After having used iGuide for a month now, I am curious about some of your opinions as long time operators or perhaps new and curious/at the moment slightly frustrated users, like myself.
Planix Pro costs thousands of dollars, and involves the camera operator having to manually align data with a desktop application, to then later be billed on an expensive sliding scale to create floor plans that we have already created 90% of the way ourselves.
If you want a few toilets, it’s not just an add-on…but another sliding scale. “The drafters have to click on the Pano’s to see where to draw the toilets.” Don’t they already look at that Pano’s when creating the floor plans?
Cubicasa has a flat-fee fixture add-on, and uses LiDAR as well.
Is there the option for us to create our own floor plan in Stitch? We’re aligning, editing panos…surely an update could be made to create a floor plan?
We have the data. It’s there. Why are we paying someone else to process it, if I already can myself.
Matterport is a one-click submission. Floor plans are $20.
The cost of a MP subscription for 40 houses, to then print out a floor plan & cancel the matterport, is still cheaper than it is for Planitar to process a single iGuide.
I never understood why people buy into these systems just to complain about the business model.
Not just with iguide but happens with their competitor all the time. people complain about pricing.
here’s an alternative… go out and get a $20k-80k lidar scanner (leica, faro, trimble, navvis, etc), get the data… drop it into Revit and draw your own floorlpans.
i’ve never had one issue paying iGuide (or their competitor) to throw together a 3D tour and floorplan… Why? because i’m more useful selling my services than wasting time behind a screen drawing walls and toilets. with iGuide i’ve scanned everything from 800 sq ft apartments to 50k+ sq ft warehouses. I would never want to take the time to deal with data files, revit, drafting, etc.
and for what it’s worth, Matterport isn’t Ansi complaint… Matterport now uses 4+ companies to draw their floorplans leading to huge inconsistencies.
no one forced anyone to buy an iguide (or their competitor)… the exit door is to the left.
You’ve never understood why someone would invest time into something to try it out, use real world experience, and ask for comparisons with legitimate reasoning?
I missed the part where you were asking for comparisons?
When I want to test drive products I rent them… I wouldn’t rent a Cadillac, find something I didn’t like about it then get on Cadillac’s website to complain about it, then reference a Ford product. what good does that do? maybe an alternative could be to say “hey iGuide, how about a feature request, allow us access to so we can process our own floorplans”.
by the way… you can export a dxf file from iguide and from my little knowledge of it because I don’t draft floorplans, you should be able to import that into revit or design builder, etc and make your own floorplans.
I missed the part where Planitar opened up a Planix Pro dealership in my city to rent or test drive the system out with real-world clientelle before buying it. We are also not provided access to this forum until after we purchase the product.
Furthermore, my thoughts on iGuide before and after purchasing have changed. That happens. You make it seem like I did zero research before spending capital from my business.
I also have suggested improvements, and have been met with zero interest from Planitar, hence my quote as to their reply for the difference in adding a kitchen cabinet into a floor plan.
I realize you can export (and even host) your own iGuide with the information in the files.
It’s the same thing with our Real Estate clients. Many could do all of the stuff we do themselves. But floorpans, measurements, photos, etc aren’t a revenue generating activity for them. Those services can be outsourced to someone who can do it better. Agents pay us so they can work on getting more business.
The same is true with Plantar. You’re paying for a partner to help your business scale. The quality of service continues to get better over time. I have numerous times been happily surprised with the support I have received over the years.
Price is what you pay, value is what you get - I’ve used other competing products/service and the quality of their service - I’m mainly talking support here - generally go down with time. That is not the type of partner I want to hitch my side car to.
Please elaborate on the “met with zero interest” feature requests/enhancements take a long time to develop and have to be weighed with value, demand, etc. I’d love for a company to take what I want and have it developed/released in weeks/months but that isn’t the case in software development.
Try taking a dxf file from a tour and generating a floorplan from it… post your results in the forum and let us know how much time it took you to do it. speaking for myself, I don’t have time to draw walls/fixed furniture. out of 500+ tours i’ve processed with iguide i’ve never ordered anything other than their premium tour because my agents wouldn’t find walls only helpful when marketing a property. If it took me 20 min to draft a floorplan and i’ve done 500+ tours that’s over 166 hours of drafting. i’m more valuable to my company in spending that time selling services, marketing, etc.
I have been using my system now for just over a year and honestly I make it as simple as I can and not try to dig deep and change things. It does exactly what I need it to. Virtual Tour and floorplans. I haven’t even updated the firmware for the past 6 months as it has been working flawlessly for me.
I mean ya sometimes I think their pricing is a bit high but I mean I go in to the home, do my tour in about 15 minutes avg., go back to the office and upload my files and get the full package back. I even stopped trying to mess with editing the panos as they are all good enough for the listings.
I like it It works, I am happy and so are my clients.
I wholeheartedly agree with the way this conversation is going. We have been planitar users since 2017. We have grown from 1 camera to 8 cameras.
In that time the system and software has continued to grow and mostly improve. The useability has improved considerably.
