For many years, the real estate industry has revolved around face-to-face meetings, open houses, and house-hunt travels. Unfortunately, in the wake of the pandemic, the industry has been forced to shift from the traditional approach to modern, innovative solutions. From creating digitally accessible services to digitizing processes, technology plays a major role in this transformation.
Today, technology is considered the key to the complete recovery of the real estate industry, helping people adapt to this new normal and continue their operations. As real estate takes advantage of various technological innovations, here are five ways tech transforms the face of the industry.
Automation for business processes
Repetitive daily tasks often overburden real estate professionals such as landlords and realtors. Most of the time, they even need to fill out the same document for each property. Storing or organizing such paperwork is another problem.
Luckily, there are helpful tech methods to handle these time-consuming tasks better. There are various systems for efficiently managing real estate portfolios, appointments or meetings, and even marketing campaigns.
With the availability of automation, the real estate industry can now handle its processes more efficiently. Examples are financial and account automation, lead generation, property inspection, omnichannel syncing of leads, task and transaction management, and lead nurturing.
Online marketplaces
As mentioned previously, the real estate market has always involved in-person meetings between potential buyers and brokers. But since this method is risky nowadays, online marketplaces have been made possible through technology. This offers a safe and reliable way for everyone to interact.
Online marketplaces provide potential buyers with lists of properties that match their requirements and preferences in just a few mouse clicks. Buyers can now check available houses without leaving their houses through virtual tours.
What’s more, a number of these marketplaces do not require in-person brokers. They have tech-enabled real estate agents, so people can purchase things without expensive commission fees.
Virtual home tours or walkthroughs
When talking about virtual reality, people often associate it with gaming, but it actually has other practical uses. VR is now being utilized in many professional fields and industries like real estate. Basically, this technology allows potential buyers and renters to see a property wherever or whenever they want.
Compared to videos and photos, virtual reality provides a more authentic property tour that is details, lifelike, and immersive. This fascinating tech has leveraged the approach in house viewing or hunting far from the traditional.
Virtual home tours have offered great convenience and flexibility for both agents and buyers. You can easily book a schedule and check out the entire house without leaving the comfort of your home. In fact, according to an AppFolio survey, 71% of the property managers said that they’d increased their priority for virtual showings.
Personalized ads
Reaching out and attracting potential buyers are always crucial. If they can’t find the exact type of houses that matches their requirements, the sale won’t obviously be possible. Fortunately, ad tech offers real estate agents solutions to create custom, targeted ads.
Through personalized ad feeds, buyers can quickly see ads for houses that fit their preferences. The ads could be utilized to promote and sell new or upcoming real estate projects and appear based on the buyer’s previous searches.
Streamline paperwork process
In the real estate industry, paperwork, forms, or documents are part of the day-to-day work. Instead of going to in-person meetings to fill out USDA loan applications or property inquiry forms, tech devices and software are now more recommended. Lenders or agents can now conveniently send the paperwork that needs to be signed through email. Buyers can now sign them using their devices and e-signing platforms online.
Accessible systems offer smart contracts to streamline the process of signing lease agreements, transforming property management for the better. Apps for secure deed management are also emerging. Such tools allow property owners to provide accurate and transparent titles, avoiding liabilities of paying heavy legal fees for defects on deed paperwork.
Like in other industries, real estate is now significantly relying on tech-based and digital solutions to function more efficiently and effectively. From the investors, sellers, property developers, to the buyers, embracing such technological evolution is necessary to ensure the industry’s future. If you are a part of this industry, you’ll see more advancements apart from the ones mentioned here.
