Technology is Changing the Real Estate Landscape

5 Ways Technology has Changed Real Estate

In just a few short years, technology has totally reinvented the real estate industry. If you have not bought or sold a home in the past few years, you will find the process hast totally changed.

Technology today is making things easier for home buyers, sellers, and agents alike. Being able to access thousands of real estate listings without having to call real estate agents every five minutes allows buyers to narrow their home search on their own. Sellers are able to get a BPO or CMA in seconds so they know how to keep their listing competitive too.

Whether you are selling real estate or buying a new home, technology will make the process substantially easier than just a few years ago.

Buyers Becoming Reliant on the Internet

Unlike the days when your Realtor had to do everything for you when you were eager to find a home, today more than 90 percent of buyers use the internet as their main research tool. This is a win for both sides because the listing agent doesn’t have to spend countless hours showing the property to unqualified buyers, and it gives the potential buyer the chance to tell in a glance if this is a house they really want.

Buyers can pull up to a residence, do a search online for the property  and take a virtual tour of the inside of the house without ever even getting out of their vehicle or call an agent. These tools help to eliminate time wasted in homes that are not the perfect fit and allows the Realtor to focus on finding the right home before another buyer makes an offer.

When you are buying a home, every second counts because another homebuyer could bid the house right from under you while you are driving around all day with your Realtor looking at houses. Buyers could look inside a hundred houses today without ever leaving their house and without having to take real estate agents away from closing more deals.

Technology and the Property Owner

When selling your home, technology can make the process move along much easier too. The seller has use of the camera on their phone to take exceptional pictures of the home, then upload them to the listing and make changes instantly.  Although the photos from a smartphone is easy — if you want to get top dollar for your property, you will want to invest in  professional photos.

While the Realtor is out finding qualified buyers, the seller could be improving the listing so when potential buyers are surfing the web, this property jumps out at them. By cutting down on some of the work the realtor has to do, the agents can focus on bringing more buyers to the table.

The internet has even opened the door for the “for sale by owner” folks to reach out to discount real estate brokers for a little assistance without being strapped to pay full commissions. By utilizing these new types of real estate brokerage models to help with a few aspects of the sale, the FSBO sellers move their listings faster for bigger profits, and the discount broker still makes a small commission on a sale they were never a part of in the past.

Secure Funding from the Bank Easily

One of the things that would consume a tremendous amount of time for the real estate agent was helping their

clients to secure funding. In the past, many Realtors would recommend a mortgage broker to their clients based on speed and professional relationship.

Those relationships are not as valuable to the client any longer because potential buyers can utilize the internet to get an approval from a large number of banks in hours. If the buyers have exceptional credit, many loaning institutions will fight over them by offering the lowest possible terms.

Sites like Rocket Loans gives the buyer the opportunity to enter their credit information once, and then dozens of potential banking institutions reach out to provide the mortgage. Being in a position to bring a mortgage commitment to the table is something that sellers find very favorable and can often open the doors to other negotiations down the road.

Gathering Information on the Home Quickly

Technology is blazing along faster each day, and it has impacted the real estate market in more ways than many realize. It was only a few years ago that you would have to be calling your real estate agent every five minutes with questions about local school systems or the safety of a particular neighborhood.

With so many factors that go into the ultimate buying decision, the buyers have the ability to use the internet to narrow down that search based on unique parameters. There are websites that will compare the ratings of local schools, as well as crime statistics for a city or neighborhood.

Social media sites like Facebook allow anyone to join a real estate Facebook group and inquire about the schools, crime, shopping, and leisure activities in the area too. Rather than have the real estate agent try to get some details, the buyers can get specific answers to the tough questions before even scheduling a viewing of a potential property.

A Property is Available Instantly

It was only a decade ago that sellers would have to wait until their listing hit the MLS or realty publications before it was seen by potential buyers. If the house was not getting any action, the seller would lower the price and chase the market, encouraging buyers to move faster but at the same time killing a large portion of potential profits.

Sellers would often settle for less than the house was worth in an effort to move sooner. Things are different today because the second a real estate listing goes live or the price is dropped, thousands of potential buyers get immediate notification via the internet.

Not only does this create a larger pool of potential buyers, these buyers can locate attractively priced properties as soon as they go live. Instead of losing the house to other buyers, these notifications can put you first in line to a property that drops within your price range.

Although there are many types of real estate websites and is constantly changing, it doesn’t mean Realtors are going to be losing their jobs any time soon. With the buyers and sellers making use of more technology, it only means more people will come to the realtor when they are ready to make the purchase or sell their home.