Overall Planitar does listen and make changes, but they are not going to make a change that 1 person or even 10 people ask for. If you have a ‘great’ idea, absolutely bring it up to the support channel, but try to get a groundswell from fellow users. They will give the suggestion much more weight if 100 operators are requesting it.
Also - don’t fill the forum with inflammatory and wrong claims! I know you apologized after saying something that was completely wrong, but you need to take the time to verify something before complaining about it. This is supposed to be a community where people help each other, and I do see lots of the seasoned operators who do exactly that.
Finally - while we’re on the topic of pricing, if you’re going to compare products, please compare everything. Here are a few questions:
1:When you produce a matterport how long is it hosted for before you or the client needs to pay more
2: Can you self host a matterport tour on any server or site that you choose to?
There are more, but I don’t want to be inflammatory or expand on this thread more than this.
The bottom line is we can all make a good income when our business model works with the costs that we have to pay.
Cubicasa is a flat fee and is about as accurate and consistent as a doughnut trying to draw a picture of a kayak. Matterport is one-click AFTER spending hours walking three feet, everywhere, and dealing with misalignments and exquisitely painful bureaucratic burdens like, oh I don’t know, how do I know if any of my 25 hosted homes are sold? There’s also the small matter of the subject home looking like a bomb went off as a first impression. Yay destroyed home!
I’ve used all of them (plus many more) and to answer your question, I am paying for: a) Scanning a home in 15 or 20 minutes, b) Believing the measurements, c) Publishing to my clients the same night, and d) Making a s&*t ton of money, fast, with very little effort on my part.
Yah, it’s pricey. So charge accordingly. Why can’t we publish in Stitch? Dunno, but if IG were MY company, I’d be spending cash developing AI-powered nearly instant processing. Oh wait… they have - looking at you, new ‘iGuide Preview Option’ that’s not quite ready for prime time but holds promise.
100% this. There are many of us making good livings shooting iGuides for clients.
I would rather key vendors that we rely on (i.e. Planitar) have sustainable, profitable business models that allow them to invest in new technology and services, which we, in turn, we benefit from. Just like Planitar has been doing.
Let’s welcome the newbie iGuide operator and encourage him to holster the cowboy attitude.
Thanks for that Leroy!! I agree 100%, wasting energy on procrastinating will bring your business down. Get out there and hustle! We even have a booth at the local Home Show next weekend to showcase our as built flooplans! This will also be a reverse show for us as I will be tackling vendors booths (realtors, contractors etc…) to show them what we do! https://www.measuremyspace.com/
This! Splitting hairs about pricing here doesn’t help build your business like providing value for clients, building relationships, venturing into new markets.
This will also be a reverse show for us as I will be tackling vendors booths (realtors, contractors etc…) to show them what we do!
Thank you for all of your comments. After having eaten a snickers bar can respectfully appreciate your insights; I will holster my cowboy attitude from here on out.
I would like to start by acknowledging that my previous comments are certainly disrespectful, and for that, I apologize. My frustration is primarily about the drastic price differences (as billable square footage increases) in standard vs premium floor plans and their pricing tiers, however it should not have been expressed in a manner such as this. It is hard to justify the difference, especially if the amount of toilets, W/D and fixed furniture is the same in a 2 bed condo vs a 6500 billable square foot rural property with a giant, open garage. It is not “splitting hairs” but reaches heights of almost $100 in some instances. This will add up drastically, quickly, for the volume and clientele I service in a 200 agent brokerage when the margins are already so thin as-is in the real estate media industry.
However, I believe that continuing the conversation in a respectful and professional manner would be more productive; It would help us to understand each other’s perspectives and come up with better solutions that could benefit us all.
I hope that we can move forward in a constructive manner and have a fruitful discussion. Thank you.
Hi Sean,
I was watching this thread but was not involved in it, but I want to say that it takes a big person to say what you just said about the tone of your posts.
I hope others will see it that way as well and we can continue with more productive conversations moving forward.
Some of us who are of a certain fine vintage remember those ads.
However, I believe that continuing the conversation in a respectful and professional manner would be more productive; It would help us to understand each other’s perspectives and come up with better solutions that could benefit us all.
Agreed. Although Planitar staff don’t comment on every thread here, they do mention in their webinar series that they monitor for feedback in these forums, so it is worth bringing things up here. There’s also a feature suggestions section of the forum. That’s the place for specific suggestions.
reaches heights of almost $100 in some instances. This will add up drastically, quickly, for the volume and clientele I service in a 200 agent brokerage when the margins are already so thin as-is in the real estate media industry.
You’re right that those numbers are significant. I wonder – and I’m just speculating here – if the AI and machine-based learning that we’re seeing with the virtual tour previews will allow Planitar in the future to provide those premium features at a lower price? We can hope.
Welcome the iGuide community. There are a bunch of us independent operators here who are pretty helpful to each other, both on and off this forum.
It works, I am happy and so are my clients.
Splitting hairs about pricing here doesn’t help build your business like providing value for clients, building relationships, venturing into new markets.