In the previous blog entry, we went over some of the differences between a Zillow 3D virtual tour and a Matterport virtual tour. To conclude this three part series, the third and final reason why a Matterport tour isn’t ideal for most residential real estate listings is it's near inability to shoot outdoor spaces. They can be done, but not without serious drawbacks. The following are excerpts from their own official Youtube channel in 2021.

"While outdoor scanning is not an officially supported feature, your camera can still scan high-quality outdoor spaces with a few tips and tricks. Saving the outdoor scans to the end, reduces the chance of alignment issues with the indoor scans. The third thing is to scan when the sun is below the horizon. This is right before sunrise or just after sunset, when there is still enough light to see the environment, but not too much ambient infrared light to interfere with the camera sensors. And finally, whenever you scan outdoors, pay extra close attention to how scans are aligned in capture. After every scan, look at the capture app to make sure the scan was aligned or placed in the correct position in the mini-map. If it was incorrectly placed, then delete the bad scan, move closer to a properly positioned scan and try again, and remember to shorten the distance between outdoor scan positions. This too will help minimize the risk of misalignment".

This is a deal breaker for for the type of client who would request a virtual tour to begin with. Most homes who can greatly benefit from a virtual tour, likely have a beautiful outdoor space they want to show in 360 degrees. Most other tour providers, even Zillow, can easily capture outdoor spaces. There are no image alignments to check and no time restrictions on when the outdoor space can be captured. Granted, twilight hour can provide fantastic results, but those opportunities are hard to schedule.

When it comes to offering a 3D virtual tour in the residential real estate photography space, the king isn’t Matterport for all the reasons I’ve highlighted in this and the past blog. In image quality, they’re king sure. But in all the other areas, they fall behind especially when cost is factored.

All that being said, Matterport and other providers do have advantages over Zillow in the commercial and luxury space. For example, if a space is not for sale then a Zillow 3D tour wouldn't be ideal since the tour would be branded and very clearly hosted in Zillow. Using other tour platforms can also be more aesthetically pleasing and customized to the taste of the client. The same goes with commercial real estate as those listings are not in Zillow. In the next blog, we’ll go over the reasons not to choose a Zillow virtual tour.