In the active period of technology development, experts argue about the obsolescent profession of a realtor. Is this really so, or are real estate agents able to adapt to new environment?
The real estate market is one of the most sustainable areas of investment since the beginning of the economy. People always move, children grow up, someone dies, business grows and all this gives life to real estate investment. At the same time, the work scenario for a long time remained at the same level: the appearance of an object — the work of a realtor -search for a buyer / tenant — closing the deal. Technological progress did not seem to look into this area. And only over the past five years, ad aggregators, general databases, and special programs to improve the work of the entire process have begun to appear actively. In 2018, the real estate market brought $ 2.7 trillion to the US economy, which is 13% of GDP. Today, one way or another, this industry employs 2 million people, and corporate profits are $ 10 billion. These statistics reveal huge potential for technology companies.
The pandemic has given a strong boost to digitalization. After appearing of virtual tours, online bidding, document processing and data collection via the Internet, it seems that now the job of a realtor is not needed. The buyer himself finds an apartment on the site, negotiates a deal himself, controls everything himself.
But there is just one thing — the human factor and the experience of a specialist. Being a realtor gives you a sense of security, which is very important where people invest.
What does a realtor’s job look like today?
If earlier people applied to real estate agents as soon as the idea of selling or buying a house appeared, but now, first of all, buyers and sellers look at ads on websites. But then they still turn to the services of professionals to choose the best option, clarify the terms of the deal, organize a virtual or real viewing, and so on. It is at this stage that all technological progress works for the benefit of the agent.
· Artificial intelligence helps to understand the tastes and preferences of customers and suggest options based not only on square meters, but also on hundreds of parameters that are important for a particular investor.
· Aggregators allow you to quickly receive information about new properties, organize online views and make lists of offers suitable for the client.
· Electronic signatures and workflow have reduced the process of transferring ownership from 10 days to 3.
· Targeted advertising helps real estate agents find buyers. The realtor tunes ads for a specific offer and shows it only to those who are looking for something similar.
· Thanks to special programs, real estate agents were able to optimize their work. The routine of filling out the same documents on different sites took up a lot of time that could be spent on searching and negotiating with clients. This direction is a priority for companies. Today, programs and applications are being created to further accelerate the work of a realtor from developing marketing campaigns to automatically scheduling meetings.
Since 2014, Fincase has been developing the performance of Russian largest banks, departments and developers with its innovative IT solutions. Market analysis and a survey of 100 top realtors in Moscow showed that the main problems in their work are related to calculating the market value of property and checking its legal purity. We focused our attention on solving these problems.
New tool for real estate brokers.
In 2021, the Fincase team is launching a new service for the automated appraisal of real estate units. The main advantage of the project is the combination of speed, information reliability and the ease of use. The object is evaluated in 3 seconds and the report is given to the user along with a list of similar offers. In addition, for our clients we prepare a quarterly summary with average prices and infrastructure development for each district of Moscow.
Тo check the legal purity of property, we create a united integrator platform with the necessary information sources. Now lawyers check the data on the transaction on more than 10 different websites. Aggregation of all resources will make the check many times faster and eliminate errors due to the human factor.
In the future, the profession of a realtor will reach a new level. It will not be service personnel for the selection of proposals and preparation of documents. The main role of a realtor is a negotiator. He, as a third neutral party, will help settle all issues between the buyer and the seller. This is its value in today’s real estate market. No wonder the motto of the world’s leading real estate company SCRP “Technology is a tool, people are a priority”. Technology can make the transaction process cheaper, faster and easier, but it will never replace building personal relationships. And this is important in any industry, in any business, and at any time.
Of course, automation and innovation are not cheap, but according to Mark Krebs, CRP, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage: “There is no turning back, now the main thing is to keep up with progress.
Dmitry Tsyplakov, CPO of Fincase.
