In the last two decades, every domain has undergone a digital transformation. However, one of the fields that have remained relatively untouched and averse to the impact of digital methods has been the real estate field.
For at least a couple of years now, this has been changing. Real estate companies have been leveraging web and mobile technology to compound the impact of their business.
Let us look at some innovative ways to drive digital transformation for your real estate business in 2021.
1. Virtual Tours
One of the most evident ways to inculcate digitization into your real estate business is through virtual tours of properties.
Every time you list a property on your website, make sure that you visit the property and conduct a 360-degree scan of both its interior and exterior.
You can also make a video of the house or take enough images to ensure that any prospective customer has a fair idea of all aspects of the property.
Virtual tours help your customer understand the property better and also communicate the message that there is no aspect that you are hiding in your listing.
2. Google Maps Integration
If you ever build a home app or website, make sure to integrate Google Maps into it. Over the years, Google Maps has become very accurate in most countries and can allow customers to develop an idea of the nearest landmarks from a given property.
You can also integrate the capability to choose a particular area in the city to filter out the properties listed.
3. Property Data Through IoT Devices
Several homeowners use IoT devices to automate critical features of their properties, such as locking and unlocking, lighting, and security surveillance. They can also use such devices to provide virtual tours of their homes to customers without any intervention from a broker.
Additionally, IoT devices in a smart home can provide prospective customers access to salient data such as energy consumption, invertor usage, and water supply downtime.
Note that with IoT technology being fairly recent, its implementation in a property can be a fairly costly prospect.
4. Using IDX
The internet data exchange, or IDX, is used by brokers and real estate companies with access to a real estate portal. These companies can leverage multiple listing services (MLS) as a database and include properties from multiple agents on their websites.
IDX allows real estate companies to always have quality and up-to-date listings on their websites and helps customers view listing from multiple brokers at once.
5. Value Estimation
Real estate companies worldwide have begun using internet-based value estimation tools to assess a particular property’s value. These tools were formerly extremely inaccurate and hence not used formally by such companies.
However, as the capability of internet-based tools to take into account multiple factors into a calculation has grown, all brokers now subscribe to some sort of property valuation tool.
These tools consider important factors like access to amenities, the general value of property in the area, and neighborhood quality to reach an accurate number for the approximate value of a property.
Valuation tools can be integral in resolving customer’s doubts before they begin contacting brokers directly.
6. Quality Indicators
To many customers, the convenience and quality of the area that a property is in matters much more than the property itself.
Using online data aggregation tools, real estate companies can now display quality scores for a property on their website.
These quality metrics can inculcate scores for greenery in the area, access to essential amenities, noise, crime, and various other factors to enable customers to make an informed choice about their next residence or property acquisition.
7. Renting And Buying Strategies
Customers looking for homes or shifting to a new city can often get confused regarding whether to rent or buy a property.
Real estate companies can subscribe to data analytics-based tools from the internet that can suggest renting and buying strategies to such customers for free.
These tools take the current value of properties held by a customer, monthly income, and expenses. Based on these inputs, they recommend renting and buying strategies that fit the customer’s budget.
The tool also recommends properties in your area of interest that conform to your budget.
8. AI-Powered Analytics
Just like scores of other domains, AI is leading the transformation of the real estate domain as well.
AI-powered analytics can be really effective in matching properties with customers, aiding customers through virtual assistants, and informing customers of the latest market trends.
Additionally, AI can also enable real estate businesses to establish realistic goals based on up-to-date data.
They can be really effective in determining return on investment for a customer, the quality of a lead, and the probability of a loan default based on past data.
9. Develop A Real Estate App
In the past few years, there has been a significant shift in traffic from the web to mobile. The requirement of an app for real estate has never been greater, and multiple real estate companies have begun to realize this fact.
This is why most online real estate aggregators have already built apps through which customers can access property data.
Apart from making browsing easier for the customer, a real estate app also makes listing easier for a homeowner. If you are looking to list your property to rent, all you need to do is click a few photos of the property and post them on the app alongside the property data.
While the benefits of a real estate app for all stakeholders are many, the decision to convert website to app can be a transformative one.
Always vet the company you choose to outsource your app development to and communicate your goals so that the conversion process is as smooth as possible.
Conclusion
The real estate domain is no longer untouched by digital platforms. All activities associated with real estate are now taking place online, from recommending and listing properties to buying and selling them.
As you embark on your endeavor to create a truly digital real estate company, be wary of the limitations and drawbacks of each of the methods listed above, and use the digital domain judiciously!
- Fe
