Real Estate has always been a high-touch industry. From the agents who show homes and curate lists for their customers to the financial part of the process. Every step of the way has been tightly guarded by individuals with a vested interest in keeping real estate a high-touch industry.
But even amid this environment, companies are still finding ways to innovate, leverage technology, and continue to earn commissions and make a living buying and selling homes. If you’re in the real estate industry or you’d love to break into it, here are some of the ways that you can partner with technology and innovative ideas to bring this industry into the 2020s.
Use AI to Help Remote Buyers
The last couple of years required people to get a little more creative when it came to home selling. While there have been 3D home tours for a long time, there are now even more ways to help remote buyers walk through a home. Leveraging AI technology helps them feel like they are standing in the house in a more realistic way than simply clicking through a 3D rendition of a home. Agents who can help buyers transition to a new city have an edge over the competition when they leverage AI technology in their process.
It’s likely that this innovation will continue to improve to make it the standard in home buying in the future. It would mean that homebuyers would no longer need to travel from house to house, looking at hundreds of places. They could simply go to their realtor’s office and narrow down the list to only a handful that they want to see in person.
The AI experience would give them all the information they need to narrow down that list.
Innovations in Financing Homes
In a real estate downturn, it can be difficult for some people to get the lending they need to buy a home. Additionally, homebuyers who want to leverage their equity for paying off bills and starting new businesses of their own need to meet certain qualifications. Innovations in home financing mean that they can still get the equity out of their home even if their credit score took a hit. And if things are really bad for them, they don’t necessarily need to sell and leave their homes.
What if they could sell and then lease their own home until they could buy it back again? This could reduce the need for foreclosures and help people who hit a rough patch still have a place to live. Easy Knock reviews are one of the ways to see how this works in real life. These innovations in financing homes can also give sellers time to find a new place to live without needing to move out on the closing day and can save them the pain of moving out because they missed a few payments.
Leverage Marketing Technology to Improve Visibility
Marketing is a fascinating discipline. While on the one hand, it’s about how a company presents information, on the other hand, it’s about the people. Who are the people who want your properties? Where are they looking the most? How can you present the property in a way that will appeal to them specifically? Marketing is all about knowing who this customer is. In real estate, many agents rely on the fact that they have a good name in their community, and sometimes that’s enough.
For other agents, there are interesting insights they can glean by evaluating marketing data. What are the demographics of the people buying in a certain neighborhood? What features are appealing to them? In the future, it’s clear that more real estate businesses will use data to market to the right people instead of simply using a big smile and a charming personality.
Other Innovations in Real Estate
Some companies are starting to offer touchless rentals. Meaning, that from start to finish, everything in the process is done electronically. They enter personal details and identification to go look at a home. The home is monitored by cameras and other technology. They leverage a smart lock system with a code and a smartphone to help the potential renter gain access to the house. They provide lease details and documentation online for signing.
It’s clear that these same methods could be used for purchasing homes as well, and perhaps in the future, this innovation will take hold there as well.