I have a feeling that people think of real estate as an old industry, where not much has changed in a long time. For many real estate people, this is certainly true. They do most of their work visiting houses and doing phone calls with people. When it’s time to lease or buy, then some physical paper is signed. In this article, I look at how this is mostly still true, but I also look at how this is changing. And a few tips for getting your tech right.
The old ways
Real estate agents that I’m familiar aren’t known for their technical sophistication. They’re not shy about it either! “I’m not good with computers” is a common thing I hear. This means that they’re not trying to skill up on tech and make use of the new tools that are available for real estate agents to take advantage of. Paper forms are the norm. Even the plans for the buildings that you get when you buy a house or condo are big paper plans. Where is the digital version of these plans? No-one knows. It’s just how it is.
When it comes to the house itself, sometimes new and fancy technology is used in the house itself, and then the agent has to really skill up to be able to sell it. They’ll describe how the security system on a villa is set up with 6 cameras, all with “night vision”, and how there’s an alarm system, and a number of other factors. But really, they’ve just memorized some sentences about the system, they don’t fully know how to operate the tech. And I think in the past, that was okay. It wasn’t seen as their job to be a technical person. But that is changing.
The new way
Young real estate agents all have iPhones. They’re familiar with using apps like Zillow to help you zoom in on the region you want to live in. They’re “digital natives” like me. When young buyers / renters see this, they’re reassured, because they feel the agent gets them, they feel understood. But when they get to the agent’s office, they’re disappointed. The old methods of doing things still apply. Paper everywhere. Long waits. Unclear processes. And so on. Of course, the older agents say that you can’t learn all of this in school. But the younger generation don’t see why they need to be trained to use new technology. They’ve already been using it. They assume it’ll be used in the work they do.
I want to look at some of the new ways that real estate agents are using technology.
It’s all about the photos
When my parents and I are looking to buy a house, I’m going to do a lot of research, and this means looking at a lot of photos of the house. I’m looking for specific things like the size of the yard, and the view. And when I’m looking, I’m going to look at a lot of houses. And I want to compare the houses as I look at them, so I need to be able to go back to the photos.
The agent knows this, so they’ve made sure that the photos are super high quality. But then, what do I do with the photos? I want to be able to share them with the professional people that I always ask (like architects or electricians), because when I’m looking for a house, I’m often looking with my parents, who know these kinds of people. So we want to be able to show each other the photos. Or I want to show a real estate agent a photo to ask them what they think. I could use email, or I could use a file sharing service like Dropbox. But I could also use a real estate agent’s own photo service, if they had one!
A real estate photo service
When you’re looking for a house, you’re likely to have a lot of questions about it. For example, the agent might ask you if you have any questions about the house, and of course you do, but it’s too hard to list them all right then when you’re in person. I might want to ask: “What are the dimensions of the master bedroom?” And then I can ask a follow up question: “what are the dimensions of the master bedroom including closets?” I can send these questions to the agent via email and they can send me back the answers. But I don’t want to send the questions and answers over email!! It’s too annoying.
When I’m looking at a photo of the house, if I’m on my phone, I can take a screenshot and draw on it. I can add notes and arrows to show what I mean. I can send this annotated photo to the agent and they can send me back their comments.
I can also ask the agent questions about the house in real time. For example, I can send them a photo on iMessage and ask them to tell me what they think. Or I can send them a photo and ask them what they think the house might be worth if it’s worked on. I can do this in real time, while I’m looking at the house. And I can have them send me their comments back over iMessage too.
Getting your tech right
So if you’re a real estate agent, and you are able to use these basic tools and tech, it makes me want to work with you. I definitely don’t want to work with you if you can’t manage a computer or manage opening my attachments on email. When I’m buying a house, I’m going to be using a real estate agent to help me. So I want this agent to be able to communicate with me in real time and to be able to provide me with information right away. I want to be able to ask them questions like: “what’s the asking price for this house?” or “what’s the estimated closing time?” and I want to get answers in real time. And I have to think of the deal in terms of all the moving parts. For example, I’m going to be buying a house, but I’m also going to be selling my condo. So I have to think of the two deals together. I want to be able to send photos of both my condo and my new house and ask the agent to manage different parts of the deal. There are tools out there that do this kind of thing I’m sure. If you know any new ones, please let me know!
But get your basic tech right from the beginning. Get yourself an iPhone. If you haven’t already, or you’ve been holding out, get your listings on Zillow. Be able to do Zoom calls. Learn how to open attachments, learn how to annotate a screenshot, it’s all easy stuff, but it helps hugely.