On Thursday, August 2nd, at Inman Real Estate Connect, Coldwell Banker announced the first real life listing to be marketed for sale via Second Life, an online, internet based three-dimensional alternate world created by Linden Labs of San Francisco. The 3.1 million dollar home, a new custom home on tony Mercer Island near Seattle, WA was built to scale according to the real life architectural floorplan. Located at 9215 SE 33rd St, the nwmls listing (#27053398) features pictures from its Second Life replica among real life pictures.
Charlie Young, senior vice president of marketing for Coldwell Banker, said in an ActiveRain RainTV interview Thursday that he did not foresee Coldwell Banker rolling out Second Life house replication features as a routine advertising tool for listings in the near future due to feasibility and scalability costs. Young sees virtual and 3D replication as a medium that may one day be the norm.
Designed by Code4Software, the virtual Second Life property has had 3385 unique visitors to date (as of 8:17 pm PST, August 4th). It is located in the southen continent of SL near its western coast.
Second life street address: Ranchero lot 28, Ranchero (56, 137, 40)
Alternatively, you can search for "Coldwell Banker Headquarters - Ranchero" in the search function once you login to Second Life and teleport from the listing sign directly to the property.
Third option, direct link to listing in Second Life:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Ranchero/57/137/40
(Please note, to successfully operate Second Life you must download Second Life software to your PC/Mac. Certain minimum computer capabilities apply. For particulars, go to SecondLife.com)
Other involvement in Second Life echoes Coldwell Banker's commitment to affordable housing. Coldwell Banker has bought SL land, "developed" it and built virtual homes, which it sells to Second Life buyers who meet certain criteria. For those of you squinting your noses, land in SL has gone from affordable for most people to cost-prohibitive instead. My own land has more than quadrupled in price since my original purchase, less than a year ago.
Cool post Sara. I didn't know you could take screenshots from within SecondLife. Our land has quadrupled? Lets sell!!!
On another note, I am not too thrilled about this marketing gimmick. Does anyone really care about a house on SecondLife. How is it going to help sell a home? I like the idea of stodgy real estate companies pushing the envelope but would like to see them do it in a more relevent way.
Jonathan dear,
You try being over 100 years old and not being stodgy. ;)
Part of being relevant correlates to the business model you're committed to and the real estate strategy you think is the wisest. Being a rooted company, technological innovation may be more difficult to implement than a quick-on-your-feet younger or smaller company. On another note, Second Life does have 8.6 million users, so it doesn't seem like such a bad strategy to me.
Interesting technology, Sara - thanks for sharing! Will be curious to see where it goes. The need to download the software, to me, seems at this time to limit it's applicability.
Jeff
Hi Dawn!
Brian, that'll be quite a few monopoly boxes you'll have to buy to come up with that much cash...
Hi Jeff!
Downloading software is a drawback if viewing an MLS listing is the only reason a visitor patronizes Second Life.
The size of a virtual world like Second Life makes it impossible to operate merely on RAM (short term memory)... It's applicability isn't so much in non-Second-Lifers logging in to check a few things out, its value lies with the current 8.6 millions users to date. (When I joined last summer, Second Life had 600,000 users...) Second Life is very much an interactive world similar to real life. Products are bought and sold like real life, real estate sales thrive (although on a much smaller dollar scale), and there are distinct social and cultural communities as exist in real life. The draw to Second Life and the move to download software isn't about viewing a real life listing, it's the Second Life culture and social opportunities in themselves. Meaning, Coldwell Banker is likely not concerned with bringing new users to Second Life, but with reaching those people already using Second Life and those people who are likely to participate in it.
Missy, it takes a while to get used to how the controls move. It was probably worse for me, because I skipped "Help Island" where newbies can learn how to maneuver around.
Bryant, yes, soon we may be meeting and doing business with people all over the world in virtual 3D formats. Many large companies already hold cross-border meetings in Second Life. Second Life also rolled over voice-over options, so that users can speak with each other in Second Life just as in real life.
Brian B,
No time? LOL Second Life can take a long time to get up in running, regarding figuring everything out. I also have a time problem in that regard. I participate in Second Life to attend Philosophy group discussions, but I am missing more meetings than attending, heheheh.
Sara,
thank you for taking the time to read my Second Life blog and leaving a fantastic comment. I did not read this blog (obviously) before I wrote mine. I have added an edit with a link to this blog.
In my virtual world, there will be no shortage of qualified buyers and every client will have fabulous sense of humor. They will also take me to five star lunches that have no calories....
I signed up for Second Life a year ago, traded some real dollars for Linden funds...and was promptly pulled from the virtual world by demands from the real one.
Now that is a huge listing on Second Life...is a license required to sell real estate on SL or just the know how? I've got a profile but havent done much that that.
LOL Roberta! Second Life is great, but there's no time! Good to hear Real Life demands are keeping you busy :)
Toby, no license at all required. But there's no MLS, so to operate as an SL Agent you are forced to stay on top of market conditions either by "previewing" a lot of properties regularly and by tracking homes currently on the market listed for sale. As far as what they go for, sales prices are not recorded, but most SLers will be kind enough to tell you what they paid if you just ask. (Most may not remember precisely, so you may get a rough estimate). From my own experience, it seems either that agents price land exorbitantly high and then are willing to negotiate down (by about 20-30%) or that they price it just where they want it and won't negotiate one Linden (that's SL currency for dollar. Linden to Dollar exchange rate as of today is $1 US = 186 Linden).
However, most of what I've seen regarding real estate agents in SL is that they are more of property flippers... they'll buy something for a good price and flip it at a higher price. Some make a killing that can be measured in real US dollars. Second Lifer Ansche Chung was rumored a while ago (also appeared in real life press) to be netting several hundred thousand a year US from Second Life business operations as a real estate agent...