If there’s one market that has been undergoing incredible evolutions recently, it’s undoubtedly the real estate industry. Thanks to modern technological approaches that would have been simply impossible twenty or even ten years ago, real estate professionals have been able to leverage digital platforms that have truly transformed the landscape for the better. The new digital age of real estate is here, and real estate agents have been reaping the benefits.

There are dozens of major digital real estate platforms that have been transforming the industry, but today we’ll focus on three of the most disruptive and potentially uplifting for agents and their clients. The first is Propy, a real estate platform that leverages blockchain technology to eliminate the middleman when it comes to buying and selling properties. The second is Realty Shares, an investment platform that lets you pool resources to invest in properties as a group. The third, Roofstock, makes it easier than ever for investors to buy and sell single-family rental properties. Let’s examine how these three great digital real estate platforms are singlehandedly changing the game.

What is a digital platform?

But what, exactly, is a “digital platform”? What does this term even mean? In this context, a digital platform is any sort of product or service that is provided exclusively over the internet and accessed through digital technologies. This is different than a company providing products and services to clients that are only accessible in person, such as in an office environment.

Digital platforms, especially digital real estate platforms, have only become possible because today’s telecommunications technology has evolved to where it is today. Digital communications are now faster and more secure than ever, and that means conducting business related to the real estate industry, such as searching for properties, investing in them, and even buying and selling them online, can all be accomplished without ever having to step inside an office.

The benefits of digital platforms for real estate

Not all digital platforms are successful ones. It takes a lot of work to get one off the ground – in fact, startups that lack capital and don’t have sufficient teamwork make up for a combined 58 percent of failed digital platforms. The remainder of the failures is due to simply not understanding what the market needs. As a result, for every successful real estate digital platform operating today, there are likely dozens of failed ones.

But when a digital platform gets it right, the results are nothing less than miraculous. Digital platforms for real estate offer a seemingly endless number of opportunities for agents looking to grow their business and investors on the hunt for hot new properties. Here are just a few of the most noteworthy ways that using digital platforms has transformed the entire real estate market.

Increased exposure

The key to both buying and selling properties is to ensure that those properties have the highest amount of visibility and exposure possible. The more eyeballs on a property, the higher the chances are it will change hands – and if you’re an agent looking to help sell your client’s home, for example, you need to ensure that as many people see that property listing as possible. Leveraging the internet and using digital real estate platforms to ensure the properties you’re managing is an efficient and effective methods for increasing that exposure. Roofstock is a great example of this, as listing a rental property on the platform exposes that property to potential buyers that are the exact demographic you may be looking to target.

More leads

If you want to be a successful real estate professional, you know how important it is to market yourself properly. Online marketing is all about lead generation, and you need the right tools to ensure that the effort you put into generating leads has the highest potential return on investment. Using digital platforms in your internet marketing strategy ensures that your efforts will be rewarded by making it easier to reach certain demographics, follow up with leads to funnel them through your pipeline, and eventually convert more leads to clients. The number of online resources that can be used to generate leads, from social media platforms to professional real estate agent pages, is limitless.

Greater flexibility

The key to being successful in the real estate market often comes down to flexibility. This can take many forms, and digital platforms can help both agents and clients by making the process of buying a house quicker, easier, and more convenient. A digital platform like Realty Shares is a prime example of providing flexibility by making real estate investing more accessible to smaller-scale investors by pooling resources and investing in properties in a group. Meanwhile, platforms like Propy speeds up the process of real estate transactions by relying on advanced blockchain database technology that makes those transactions both secure and transparent.

Finally

The list of contributions that technology has made to the real estate industry is a long and unending one. The contributions at the top of that list, the ones that have been made the most recently because of the latest and greatest digital technologies becoming increasingly accessible and reliable, have continued the industry’s long-established evolutionary trend. 

Yet this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. As advanced as today’s tools are, and as helpful and convenient they make the lives of real estate professionals around the globe, there’s no telling what the future may hold. Just as the real estate agents of a generation ago could never have dreamed of being able to host a virtual walk-through of a property that anyone with an internet connection could attend, no matter where they were around the world, the technological innovations of tomorrow currently waiting in the wings will bring even more innovation to the real estate professionals of the future.