Tech Tock… Paper is a thing of the past it’s time to recycle, review and revise your real estate marketing tools. Technology for real estate agents is moving transactions off paper and into the clouds. New-age tools and platforms are challenging the status quo and making it easier for the consumer to access information online. Are you still relying on old-school real estate marketing, paper brochures, and self-measurements? You need to be using current technology to adapt to the changing landscape and behaviours of home buyers and sellers.
New Behaviour
The use of online marketing tools has seen a tremendous increase for both buyers and sellers with 97% of buyers using the internet to search for properties. According to Zillow – 40% of millennials are comfortable buying a home online without ever stepping into it in person. Millennials love 3D tours and interactive floorplans because they have grown up using computers. Technology provides a sense of comfort and familiarity as well as trust.
But what about the other generations of buyers? Buyers and sellers from the boomers demographic and beyond also enjoy surfing the net and using digital tools available at their disposal. They may not be as relaxed about buying a home sight unseen but they certainly know how to examine the accurate square footage of a floorplan with an experienced eye.
Floorplans have been around long before the internet but now making them available online partnered with an ever-increasing demand for video tours, changes the way a property is viewed. Video has the power to grab people’s attention, persuade decisions, and satisfy the need to know.
The desire for instant access to online information has seen significant increases due to the pandemic and real estate tech trends like virtual tours are now the preferred way consumers desire to shop for a home.
Technology is key
It’s time to leave the paper trail of contracts, flimsy brochures, and hardcopy real estate marketing ads in the past. Provide your clients with online collaterals to prove your worth. Give your buyers the tools they need to make informed decisions about their purchase.
Give your seller the gift of their home standing out among thousands of other listings. Give your full attention, your experience, and use the technology at your disposal. Engage the buyer through 3D tours for their instant gratification. Real estate tech trends provide information NOW. Can they see a home at 3:00 am?
Absolutely, virtual tours are available at any time day or night. Not just a tour, but an up-close and personal look at every accurate square footage of the place. It’s no secret that you hold the keys to a property listing (literally and figuratively) but the key that opens the door to a quick sale, for the best possible price, with the least amount of disruption for the consumer, is using new-age tools.
Share information through your tech
Technology for real estate agents abounds with the continued demands for better ways to market a home, manage clients, capture leads, and have paperless transactions. According to NAR, 70% of real estate brokers have their own websites. Websites invite, entertain, inform, and get the attention of buyers and sellers. Your real estate agent website can communicate information about listings by embedding 3D videos and interactive floor plans. Online platforms eliminate the need for paper flyers, brochures, and hard-copy advertising material.
Linking your social media channels improves lead capture across all forms of digital communication. Add in a social media management tool like Hootsuite so all your news feeds and posts can be organized weeks or months in advance.
A customer relationship management (CRM) tool helps you keep track of all your clients. Digital records of names, contact information, dates, and specific details of your clients are safely and precisely organized without the need for old-school paper day-timers.
You can easily transmit online brochures, virtual tours, or professional real estate photos by sending these directly through an email platform like Mailchimp or tagging your followers in a social media post.
Real estate tech trends are here to stay
Expertise and technology are perfect partners. Buyers and sellers prefer to work with an agent because they want/need help with the entire transaction. From contracts to marketing, advice to time-saving tricks of the trade – a Realtor® knows best.
Consumers want to be confident in the home buying/selling process and new technology reassures them through every step. Challenging the status quo gives you the upper hand and provides the consumer with what they want. A clean transaction, with minimal interruption to their daily lives.
It’s time to burn the paper trail to a clearer path that allows the growth of newer and better ways to present and sell a listing. Ever-changing technology for real estate agents helps the industry prosper and an “adapt or die” philosophy is the way to success for your future.
As Charles Darwin once said “It’s not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”