3-4 Matterport 3D scan providers daily to shoot new Creig Northrop Team properties, capturing between 18 and 20 properties per week. The Northrop Team also has dedicated professional ASP certified stagers to collaborate with the HomeVisit team, ensuring the highest quality 3D experiences, every time. This entire process is managed by the Creig Northrop Director of Home Marketing, who coordinates the scan requests, schedules the staging and 3D shoots, and QC’s the final product. Once the 3D Showcases are created, they are featured prominently on the Northrop website via an XML database used to query whether a listing has a 3D tour. Thus, they are able to automatically include a 3D button on every listing page where there is an associated 3D Showcase, creating a seamless user experience.

The Results

Sales transactions increased by 10% & demand for 3D tours grows 3X each year

The Creig Northrop Team has experienced an increase in transactions since fully integrating Matterport into their marketing and listing presentations in October 2015. With over 720 3D Showcases created this year alone, they are seeing tremendous growth, with demand for 3D Showcases growing 3x since implementation.

The addition of Matterport has not only drawn in additional business, but it has been defined as a key differentiator between them and their competition.

Key Benefits:

• The 3D immersive experience allows buyers to view multiple homes in minutes

• Focus groups reveal improved visual responses to proprietary Dollhouse view

• Matterport has been a huge selling point in an already expansive listing presentation, which has resulted in an increase of listing transactions

The Creig Northrop Team has seen such a positive response to 3D Showcase that they are now promoting their usage of Matterport across multiple marketing channels, including a broadcast commercial aired locally during the Super Bowl and Monday Night Football. Focus group testing on the commercial confirmed that visual responses shot up significantly during the part of the commercial showing Matterport, confirming that our proprietary Dollhouse view offers a true wow factor for consumers.

I have numerous stories of buyers and sellers who love Matterport. People are better able to appreciate a house when they can visually tour it before the actual showing, therefore boosting excitement and their eagerness to purchase. - Creig Northrop, The Northrop Team of Long & Foster Real Estate

About Creig Northrop

The Creig Northrop Team of Long & Foster Real Estate is ranked as the No. 1 real estate team in Maryland and No. 3 in the nation for all brokerages, by volume and transactions, according to the Wall Street Journal and REAL Trends since 2006. They represent buyers and sellers of residential real estate in the Baltimore and Washington metropolitan regions, with offices in Annapolis, Clarksville, Sykesville, Silver Spring and Lutherville-Timonium. Creig Northrop has more than 25 years of experience in real estate and leads a team of more than 80 full-time real estate professionals. Long & Foster Real Estate is the largest independent residential real estate company in the United States and the No. 1 seller of luxury homes in the Mid-Atlantic region, according to Luxury Portfolio International and Christie’s International Real Estate.