There will always be disruptive technology that can significantly shift the landscape of any industry. Many are concerned that technology will entirely replace human workers, but that isn’t happening on a large scale in reality. In fact, the focus of technology, including the biggest disruptors like artificial intelligence, is to make human jobs easier, but not entirely replace them.
The real estate industry is one such area where technology has really improved the workflow of agents, brokers, and firms. Advanced technology is creating a large impact on real estate businesses in several ways, such as delivering noticeable improvements in output, efficiency, and customer satisfaction.
Let’s explore several ways that tech is positively impacting productivity in real estate.
Streamlined Workflow and Transaction Management
As any real estate broker knows, the process of transactions from start to finish can be rather tedious. There’s a lot of things to manage, from brokerage and agent management, to commission tracking, accounts payable and receivable, and more.
If you have all this spread out across several different software, and keeping numbers in spreadsheets, you’re making it hard on yourself! There is some very efficient transaction management software specifically for real estate brokers, such as Paperless Pipeline, which can consolidate all of the transactional process into a single software.
Taking advantage of real estate transaction management software will significantly cut down on paperwork, and enable you to close sales faster, as well as create more transparency in the buying and selling process.
Marketing and Social Media Presence
Social media has been a boon for real estate brokers. Facebook Marketplace has a section for housing, which many real estate agents utilize to their advantage. You don’t need to spend money on pamphlets, or hoping local traffic will find your website, when you can simply show off all your available properties directly on social media.
Social media chatbots are also incredibly easy to set up, and highly convenient for both you and potential clients. Marketplace browsers can send an inquiry to your chatbot through the property listing page, and automatically receive the full details on the property, as well as ways to contact your office and more.
Virtual Reality Tours
Virtual reality has found remarkable use in several industries, and the real estate industry is no exception. If a picture is worth a thousand words, than being able to virtually tour properties for sale is priceless.
Imagine you have several home models available for the client to choose, and instead of needing to schedule walk-through tours of each model, the client can simply explore the home in virtual reality.
You aren’t limited to just a generic tour of a 3D space either, as you can make tours interactive, and showcase different color palettes and furniture arrangements, to appeal to the client’s aesthetic preferences in finding their dream home.
Artificial Intelligence
It may seem like stuff of the future, but artificial intelligence has already been making significant disruptions in the real estate industry. AI-powered algorithms for web scraping can recommend available properties to brokers, giving you an edge on scooping up local properties before other firms.
It can also scour records to find the legitimate owners of properties, to ensure that both clients and real estate firms are always dealing with the right people.
AI can also make forecasts with insightful accuracy, helping you to anticipate peaks and market fluctuations. Overall there are a lot of uses for AI in real estate, so you should check out some of the best AI-driven real estate apps.