As technology grows in the real estate industry, innovative technologies are rising to help home buyers and sellers to make the process much easier and more efficient and direct digital engagement. Proptech (Property Technology) is having a major impact on the real estate market as it is used to manage and improve real estate transactions from start to finish. Competition is rising every day and incorporating technology into real estate strategy is necessary to keep going in the industry.
In this article, we’ll outline some of the newest innovations in the real estate industry, and which ones you should think about if you want to buy or sell properties.
Real Estate Industry Statistics 2022
As the industry keeps innovating new strategies and giving more life to Proptech, the market will continue to grow. Technology, new business models, venture capital funded companies, and funding for Proptech startups will continue to rise. In 2022 the global real estate market is expected to grow 10.5% (CAGR), with a market of $3741.06 billion.
With 45 million millennials between the ages of 26–35 in their prime to buy their first homes. The US housing market is predicted to stay strong, especially in metro areas. In a survey conducted by the National Association of Realtors on how people search for properties:
- 44% of new homeowners find information online first about buildings for sale,
- 73% of buyers are using mobile or tablet search devices for their purchases in 2021.
- 81% of people who currently have smart home devices said they are more likely to buy a home with similar technology
Additionally, in 2020, 53% of real estate companies are now directly investing in technology.
From a seller’s perspective, this is a great spot to be in. By utilizing some new methods of selling your home, you can be at the forefront of the market and get the most you can for your property. From the buyer’s perspective, you need to be aware of the newest tech and platforms for selling homes, or you won’t even know about the best properties. Don’t worry, though — we’ll fill you in!
Selling a House Online
Using the internet and getting online is your best bet if you don’t have an extensive network set in place. Instead of advertising to 100 people, you can advertise to 100,000 people interested in buying a home in your local area. So, as you can imagine, the online market could easily expand the number of people your listing reaches. It can be more efficient and impactful than what a single real estate agent would be able to do on their own. Therefore, more agents, investors, real estate business owners, and Real Estate Investment Trusts use online tactics to sell homes.
Popular Online Real Estate Database
Here’s a sobering stat for you — only 7% of current home buyers found their home through a traditional lawn sign. The vast majority of those looking for a new home are looking online, and they’re using some key websites to find their new homes like Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin, Trulia, or MLS. So, if you are a seller, you must have your listings on these online databases. If you are a buyer, you will find lots of options to pick from and have a better chance of finding that dream home.
Websites like Zillow have become industry pillars for purchasing homes, while the traditional MLS listing gets less and less relevant. While you’re thinking about new real estate tech, check out ways you can buy a home with cryptocurrency. With the potential to provide greater security, efficiency, and privacy than traditional currencies, cryptocurrencies are rapidly gaining popularity and the demand for cryptocurrency development services is only expected to grow in the coming years.
Create your Website for Real Estate
If you are a real estate agent, then a website for your business could be greatly beneficial. You could administrate your inventory and send your options to buyers without looking at the competition. Provide the best user experience, work on the mobile version of your website, and make sure to add a call to action to contact you. Make sure you make it easy for them to contact you. Either by phone, email or text.
You could make your own website or work with a web design agency. If decide to make your own website, select a domain hosting and a free platform like WordPress to create your website. If you don’t want to enter the world of coding, make sure to select a theme, they are a lot of options for you, to make the work easier.
What to include in a Real State Website/Online Database.
If you’re thinking about selling your home online as opposed to a traditional real estate company you must keep in mind the most popular features a real estate website offers to potential clients; These are the percentages of info they add on a normal listing: photos are 87% of the time, property info is added 85%, floor plans added 52%, virtual tours created 46%, and real state contact information is found 42%, accordingly to a survey conducted by National Association. Here are a few things you should be prepared to have before you get going:
1. The more photos, the better – it’s important to ensure these photos are excellent quality – no grainy iPhone pics. Hire a photographer and use the examples that are used on other listings. Make sure you get great photos to display the features of your home.
2. Details of the property– when buying a house, most home shoppers would want to know all the details about the house. How many bedrooms, bathrooms, the price, the size of the house, and the location? Make sure you have a description of every house you sell.
