THE NEXT SHINY THING

The next shiny thing

Fred Lee, Senior Manager, Digital Product Development

As a real estate professional, you are exposed to a continuous stream of products promising to propel your business forward with leading edge technology. Have you invested in a smart lock box connected to an app on your phone? Do you now have illuminated lawn signs with beacon technology to automatically push listing details to consumers? Can the chatbot on your website tell if the person with whom it is chatting is happy or unhappy? It is easy to get lost in all the amazing ways that real estate technology can help your business, but let's take a look at some of the innovations that are worth tracking.

How to size up the latest tech trends in real estate

Business Intelligence

We can assume consumer inquiries from your website currently feed into your Client Relationship Management (CRM) system, helping you manage all of your leads and contacts in one place. And, you likely have some automation built in to quickly configure email marketing campaigns and other promotional materials without too much effort. However, there are new systems on the horizon that will tailor your services for each client with even less effort.

The advent of both artificial intelligence (AI) and big data, along with systems that communicate with each other, will help you nurture both existing and new client relationships. If an existing contact browses listings on your website after a long period of dormancy, you can receive a notification if the system detects that they are doing more than just kicking tires. This alert can then trigger the generation of shareable reports including home valuation, market trends and demographics, demonstrating both your attentiveness and expertise.

A chatbot can help you manage simple questions from many of your clients or prospects, allowing you more time to meet with clients who are actively engaged in buying or selling a home. Integrated systems like these are already available and should be the standard as this technology matures. DRONE FLYTHROUGHS Today, drones can record smooth interior flythroughs that are streamed to anyone who requests a tour.

Drones, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

Technology is making the world more accessible. Homebuyers can now visualize their new home without physically visiting the property.

We’ve all seen those videos where the camera frames a home and then pulls away to show the winding driveway, the pond, and the forest that surrounds the house. But drone technology has advanced in the last few years. Today, drones can record smooth interior flythroughs that are streamed to anyone who requests a tour. It’s not a stretch to imagine connecting with a client on the other side of the country while you both watch a video tour streamed from a drone that is controlled by a smart phone. The next leap is to control a drone while wearing a VR headset to become completely immersed in the experience. Given the accessibility of both drone and VR technology, and the added security of removing the need to let strangers into a home they don’t own, it is surprising that VR drone tours aren’t more prevalent.

As a client views a potential home, they will try to imagine the space with their own finishings and decor. A Google search for “virtual staging real estate” will result in a host of virtual staging products and services that use augmented reality (AR) technology to render real spaces with your client’s decor.

Voice

When watching science fiction television shows, have you noticed how often systems are controlled by spoken commands? Today, what was once purely fantasy is now reality. The growth in AI technology has allowed us to train machines to understand our words and the meaning behind groups of words. As proven by the investments in voice technology by organizations like Apple, Amazon and Google, it is apparent that voice will change the way we operate our businesses.

TYPING? 212 WORDS PER MINUTE | SPEAKING? 586 WORDS PER MINUTE

How will voice change things? First, it’s faster to speak than to type. The world record for typing is 212 words per minute. Speaking? 586. As real estate professionals, we are probably better speakers than typers. Voice also frees up our hands, making us more efficient. The ability to manage communications and operate systems while our hands are engaged in driving, carrying lawn signs, or staging an open house will better help us manage our already hectic days. Don’t we already spend enough time looking at screens? Typing on a keyboard, be it your laptop or mobile device, and straining to look at the screen, does nothing to help our physical and mental well being. There is hope that voice will free us from our devices, allowing us to engage in more activities while remaining productive.

You will continue to be deluged with promises of an app, gadget or technology service that will double your efficiency. Many of these will be worth your time, even if just for the novelty. However, when evaluating a new technology, consider how it can add value by providing you ways to understand your clients, the degree to which it eliminates barriers to providing the best customer service, and how it makes you more efficient and productive.

royallepage.ca

When searching for a new home, what is most important to your clients? Attributes such as square footage, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and parking spaces are easily configured in most online searches, and many list nearby grocery stores, schools, and restaurants too. But do these attributes offer enough information to assess a neighbourhood?

Our national website, royallepage.ca equips consumers with the critical information they need to make the right choice. We offer Canadian consumers a combination of options that paint a robust picture of each neighbourhood.

41 MILLION VISITS/YEAR | OVER 182,000 LEADS/YEAR*

Every listing on royallepage.ca includes a map indicating the availability of local amenities along with a scoring system for nearby green spaces, transit accessibility and entertainment that add to a neighbourhood’s appeal. By selecting important attributes, an aggregate is applied to score search results to identify those listings that best match the homebuyer’s needs. Consumers can go beyond finding homes that simply match their price and housing type, and choose a property that truly fits their lifestyle.

These additional tools not only identify choice listings, they also provide us with valuable consumer insights. This year, those insights led us to build a new easy-to-use home search by school name. Consumers are shown a map of homes for sale in the area, with a highlighted school catchment area, if applicable. Royal LePage is currently the only real estate company to offer this type of search feature.

Royal LePage is committed to providing innovative solutions to drive more traffic and increase consumer engagement on royallepage.ca, to ensure more leads for you.

POWERFUL SCHOOL SEARCH:

Royal LePage is currently the only real estate company to offer this type of search feature.

1. royallepage.ca directs consumers to a robust property search within a school area

The search immediately provides the user with the searched school, its service area and nearby listings

3. The user can also filter by school type, language and education level

4. The user can view more details about the school, such as its performance and board

Watch video to learn more about School Search

Explore

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