The gap in the market is hiding in the adoption numbers
Drone footage stopped being a differentiator a while ago. In NAR's 2025 REALTORS Technology Survey, based on 1,241 responses collected in July 2025, 75% of agents said they use drone photography or video. The aerial shot is now table stakes, and the buyer scrolling your listing has seen a hundred of them.
The same survey found only 38% use virtual tours.
That is a wide gap for a format buyers keep asking for. Zillow's research found 61% of buyers wish more listings included 3D tours, and on Zillow's own platform, listings with a 3D Home tour received on average 37% more views than listings without one and sold roughly 14% faster. Nearly two-thirds of agents are still not offering the thing a majority of buyers say they want.
Which brings us to what a Matterport photographer actually does, and whether it earns the line item.
What a Matterport photographer does that a regular photographer doesn't
A standard listing shoot produces twenty-five to forty stills. A Matterport photographer produces those plus a navigable digital twin: a 3D model a buyer can walk through, room to room, at their own pace, on their phone at 11pm.
The capture works differently. The camera goes on a tripod and takes a full 360-degree scan with depth data at each position, then moves. Matterport's own guidance is to keep positions five to eight feet apart with line of sight to the previous one, spread in an even grid across the property. Those scans stitch into a single model that also yields a floor plan and a dollhouse view of the whole building. On a three-bedroom house that grid works out to dozens of positions, and it adds roughly an hour to a shoot day.
The practical implications are worth knowing before you book. The property has to be fully prepped before scanning starts, because a scan cannot be spot-fixed the way a single frame can. Mirrors, glass, and strong direct sunlight cause artifacts. And the model captures everything, so anything you would have kept out of frame in a still is now something a buyer can walk up to and inspect.
That last point is a feature, not a bug. The tour is doing the work of a first showing.
The listing data behind it
Matterport's own analysis of 143,575 listings between November 2016 and November 2019, of which 3,935 had 3D tours, found those listings closed at 4 to 9% higher sale prices depending on the market and up to 31% faster in the South. A separate comparative study of 700 listings in a Southern metro, half with Matterport and half without, found the 3D-tour listings sold 20% faster and for 4.8% more.
Two caveats worth carrying. This is vendor-published research, and listings with 3D tours skew toward agents and properties that invest more across the board, so some of the lift belongs to that rather than to the scan itself. The direction is consistent across independent platforms, though. Zillow's platform data points the same way, and our own look at how professional real estate photography helps homes sell 32% faster found a similar pattern for stills.
The format has also stopped being a bet. CoStar Group completed its acquisition of Matterport in February 2025, by which point Matterport had digitised over 14 million spaces and 50 billion square feet across 177 countries. This is infrastructure now, not an experiment. Our piece on the rise of virtual tours for real estate traces how that shift happened.
Booking one without starting a new search in every market
For a single listing, finding a local Matterport photographer is a search and a few emails. For an agent running listings across a metro, or a brokerage covering several, it becomes a recurring tax: a new shooter per area, a new rate, a new turnaround promise, and galleries that do not match from one listing to the next.
Snappr's real estate coverage delivers publish-ready photos, video, or virtual tours from one booking, across regions, for single listings and multi-market volume alike. That removes the two-vendor, two-calendar problem on any listing that needs both stills and a tour. Our 2026 guide to automating property photos and virtual tours covers the workflow side for teams running volume.
For a single listing going live, booking is the easy part: Snappr takes 90 seconds to book, works with as little as twenty-four hours' notice, and delivers edited photos within 48 hours. Book a shoot and pick your date.
Frequently asked questions
What does a Matterport photographer do?
A Matterport photographer scans a property with a 3D camera from multiple positions to build a navigable digital twin, usually delivering standard listing stills from the same visit. The output includes a walkthrough tour, a dollhouse view of the whole property, and an automatically generated floor plan.
How much does a Matterport photographer cost?
Pricing usually runs per square foot or as a flat rate by property size, and is quoted separately from or bundled with standard listing photography. Larger properties cost more because they need more scan positions. Booking stills and the 3D scan together in one visit is generally cheaper than two separate shoots.
How long does a Matterport scan take?
Plan for about an hour on a typical three-bedroom home. Matterport advises spacing scan positions five to eight feet apart in an even grid, so the count rises with square footage, and larger or multi-level properties can take two to three hours. The property needs to be fully staged and prepped before scanning begins, since scans cannot be spot-corrected afterwards.
Do 3D tours actually help a listing sell?
Matterport's analysis of 143,575 listings found 3D-tour listings closed at 4 to 9% higher prices and up to 31% faster, and Zillow reports listings with a 3D Home tour get about 37% more views. Some of that lift reflects the kind of agent who invests in a tour, but the direction is consistent across independent platforms.
Can I do a Matterport scan myself?
Matterport says it works with a range of 3D cameras, 360 cameras, and iPhones, so a self-scan is possible. The difference shows up in scan positioning, lighting consistency, and how clean the final model is, which is the same reason most agents hire out stills rather than shooting listings on a phone.
Sources
1. NAR — 2025 REALTORS Technology Survey — 1,241 responses, July 2025; 75% use drone photography, 38% use virtual tours
2. Zillow — How Virtual Tours Can Help Your Home Sell Faster — 3D Home listings get 37% more views and sell 14% faster; 61% of buyers want more 3D tours
3. Matterport — With 3D Tours, properties sell up to 31% faster and at a higher price — 143,575-listing analysis and 700-listing comparative study
4. CoStar Group — CoStar Group Completes Acquisition of Matterport, February 2025 — 14 million spaces and 50 billion square feet digitised across 177 countries
5. Matterport Support — What is the Ideal Distance Between Scans? — five to eight feet between scan positions, line of sight, even grid
6. Matterport — Cameras — supported capture devices include 3D cameras, 360 cameras, and iPhones