3. Floor plans– the floor plans provide a lot of information about the property, and they help the buyer’s imagination and visualization process for high potential of interest. With this information, a buyer could easily feel that the listing meets their top needs.
4. Virtual tour– The tour allows potential buyers to see a perspective view of the interior of the property, it makes it easier to visualize the whole house than when only seeing pictures.
5. Google AdWords- Using AdWords for any type of marketing is always a plus. It will direct local searches toward your listings much faster. If You are a realtor this is a marketing strategy that can be very effective if you decide to create a website for your real estate business.
Curb (And Aerial) Appeal
Thanks to technology, sellers can provide buyers with complete experience with Proptech, with a whole interactive online experience, making it easier and more efficient for potential buyers to make decisions on their listings quicker.
Using Drone Photography/Videos
Aerial footage from drones allows a unique perspective of a broad range of land, so you can see the property’s layout, but it can also help the property’s proximity to local amenities and infrastructures. So, if your property has nice amenities, you could hire a professional to make a competitive video of all the reasons, they should buy your property. Using Drone Proptech strategies will provide a unique view, from the air for all your listings.
3D Virtual Tours
Incorporating 3D Visual tours to sell your house can greatly enhance the buying experience for potential buyers. With 3D Virtual tours, buyers can take a tour of the property on their own, as if they were physically there, and have complete control over the areas they want to visit. Think of it like Street View on Google Maps but for the inside of a home. This technology allows buyers to have a better view of the property, and not being physically there is no longer an impediment. 3D Visualization Services have become a popular Proptech strategy, especially in the Covid Era, revolutionizing the way buyers interact with properties.
Geolocation Tools
Geolocation tools, like Google Maps, let you pinpoint your potential new home on a map and see what’s close to the location. It provides extremely specific information about time and distance regarding driving, walking, and biking distance. There’s an increasing focus on the 15-minute city – locating where all essential needs are within a 15-minute walk or bike ride of residential areas. Geolocation tools are a great option to let you know how close you are to essential amenities without having to map it out in person.
Using Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence has been playing a key role in technology and is starting to present itself in Real Estate Marketing. Artificial Intelligence is the attempt to make a machine, application, system, or device as intelligent as or more intelligent than a human being. From using AI to transform your exterior or enhance your interior, the possibilities are endless. If we talk about artificial intelligence, we must talk about machine learning, basically, its self-machine learning and quantifying, which is the technique that through finding, reviewing, and analyzing patterns in enormous quantities of data, learns and makes that machine, application, system, or device as intelligent.
Machine learning algorithms can be used in real estate by Identifying the houses and owners who would be willing to sell, to stay ahead of the competition. It attempts to classify the most similar customers and create a targeted market of a population pool of potential buyers. It analyzes customers and their probability of purchase.
Big Data
Big data is a general term that’s used to describe the ability of powerful technology databases to collect and analyze vast amounts of data quickly and efficiently. The benefit of using Big Data in the real estate market is that Big Data can be used to learn precisely what facts or information is important to buyers and how they base their final decisions on buying a home like in the Bay Area in Northern California.
Big Data helps you comb the digital world easier and helps you find as many options as possible. As a buyer, big data gives you more options tailored to your needs and as a seller, big data helps you to reach more qualified buyers.
Smart Home
More people are searching for houses that have smart home products already installed. They are also interested in homes that are constructed with modern building techniques. According to Alarms.org, 81% of buyers indicate they’d be more opted to buy a home if smart home products were already installed. Some of the smart devices they are interested in homes having are smart heating and cooling systems, smart lightbulbs, and automatic security alarms. Smart locks and homes built for easy entertainment system set-ups are also of huge interest to buyers. Make sure to know how to sell your competitive advantage. Learn all the benefits of having a smart home and become an expert on the products.
Real Estate Management/CRM Software
If you’re a real estate agent and you’re not using CRM software — then maybe it would be a particularly good idea to add this to your priority list and add it to the top of the list. We can’t stress this enough. This isn’t a fancy address book.
This software allows you to log contact information and helps with customer lists, prospects, or leads. There are software development companies that specialize in creating real estate CRM systems that could provide you with the requirements you need.
