Real Estate In The Modern World: What Will The Future Hold?

What we currently know or believe to be true is constantly changing regarding real estate. Much like many other industries, technology, and the internet have changed how real estate works.

In the past, realtors had their offices, and tenants or buyers would do business directly with the agent in their physical store. However, most if not all communication and transactions are processed online, including using a digital signature on agreements.

As you think about the ever-changing real estate market, you’ll notice that we experience ups and downs, booms and busts. Changes in the property market are associated with the property cycle, which is a recurring pattern of economic movements in a clockwise fashion. For example, a boom economy is followed by a bust or recession, a recovery, and then back to boom again.

The future of real estate markets will always be pegged to global and local economies. What is evolving is how real estate is transacted and the use of technology and the internet to make it as much as possible.

DeFi and Blockchain

Decentralized finance and the blockchain are becoming more present in the real estate industry.

With transparency a must to reduce fraud and money laundering in real estate, it’s no surprise the blockchain is revolutionizing the real estate industry transactions from the sale to financing.

Homeowners want more financing options, lower fees and also manage more of the sales transaction process.

IoT

Other obvious developments using technology in real estate, property, and interiors trends, is ‘smart homes’.

Using IoT to power and automate appliances and devices is ever-present. But is this all? Or will we see many more changes in the future? Let’s look at what real estate looks like in the modern world and how it might likely look in the future.

Right now, so many of us choose to invest in real estate. It’s still viable to spend your money and get a great return. However, there is no immediate change because we’re at the mercy of the market, developers, or even realtors.

More Technology Use In Real Estate

As technology evolves with AI, machine learning, and robots, we’ll likely begin to expect to get more from our real estate investments. For example, more automation will reduce the cost of services, including

• Real estate sales
• Property management
• Legal
• Insurance

We’ve already seen such a huge influx of technology into the industry, and this will certainly continue to increase. The shift from an entirely realtor-centric experience to more online usage will likely keep growing in the same direction. So let’s take a look at that a little more closely.

Our Involvement Levels

We no longer need realtors to show us properties. We can find them ourselves. So it’s only natural to expect our involvement levels to continue to increase. The way that we buy and sell real estate is going to change drastically. Deciding to buy, lease, or invest in real estate doesn’t have to happen how it does now. It can and will become a purely digital experience that we control ourselves.

Since the pandemic viewing video walk-throughs of listed properties have replaced the need for in-person home viewings.

What This Means For Realtors

So if our expectations change, technology allows us more control and involvement in the real estate process than ever before. What does this mean for realtors?

Well, there’s an argument that some people will always need a realtor as thebalance.com debates, but they won’t always be a necessary part of the chain – certainly not how they have been in the past.

Skilled and specialist realtors who source homes for their clients will probably always demand because not everyone wants to take care of their real estate affairs. But we will likely see a shift from hiring one to want to hire one.

Changes In Costs

What we pay for our real estate transactions is sure to drop with less human interaction in sales and purchases. But don’t expect that to mean that being more self-involved will make everything straightforward. There will always be a need for legal representation; not everyone is good at negotiating the best offer.

Of course, if you’re great with negotiations and know when you buy at a low price and sell at the right time, you’ll always be financially better off, and therefore you don’t need the sales agent to do the negotiations on your behalf.

However, even with realtors potentially out of the picture, you’ll still face fees, albeit they will vary depending on how much human intervention is needed. Remember, nothing in life comes for free. But, the shift can give us so much more control over the real estate exchange.

Market Implications

When we look at the current market and see what changes are expected, internationalization is a vast topic.

Of course, the industry is still growing in the same way economies grow. However, with economic and property cycles, there will be booms and busts even when pwc.com predict we’ll see an expansion of dominant cities around the world. Plus, emerging markets will see most of the development activity worldwide.

There may be new opportunities for overseas investments if you have the stomach for them – i.e., the stress of dealing with owning real estate in another country and the transactions of large sums of money offshore.

The Changes In Property Trends

When it comes to the future and change, we’re not just looking at the real estate market as a lot is happening in our lives.

We’re already integrating a lot of technology into our lifestyle choices and how we enjoy our houses or set up our business premises, which will likely continue growing. So much so that the usual interior design trends we’re used to seeing are also likely to change. We may shift from colors, designers, or materials to technologies and installments.

When you consider the real estate market as it is today and how our actions and attitudes have shifted in the last twenty years alone, you can see where we’re going. Technology and the internet are both making so much more possible for us, both in a cost-effective way and as a lifestyle benefit.