The Future of Real Estate Technology and How It Will Affect Your Business
The type of real estate business you run will certainly be affected by the upcoming advances in real estate technology, but how can you adapt to these new conditions and how will it ultimately change your workflow?
The real estate industry is one that is often plagued with inefficiencies. This is because there are no real standards when it comes to interacting with clients. Every real estate agent does their own thing; some of them prefer to use technologically-focused solutions while others are focused on interacting with customers directly. The type of real estate business you run will certainly be affected by the upcoming advances in real estate technology, but how can you adapt to these new conditions and how will it ultimately change your workflow?
In this article, we’re going to talk about some of the future real estate technologies that you should look out for.
Extremely Detailed Listings
In the past, listings have often been subjected to the whims of the person writing them. This means that descriptions, measurements and other details are often left out because the person writing the listing either doesn’t have all the details or doesn’t have the tools to show those details. This can include things like accurate measurements of the room, the colors used in the various rooms and also more detailed information such as the maximum internet speeds available on the property.
With so many different things that need to be described, it’s easy to see just how uninformed a buyer can be unless they visit the property themselves. However, with more and more people trusting the internet for fast transactions and deals, a lot of emphases is placed on internet listings especially for things such as rentals. This is because people typically don’t have the time to examine a property thoroughly to see that all of the dimensions are right and that all of the listed details are accurate, especially if they only plan to rent for a short period.
In the future, we’ll see far more emphasis placed on the technology used to get accurate measurements and data on a property in order to create incredibly detailed listings. This accuracy will be valuable especially for short-term rentals and it will also help buyers trust in a real estate agent’s accuracy in terms of their listings.
Real Estate CRM
Something that many businesses do really well is follow-up with their customers. Whether it’s a customer that expressed interest in a product by adding it to their cart or a customer that’s having difficulty with a product, companies are really good at contacting these people again. It could be to sell a new product, it could be to offer a follow-up service or it could be to help them solve an issue; whatever the case may be, businesses outside of the real estate industry are very efficient with their customer relationship management.
However, CRM has only just started to become a huge deal in the real estate industry. This is because more and more real estate agents are starting to see the benefits of keeping their customers in the loop. Even if they think that the customer in question is unlikely to rent or buy a property, there’s a good chance that they might contact their friends and family members or even share it on social media if they’re reminded. This happens on a fairly regular basis; someone will look for a property or rental but ultimately have no need for it and forget it. Once they’re reminded, they might actually share it with friends on social media or let their family know should they need a rental in the specified area.
CRM has been a staple of many businesses. This is because it helps to keep all of a company’s business contacts in a single place regardless if they’re a customer, a client or even a supplier. In the case of real estate, CRM can be used to track and contact people that have expressed interest in purchasing a property. This is one of the best ways for a company to get in touch with potential buyers and the leads generated could result in actual sales or rentals.
Since most CRM systems are based in the cloud and do not require the purchase of expensive hardware, it’s actually extremely efficient to invest in a CRM solution. Real Estate CRM software can be accessed from any smart device and doesn’t need to involve computers or laptops. It’s also an easily-scalable solution, meaning that you can easily expand the number of users and the amount of data it holds. With such an affordable way to expand your productivity, it’s easy to see just how crucial the future of CRM technology will be for your real estate business.
Mixed Reality
Mixed reality is another technological component that will soon get a lot of exposure in the world of real estate. This is because a lot of people find it difficult to purchase or scout for a home if they don’t live physically close to it. This is especially true for people that are looking to purchase a home or rent an apartment somewhere much further away from their current home. Driving across to a different state is hardly practical and catching a flight just to attend an open house also isn’t a good idea. Instead, the real estate world is starting to take advantage of mixed reality in order to give potential buyers a much more detailed look at a property before buying it.
In the past, only photos and descriptions were used but there will likely be a shift towards mixed reality as a norm. This includes virtual reality tours of a property, it could include incredibly detailed overhead videos to show the surrounding area and it could show the locations of things such as electrical sockets, utilities and so on. Mixed reality has the opportunity to become an incredibly useful technology in the real estate market assuming that the technology in question falls in price and continues to see adoption in other industries. While mixed reality and virtual reality are certainly very powerful technologies, it’s difficult to adapt them for real estate use and there must be forerunners that are willing to pave the way.
It’s expensive to invest in mixed reality technologies, but it’s certainly one of the more interesting ways to grow your real estate business. It offers incredibly convenient ways to tour the properties you offer and because it’s such a far cry from what’s currently considered the norm, it can certainly help you stand out.
Real Estate Chatbots
Lastly, we have the rise of real estate chatbots. Chatbots have already been implemented in many different industries as a form of self-help with a human element. They rely on artificial technology and are generally considered to be accurate depending on the type of service you use. They’re often used to answer basic questions and will redirect to a live customer support representative if needed. Right now, the less expensive chatbots and services are difficult to use and don’t appear human at all. However, in a few year’s time, machine learning will help to create robots that are more human with their responses and are able to tap into a real estate business’s data in order to talk about listings and even help customers choose their ideal property.
In short, real estate chatbots can be incredibly useful for users to learn about properties and also ask simple questions. However, they can also be scaled up in the future to perform the same duties as a customer support representative, but this will take some time to adopt.