Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
As with most things, COVID slammed the real estate industry to a halt before being thrust into some fast changes. Some trends had been slowly gaining ground for a few years, but COVID created exponential growth that otherwise may have taken many more years.
There’s a lot of opportunity with both residential and commercial properties to use today’s technology in real estate. Here are some of the ways technology has been integrated into more parts of the buying and selling process in real estate.
New platforms are becoming available to complete real estate transactions involving multiple parties, save time and stay organized. Many industries had been resistant to the evolution from wet signatures to e-signatures. COVID fast-forwarded the use of this trend, letting online legal real estate services take hold and offer secure and legal e-signatures.
Digital documents and signatures that allow all parties to virtually sign and seal the deal are something that will likely become part of standard practice even after COVID.
Websites have long made it easy for anyone to view inventory and see what’s available and many of those websites have apps now. Along with photos and detailed descriptions of homes, it’s easy to find all sorts of information about the property and neighborhood, making it easy to discover how close you might be to a highway, transit hub or shopping center.
By utilizing apps, home seekers can stay informed without having to do a thing. You can set up notifications about new properties and listings that fit your specific search criteria.
Photos are great, but new software provides buyers with the opportunity to take a 3D virtual tour of a property, actually making it feel as if you were visiting the place in person.
Virtual viewings have been around in real estate for some time and have made it easier for prospective buyers the chance to view a property any time, anywhere and to decide whether or not a place is worth visiting.
Virtual tours can be offered as a 3D rendering of a space or through a video conference with a realtor and are likely to remain a regular part of what homebuyers can expect.
Traditional staging has also been a regular practice in real estate for a while, but now there’s also virtual staging. Spaces are designed using digital software that adds 3D furniture and, in some cases, can even show a property’s renovation potential.
In addition to reducing the risk and adding the convenience of being able to show a home at its best on a digital platform, virtual staging offers significant cost-savings than traditional staging, where rented furniture has to be brought in, and a house is decorated professionally.Many of the changes technology has brought to the real estate industry allowed for increased social distancing but they will remain for their added convenience and cost-saving measures..
