Given the amount of stress that goes into buying or selling a house, technology is certainly a huge factor when it comes to making the process easier than it used to be. With social media, new gadgets and various apps, buying and selling a house has become a very electronic experience.
One piece of technology that has been gaining much attention in real estate is the new Matterport 3D Showcase camera, which promises a more innovative and convenient approach to home buying.
“No longer will you have a normal virtual tour, and no longer will you look at a flat floor plan,” said J.P. Endres, Manager at the New City sales office of Better Homes and Gardens Rand Realty. “You will now be able to go onto a website and walk through a house as if you are physically walking through the house, and that is going to change the way buyers view property.”
It isn’t a surprise that the Millennial generation is seen as significant in the real estate industry, and Millennials have become increasingly used to mobile technology. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), 26 percent of young homebuyers, who bought a home in 2014, did so after first researching it on a smartphone or tablet.
“There is no question that you are going to see a huge percentage change every year with the amount of people who are looking at properties from their phones, iPads and tablets,” said Endres. “No longer are people waiting to go home to their desktops or laptops. Everything is mobile.”
Last month, Better Homes and Gardens released information from a recent survey that revealed how women of the Millennial generation (women who are 35 and under) prefer smart technology and integrated design in their homes. More than 1,600 female homeowners living in single-family homes participated in the survey.
“Smart technology is completely desirable,” said Endres. “I think it’s a huge trend in a lot of areas. You can go to your front door today with your phone and not use a key, and it recognizes that it’s you. You can have alarm systems today that work from your phone. There is software available for heating and cooling in your home today that learns the temperature you prefer for a certain room. There’s a whole world coming down of what we’re going to experience,” said Endres.”
The use of video has also become important, which is evident in a statistic provided by NAR that states that 70 percent of homeowners prefer to list their home with an agent by using video, but less than one percent of agents provide that option, however, there are methods to make property videos, and agents can look on connect.homes.com for further help.
“Not every agent has been utilizing these methods, but the ones who have been using them have been quite successful in marketing their properties to the fullest capacity,” said Rachael Heiss, Business Development Manager at the New City sales office of Better Homes and Gardens Rand Realty. “I found that some agents will hire professionals to take a tour video, and although other agents have gone on a simpler route with this technology, their videos still hold the same amount of marketing power when created by using online tools, such as Videolicious and the Youtube video-capture app. Joe Rand has done a really great job in training all of our agents to utilize these different applications, and he’s demonstrated multiple times how easy it is to create a listing video.”
Rand Realty has also been working with several companies that provide the tools that are needed to keep up with the latest technology.
“Rand has created a partnership with Dotloop, which is where we manage our transactions electronically, and we can obtain electronic signatures from our clients on all of our documentation that’s necessary to complete a transaction,” said Heiss. “They’ve also formed a collaboration with Amitree, which is a system that helps organize the closing process for our buyer clients, and it leads them through a check-list system for all of the items that need to be complete prior to closing on a property. We also, most recently, joined with Matterport, which enables us to do 3D virtual tours, which no other real estate company in the area is currently doing, and this is something that we are offering on our Distinctive Collection properties.”
There is also social media to consider. With the popularity of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and Pinterest, these sites have created efficient ways for agents to reach potential clients.
There are also many real estate apps out there for the agents’ use. During the November 2014 National Association of Realtors Expo in New Orleans, there were 15 real estate apps that were discussed that are expected to become big in 2015, such as Carrot, Dashlane, Pebble and Genius Scan.
Although buying and selling a home can be difficult processes, there is also a certain thrill to it because of all of the modern technological outlets that can greatly assist you during this journey. If you fully embrace the benefits that these new gadgets, websites, and apps have to offer, you will definitely have a much easier time when involving yourself with real estate.
To learn more about Rand Realty, visit their website and Facebook page, and make sure to “Like” their page. You can also follow them on Twitter.