Technology in Real Estate: How Tech Influences the Market

San Francisco in 1968 was the height of the Flower Power movement. Haight Ashbury was a sea of dashikis and peace signs as far as the eye can see. In 2018, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco is $3,552 a month thanks to the presence of Silicon Valley.

This is just the surface level of how technology influences the real estate market. Real estate has been one of the most disrupted industries in the wake of digital technology.

Technology follows the money like smoke following a fire. Considering that real estate is one of the largest and most lucrative markets in the world, it’s no surprise that there’s been a lot of interest coming from the technological sector.

Tech changes at such a rapid rate it can be hard to keep up with what’s going on, let alone becoming an expert.

We’ve compiled a guide on how technology in real estate is changing the game to get you up to speed!

How Technology In Real Estate Is Changing The Industry

Tech is a huge vertical, as it’s interwoven into every aspect of our daily lives. There are hundreds of ways we could talk about technology in the real estate industry. We’ll break them down into different segments.

Going Mobile

Mobile technology is more than just a shiny new software to play around with. The rise of mobile technology has prompted a sea change in every aspect of how we use technology, including in the realty industry.

Mobile technology accounted for 52.64% of Internet traffic in 2017. The first and most obvious way that tech is shaping the real estate industry is optimizing websites for mobile devices is no longer optional. Do so at your peril.

Access to information remotely, in real-time, has had a profound implication on the realty industry, as well. Once upon a time, it was possible to merely list a house or property and check up on it once a month. Properties have to be monitored regularly in this competitive, fast-moving climate.

This constant connectivity also impacts the bottom line. Comparison shopping has never been easier, or more important, especially in these lean economic times.

Getting Social

Nearly every business and industry that wants to thrive in the digital economy has a social media profile. There are over 50 million businesses using Facebook for business, alone. Only 9% of real estate agents are currently using social media as part of their digital marketing strategy, however.

This is a massive oversight on the part of the realtors. Social media is tailor-made for generating interest and raising awareness of new properties. Instagram is particularly potent at spreading high-quality visual content.

Twitter is a great way to gain a reputation as a thought leader or a trusted source of real estate knowledge. Which brings us to our next point.

Creating Content

Advertising and marketing have changed a lot in the wake of the flood of digital information. Due to improper advertising and unethical lending practices in the 2000s, people are sceptical of who to give their trust (and money) to.

70% of customers prefer to get their information from companies that produce content instead of sponsored advertisements. And yet 54% of realtors report only spending 5 hours a week or less on their websites.

Realtors would be well-served in spending more time developing an SEO-optimized blog. It will help build customer loyalty and trust. Those digital assets can be leveraged into other digital marketing campaigns, like social media marketing or creating branded Infographics.

Rise Of The (Chat)Bots

With each passing day, it seems we are living more in the future that sci-fi has predicted. In the past few years, we’ve started seeing AI being rolled out in practical ways that can profit business owners. It’s also shaping the customer’s expectations and experiences.

The rise of virtual personal assistants like Siri and Alexa is causing consumers to become more comfortable talking to AI bots. The real estate industry is hopping on the trend. AskDoss has been unleashed as the first virtual assistant specifically for the real estate industry.

The floodgates are open. You can rest assured this is just the first trickle in what will soon be a flood of virtual real estate assistants.

What this means for realtors and real estate investors is that customers will have an even greater expectation to receive answers in real-time. Processes that used to take months will now be expected to take seconds. As with mobile technology, soon enough virtual assistants and AI chatbots will no longer be optional, as well.

Personalized Marketing

This tech trend has been true for some time even before the Internet completely scrambled every aspect of how we do business. Untargeted, unspecific mass marketing has been pass? Since at least the 1980s. It can be the kiss of death in 2018’s competitive real estate market.

To create personalized marketing that will be useful without costing a fortune, find different ways to segment your audience. Use your content marketing campaigns to figure out which stage of their buyer’s journey they’re in. Use social media to steer your customers towards different landing pages, where they might opt-in to receive pertinent information and offers.

Conclusion

Technology in the real estate industry has greatly leveled the playing field, allowing smaller firms and realtors to compete against some of the largest names on the market.

Considering how powerful even basic consumer technology is at this stage in history, you can elevate your real estate business to the next level if you remain focused and keep up-to-date on the latest tech trends.

If you’d like to know more about how digital technology can impact your real estate business you can learn more here. You can also browse the rest of our Real Estate Technology posts.