We have reached an era where our technological advancements have made it easier for us to live our daily lives. Technological innovations are happening at a fast pace and are all centered on people’s convenience.
For businesses, it is necessary to keep up with these changes to remain relevant in the market. The ability to adapt and remain flexible to such changes is an essential part of a strategy to compete with other competitors.
This also applies to the real estate industry. As you may have observed, the growth of the internet, mobile and social technology has also empowered the buyers and the sellers. A lot of home buyers usually start their search online and the same goes to people who want to sell their property, sellers can easily post all information including photos onto property web sites.
However, the need for estate agents will remain unchanged as these professionals know the fundamentals of the real estate sector including the primary connections to a network of professionals within the market. Given the ongoing advancements in technology, real estate agents have also learned to adjust and apply these changes. Discussed below are five ways estate agents are also changing because of the advancement in tech:
- Implement marketing campaigns on social media
Today social media plays a big role in marketing and advertising. Digital marketing has been made a lot easier with the help of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and even Snapchat. These social media sites can be used to target posts and ads to certain core demographics.
- Offer “Virtual Viewings”
The use of virtual reality (VR) is becoming more popular to real estate agents. A virtual property tour allows clients to realistically view several homes in one place.
Although a potential buyer will not make any purchase without having to physically visit the property, the use of this technology allows them to:
- Offer clients a 360-degree video in virtual property views.
- Clients can choose their own route to the property and zoom in on its features.
Some Virtual property tours are fully three-dimensional and are compatible with 3D goggles; some are also optimized for computer screens.
- Offer new ways to invest in a property
Crowdfunding online is one example of how estate agents offer to invest in a property and the House Crowd and Property Moose are two such companies. Through crowdfunding online, investors take part ownership on their investment property. Part ownership to properties may open up new sales conversions with buyers.
- Spend more time negotiating and closing deals
The use of the online buyer and seller registrations, email, e-signing services, online personal task lists, and cloud data sharing have greatly helped both ends to efficiently communicate with one another. As a result, it speeds up the process of such negotiation and in closing deals.
- Gain increased insight into the property market and potential clients
Data with regard to market fundamentals, population trends, price performance, employment statistics, traffic, consumer survey results, and property development in an area can all be easily found online. Access to such demographic data opens up a lot of possibilities to real estate agents.
