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Show Summary
In this episode, Dylan Silver interviews Rowdy Andrews from The View Pro, a rendering studio specializing in architectural visualization. They discuss the various aspects of digital rendering, including its applications in real estate marketing, investor engagement, and the importance of high-quality visuals. Rowdy explains the different types of rendering techniques, such as static images, videos, and interactive content, and how these can be utilized to create a digital twin of a project. The conversation also touches on notable projects and the differences in construction and rendering quality between the US and international markets.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Rowdy (00:00)
we have artists that are dedicated to taking that model and making it very, very high quality, what we would call hyper realistic. And now you have something to showcase to investors that looks good. And when you’re actually submitting like some sort of a, some sort of a deck to these investors with high quality images or even motion content and virtual tour content.Dylan Silver (00:00)
it.Okay.
Rowdy (00:25)
they’re definitely more likely to put up some money for something like that rather than a pastel-like looking image where you’re selling almost a dream.Dylan Silver (02:05)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest, Rowdy Andrews, is with the rendering studio, The View Pro, based out of Austin. They’re a residential and commercial professional rendering studio. Rowdy, welcome to the show.Rowdy (02:23)
Thank you, sir. It’s an honor. Like I was saying beforehand, you guys have built an awesome platform, ⁓ tons of subscribers. The amount of content you guys put out is incredible. So it’s an honor to be here. I appreciate it.Dylan Silver (02:34)
It’s great to have you on. This is gonna be an interesting episode for me. And then I think probably one of the first, if not the first one that we’ve done with someone in the space that you’re in. For folks who may be unaware, what is the rendering space when you’re talking about a rendering studio? What is the bandwidth that’s covered within this space?Rowdy (03:00)
The possibilities are almost endless. I’ll be straight up with you. Our focus is primarily architectural visualization. So working with high-end condominium projects, luxury apartment lease-ups, single-family residential. We also do some e-commerce stuff as well. We work with furniture companies directly where they basically just use us to create 3D models of their furniture line. And so the, the possibilities, the capabilities as faras renderings go are just about endless.
Dylan Silver (03:29)
Now, when we talk about digital rendering, are we strictly talking about video? Are we talking about video and photo? Are we talking about a combination? Is this a 3D walkthrough? Is it a mix of everything? Is it specific to each project?Rowdy (03:44)
Yeah, great question. So essentially the best way that I would think about it is we are creating a digital model of Whatever it is that we need to be creating whether it’s a large apartment community condo project Furniture pieces. We are literally just creating a digital twin of thatAnd there’s essentially three different avenues that we can create with that digital twin. You have static content, which is just be a still rendering. Like you would see if you’re driving past a new construction project with cranes in the air, you’re going to see signage probably across the border on the fence of a static rendering for that project that is being constructed on. Another one is video content.
So taking that static image and actually creating video with it, incorporating people, pets, time lapses, trees moving, clouds moving, etc. And then the third thing would be interactive content like you alluded to. So interactive content would essentially be going into the space, whether it’s VR with goggles on or just doing it on a computer. Just about everybody is familiar with like a Matterport. Matterport is almost like the Kleenex of the virtual tour space. So
that sense it’s essentially a digital Matterport of the building that is being constructed.
Dylan Silver (05:50)
Now when we’re talking about rendering, what comes to mind for me as a real estate agent based in Texas is new construction. I’m thinking about a developer coming in and maybe saying, hey, these are the apartments or this is the flex use commercial and this is what it’s going to look like and this is the model. And now with how advanced this can be, it’ll look, I can imagine almostlike it would look as it is, it is finished. Is that the primary use case or are people also reaching out in many cases for uh an already finished build and they would like a specific digital makeup of it?
Rowdy (06:31)
Yeah, so great question. So yes, there are definitely people who utilize this for fully constructed projects, but it’s usually because they’re going to do large-scale renovations.And so if there is a building that is constructed, we can definitely come in or another rendering studio can definitely use what’s already constructed and then kind of tweak it and create a digital twin with the updates that are being made. As long as there’s construction drawings, ID sets, that sort of thing, we can basically create whatever it is that you guys need to. The main use cases for the architectural side, for the actual real estate side of things, the use cases are going
to be one just brand awareness. So getting things out there whenever they just immediately finally start site work. So as soon as you start site work on a large-scale construction project, you’re probably looking at at least a two-year timeline before you actually get a finished project, right?
