Drones getting buzz in Vancouver’s real estate market
Peter Grainger
Other
Some clever Vancouver realtors are using a high-flying marketing technique that’s taking selling homes to a new level.
Jordan and Russ Macnab are tapping into drone technology to get the upper hand in Canada’s hottest real estate market.
They’re using quad copters to capture bird’s eye views of the properties they sell – and even flying them through homes – to create breathtaking promotional videos.
“We kind of wanted to showcase the properties like Hollywood-style trailers. We just wanted to make them as cool as our properties are that we’re trying to sell,” Jordan said.
The brothers hire a crew to help out with the production of each video, and Russ, the self-described “techie” of the brothers, operates the drone.
“You can use them in apartments and lofts, stuff like that, but where it comes into play is with these big mansions that have awesome yards and huge pools and grand entrances that I can fly through the front door,” he said. “Those are the houses that are gonna stand out and make use of that.”
The Macnabs are able to fly the drones inside the rooms of homes and condos, but must obtain a special permit from Transport Canada every time they use it for commercial purposes.
They’re even required to submit a flight plan of the drone’s path through the homes.
“They don’t want just some random person buying one of these things and flying it into a crowd of people,” Russ said. “They can be dangerous. They spin really fast, you can lose control of them.”
But the red tape is worth it for the brothers, who are breaking into Vancouver’s luxury real estate market with their one-of-a-kind videos. So far, it seems clients love it.
“Right now the buzz is awesome,” Jordan said. “People want their property to have this angle first, so it’s going to be busy. We’re going to be busy.”
Unmanned drones were first developed as military technology, but are increasingly being used for commercial purposes.
Online retailer Amazon.com announced in December it is testing octocopters to deliver packages to customers in as little as 30 minutes, and could see widespread use in four to five years.
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