These trends will bring change that causes benefits and some amount of disruption given the ellipse that your business intersects with them.
Let’s take a look at them here.
PropTech
While PropTech really isn’t a specific technology, it’s a vital term to know if you want to stay current in the field. Like how FinTech describes the technology used within the financial services industry, PropTech (Property Technology) refers to the application of technology within the real estate industry. It’s the digital innovations that assist individuals in buying, selling, researching and managing properties.
Although the real estate industry was slow to climb on the technology bandwagon, PropTech is now moving full speed ahead. In the first half of 2019, venture capitalists invested $12.9 billion in real estate tech startups.
PropTech is changing the industry rapidly, disrupting the established ways that real estate professionals have done business for decades. So, staying relevant in the real estate industry means embracing this new term and leveraging it to incorporate these new technologies into your business.
Big Data and Predictive Analytics
If you are looking for a competitive advantage within the industry, it is time to incorporate data and analytics into your business.
Thanks to our constant use of technology, there’s a massive amount of data that’s generated and collected. Individual data points may not tell you a whole lot, but then patterns emerge when these data points are combined and analyzed. This is where predictive analytics come in to play. Predictive analytics allow businesses and individuals to anticipate consumer behavior based on the patterns found in past and present data.
Need help generating leads? Predictive marketing can help you identify individuals who are likely to be selling or buying a home soon. Using analytics to find leads can save you time and help you reduce your marketing budget.
Artificial Intelligence and Chatbots
Customers expect immediate answers to their real estate inquiries, and if you want to have a competitive edge in the industry you must respond with a sense of urgency.
Worried that you can’t keep up? Don’t be. With the advances in artificial intelligence, chatbots can become your new best friend. Chatbots or virtual assistants can answer queries and ask relevant questions that will help you get to know customers (and their needs) ahead of time. By using virtual assistants, you can take the stress out of qualifying and following up with leads. In turn, this leaves you time to focus on additional important tasks for growing your business.
And since chatbots respond instantly 24/7, you no longer have to worry about missing those late-night messages after you go to bed.
Blockchain
Blockchain technology allows real estate transactions to be made securely, transparently and without a middleman. Blockchain also allows real estate professionals to create smart contracts by digitizing information (i.e., the “block”) and storing it in a database (i.e., the “chain) that’s public but 100% encrypted.
Instead of having an intermediary verify the legitimacy of the transaction, the process is completed by a network of thousands of computers scattered across the globe. After the details of the deal have been confirmed by the network, the information and digital signatures of the participants are recorded, given an identification code and stored across all the computers in the network.
Since each of the thousands of computers has its own copy of the transaction, the information is nearly impossible to hack. Furthermore, the transaction is recorded without the personal information of the participants. So, while others can see their digital signature or username, there’s no real way to identify them.