Creating some sort of brand awareness for that project is very, very important, not just for marketing purposes on that individual project, but just from a branding perspective for the development team that’s involved, for the property management team that’s involved, for the investors that have put millions and millions of dollars into the project. They probably want to see some sort of a digital twin or representation for what it is that they’re actually funding. So the use cases are
Endless but as you walk down that pipeline or that conveyor belt of products that are being delivered usually what you’re gonna start with at the beginning is Something like what I would call a 50 % CD rendering So usually at that 50 % mark of getting construction drawings finalized You want to try and get some sort of an immediate feedback from what it is that you have already designed You’ve spent tons of effort and time with your architect. You want to see what it is
Dylan Silver (08:00)
Okay. ⁓Thank
Thank
Thank
it. ⁓
Rowdy (08:29)
that you guys have been working on for that period of time. Even if you don’t have 100 % CD, if there’s still lapses in your landscaping, maybe your electrical plans on the exterior, you’re still able to see a lot of the stuff that’s already been finalized. And if you need to make tweaks, you can make tweaks. But a lot of times people don’t fully get a high quality representation of what they’ve spent hours and hours working on up to that point.Dylan Silver (08:34)
Thank you.Thank
Rowdy (08:54)
Then as you work down the line, you’re going to start getting interior stuff finalized. You’re going to start getting your interior design team on board. They’re going to start looking at furniture pieces and decor that are going to go inside of the lobby and all of the interior amenity spaces in your pool, et cetera. So that’s when you start getting to the point where you’re almost building out the entire community from scratch in digital form. And again, it’s almost an immediate feedback loop for your interior design team.Dylan Silver (08:59)
Okay.Rowdy (09:23)
your development team, your architects, and then simultaneously you can use that for marketing purposes. And so the people that are in the space that are doing it the best, I’ll just say on the lease upside of things, so rental communities.Dylan Silver (09:26)
it. ⁓Rowdy (10:12)
They are the ones who are getting content out for properties 12 to 18 months in advance. So you should have some social media pages up. You should have a splash page up with whatever content you’ve created up to that point. You can always swap stuff in and out on that website if there’s tweaks to the if there’s a tweaks to the exterior or the interior.And then as you move down the line, you’re going to start building out more and more of that community. And all the way through that cycle, you’ve probably had a website, you’ve had QR codes that have been put on the construction signage of the building. You’ve done all of these probably like in person around the community events that have generated interest and website leads. And you’re going to start building basically a pipeline with your basic CRM and those early stages. We call it an interest
Dylan Silver (10:37)
Thank ⁓Rowdy (11:01)
list. You want as many people on that interest list as possible. And then when you get to the point where you’re ready to start what we would consider pre-leasing, pre-leasing typically starts anywhere from three to six months in advance. So if there’s an in-house property management team, they’re usually on board about six months in advance. Sometimes they’re working directly out of a trailer that’s on site. And so it’s difficult to go into a trailer and sell a niceDylan Silver (11:25)
Good.Rowdy (11:29)
apartment unit when there’s really nothing else to go off of other than the trailer that you’re inside of and the construction crew that’s working directly outside.Dylan Silver (11:35)
it.Yep.
Rowdy (11:40)
You need some sort of a high quality feedback for them to go in, whether it’s VR or just showing them on a touch screen or something, what it is that they’re actually investing in. And then when you open doors, ideally you have a large chunk of people that are ready to move into that building.and anybody that is ahead in bed at the very beginning of a lease up is money in your pocket and it’s not money that you’re missing out on because everything else from there on out if you don’t have somebody in a unit obviously it’s costing you money. Condominiums are whole different beast. Condominiums a lot of times have to sell at least 50 % of their units before they can even break ground.