It provides you with the ability to focus and target your real estate strategies. For example, they’ll create call lists for you, giving you the prompt to call the leads you haven’t talked to in more than six weeks.
Blockchain
Blockchain is a digital ledger. Blockchain transactions in real estate can help buyers and sellers to interact directly with each other, cutting out the middleman that is the banking institution. Blockchain algorithms, like Ethereum, provide a secure way to register and track transactions between buyers and sellers. Your transaction gets registered with a unique digital signature which ensures that your transaction stays confidential and secure.
Online Document Preparation and E-Signing
Online document signing can’t be overstated when you say it was a game-changer in the real estate market. Where once you’d have to wait for two parties to make their way to a lawyer’s office to sign papers to make things official, now you can send an email and get all the docs to the right people to sign in a matter of hours or minutes— no matter where in the world they are.
One of the amazing aspects of online document preparation is that you can always to a quick reference of any information found online whether it’s interest rates or check insurance provider information. You can check and verify anything right before E-Signing a document.
The Importance of Social Media
Social media is crucial to be present in the digital world. In regard to the Real State Market, you will be able to connect with potential clients. The reason social media is so crucial is that social media now interconnects to websites and numerous other platforms and since 99% of millennials begin their home search online it becomes essential that you have an online presence. The most popular social media platforms for real estate matters, according to a NAR study, are Facebook (97%), LinkedIn (59%), and Instagram (39%).
If you decide to have an online presence and be on social media, keep in mind that every platform is different and you need to be consistent with your content and messages´ replies, here are some basic elements to help you out with your social media strategy:
- Content ideas: Property photos, a website, and content are crucial since we are visual human beings. Detailed information on the property listings, success stories and client testimonials, real estate-related tips, the announcement of open houses showcasing, or your events create interest. You can also share on your about page your awards, certifications, conference photos, or anything that helps you showcase the awesome professional and the experience you have in the industry.
- Use hashtags: People will find your content more easily if you use hashtags. For example, say you’re selling a home in Austin, TX. Alongside your realtor’s posts, you’ll want to put pictures of the home on your own social media pages, too. You can use hashtags like #AustinRealEstate #BuyAustin #AustinHomesForSale to attract an audience that doesn’t already see your posts. Hashtags are helpful when using your Instagram marketing techniques.
- Facebook ads for real estate: Facebook ads allow you to target a specific demographic audience who has shown interest in properties in your area. The most important thing about Facebook ads is that they will help you with your conversion funnel. Depending on the amount of money you invest in the size of the market you are going to approach. Create Facebook forms to attract leads and collect information from your potential buyers.
- Influencer strategy: If you are starting your community on social media, you could do collaborations with influencers in the industry, this way, your content could have more views, and your audience could growth. If you like to talk in public and you like social media, you could also become an influencer. There are some famous influencers in the real estate industry that, because they have a huge number of views, can sell mostly every house they publish.
Other strategies
Using technology and marketing in real estate can be really fun and more if you are being really creative. There are more tools out there that might not require a lot of investment if you are starting to get to know these digital advantages. There are free tools that you could start with if you are new to this and you want to implement it.
You could also use Zoom or other platforms to have a videoconference use, Trello to start implementing a CRM, Visme for creating presentations and other visual content, and Mailchimp for an email marketing campaign. Technology could have no boundaries if there is creativity.
To stay current on all the Proptech trends, agents and business owners in the real estate industry may need to be very well organized. A great chance to have a place to do all the work can be coworking spaces. If you want to meet with clients, you could use their meeting rooms or meet up with your team.
Another strategy in addition to technology is the Real Estate Investment Trust. They have listed businesses that own and manage properties that generate income. Through the ownership, operation, development, and management of the commercial real estate, a REIT seeks to maximize earnings for its investors.
The world of buying and selling property is a whole new game this decade because of Proptech. The Era of Covid changed the world and we found out how helpful technology can be, especially when there is less person-to-person contact. So since everyone is moving on to digital marketing strategies it makes sense to learn about these strategies. Learning new ways to engage with the market will help you the most out of your real estate investments. And for any of your fixer-uppers before you can sell them, reach out to find some of the best-trusted professionals in the country.
Authors Note:
I want to thank Hayde Martinez for the help with the research on the article.
