Brian Shuster built a mini empire developing internet marketing tools, and now the one-time Silicon Valley player is based in Vancouver and looking to capitalize on the city’s extreme real estate obsession.
Mr. Shuster is famous for creating those irritating old pop-up ads that made internet surfing an obstacle course, but he says he also invented banner advertising as a business model. Early on, he also carved out a lucrative career in the adult entertainment business, as a porn webmaster. For the last few years, he’s been focusing on 3-D internet worlds, such as social networking game Virtual Vancouver — which looks like a world of beautiful people. The social networking game has users attending simultaneous real-time art gallery openings, concerts and comedy shows. Mr. Shuster sees the 3-D virtual cyberspace as the future of the internet, and real estate is a “killer app” for it.
“I am largely credited with building a lot of foundational elements that the flat web works on, and I have dozens of patents on those pieces too from many years ago,” says Mr. Shuster. “For a long time I’ve dreamed of how the next version of the internet would really work. So this has been very exciting, but it’s all been done because of my past successes contributing to this project.”
The web developer, marketer and CEO of Utherverse has trained his high-tech sites on Vancouver’s often lucrative real estate market. This month, Mr. Shuster launched virtual house tours so that potential buyers can examine a house on the market without having to actually step foot inside it. If successful, it might save buyers time and realtors money because it would lessen time spent driving potential buyers around on house tours. It is also available to non-realtors — homeowners who’d simply like to have their home made into an online facsimile, accessible through a website. Users will soon be able to “prop edit” furniture in rooms and change paint colour, also making it useful for interior decorating. Anyone who’s ever used an avatar in a virtual world game like Second Life will understand the look and feel of Utherverse’s home tours.
“From the home buyer’s standpoint, there’s no longer the frustration of being taken out to a house and rolling your eyes at the realtor after the 20th time, and saying, ‘Ok, let me explain this to you again. I need a workable office space. Don’t show me houses that have a closet for a work space,’” says Mr. Shuster.
Downtown Vancouver realtor Paul Albrighton held the first virtual open house earlier this month for Mr. Shuster. One of his clients also happened to be a manager for Utherverse, and the connection was made. As the inaugural tester for the service, Mr. Albrighton was waived the $300 to $400 fee that Utherverse will charge to build a virtual 1,500 sq. ft. space.
“They noticed that I do a lot of business online — it’s probably 60 per cent of my business,” says Mr. Albrighton, who specializes in marketing lofts. He also maintains a website as a loft listing service.
For Mr. Shuster’s 3-D home tour project, he chose a 1,355 sq. ft. loft that is listed at $1.099 million. It is available for viewing with the downloading of free 3-D software available on his website.
“I guess the key is that the user is in control,” says Mr. Albrighton. “With the normal video tour, you have either a panorama shot around the house or suite and you scroll left or right. It’s like a camera with a really wide picture.
“With this, you get a better feel of how the space feels. You can sit down and get a feeling of perspective like ceiling height…it’s almost like a video game.”
Ravi Benjamin
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