Dylan Silver (12:01)
Thank ⁓Thanks. ⁓
Thank
Rowdy (12:24)
which is a very difficult task. If you’re selling a $2 million unit in downtown Miami, you’ve got to sell a lot of those and you’ve got to get a ton of deposits down before you’re even allowed to go and break ground on the thing. So your visualization has to be up to par, if not better than everybody else that’s doing it down in downtown Miami.Dylan Silver (12:46)
Do you have any interest from folks or are you seeing interest emerge from folks who may be in the real estate syndication space on perhaps the commercial side? They’re taking on investors and looking at doing commercial flips, whether that’s in commercial residential apartment complexes or maybe flex use commercial.Rowdy (13:10)
Yes, absolutely. You need something to showcase to your investors. So a lot of times what people are doing and it’s slightly unfortunate and it’s no it’s no fault on the architects for this. They’re just doing what they’re capable of at the moment without getting too cost-extensive. But basically what a lot of people are doing is when they get to some sort of an idea or plan on what it is that they want to build. You have to go out and now pitch this to a lot of investors with a lot of cash.you’re asking them to basically give you enough money to get this thing moving and off the ground and these architects are using what I would call a Revit model generated rendering. So if you’ve ever seen online some sort of a rendering and let’s say it’s like a
Probably a promo or some sort of article that was sent out discussing approval on a project in downtown Charlotte
The rendering that’s on that page is going to be very pastel-like. The people do not look realistic. The cars do not look realistic. The landscaping is dull. Those are typically pulled directly from a Revit model. And Revit is usually what the architects are using as their uh for designing the property. Revit is very limited on what it’s capable of doing in terms of creating a high-quality image.
Revit is there to taste to test the integrity of the structure, to actually design and then basically extrapolate construction drawings from that model. It’s not there as a visualization tool. To take the next step to create a high quality image, we can take everything from that Revit model.
Dylan Silver (15:23)
ThankRowdy (15:41)
And thenwe have artists that are dedicated to taking that model and making it very, very high quality, what we would call hyper realistic. And now you have something to showcase to investors that looks good. And when you’re actually submitting like some sort of a, some sort of a deck to these investors with high quality images or even motion content and virtual tour content.
Dylan Silver (15:42)
it.Okay.
Rowdy (16:06)
they’re definitely more likely to put up some money for something like that rather than a pastel-like looking image where you’re selling almost a dream.Dylan Silver (16:15)
properties or or commercial deals that we might be aware of that have used the ViewPro, either in a greater Austin area or across the board, something that folks might be able to resonate with.Rowdy (16:29)
I’ll tell you onegroup that we work with quite often. There’s two groups that we work with quite often that people are probably familiar with. They might not know the name right off the top of their head, but they would definitely know a lot of the buildings that go up and they’re not US based. So they’re based in the UAE. So if you know the Burj Khalifa, the Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world. That was developed by a company called EMAAR E-M-A-A-R. ⁓
We work with them quite often on a lot of their developments that are overseas in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Another group is called Eagle Hills. Eagle Hills has a massive, massive mixed use project. And I encourage people to go look it up. It’s in Latvia and it is, it’s called Riga waterfront and it’s an unbelievable project. Eagle Hills is based out of Abu Dhabi. The stuff that they’re building over there is wild compared to what it is that we’re building over here man.
I would highly recommend definitely checking out some of their stuff. Are US builds pale in comparison to some of the stuff that they’re building over there?
Dylan Silver (17:36)
Hey, it doesn’t shock me. I, I live abroad and I’ve seen on some level, I haven’t seen the, the skill that you’re talking about, but I’ve seen just construction in the US is different in so many ways. We are coming up on on time here though, Rowdy. Where can folks go to reach out to yourself or how can folks reach out to the ViewPro?Rowdy (17:55)
Yeah, so I would first just go to theviewpro.com. That’s our direct website. You can submit a contact form on there if you’re interested in anything or um extending this conversation. My email is rowdy @ theviewpro.com, R-O-W-D-Y. And yeah, you’re hearing that correctly. That is the name, R-O-W-D-Y. If you want to take a look at…a mock property website the view property .com is a mock property that we have built from scratch we basically placed it in downtown Austin where our us is headquartered and It’s a property that doesn’t exist It won’t ever exist but I use it for demo purposes because everything on there is something that we are capable of and really it showcases the quality and the capabilities in terms of technology that we can do
Dylan Silver (18:45)
Rowdy, thank you so much for coming on the show here today.Rowdy (18:48)
Dylan, I appreciate it, man. This is awesome.
