The future of residential salesn

THE FUTURE OF RESIDENTIAL SALES

THE COVID PANDEMIC HAS FOCUSED THE EYES OF EVERYONE ON HOW TECHNOLOGY CAN HELP THEM DO THEIR JOBS, AND INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS ARE AVAILABLE FOR RESIDENTIAL SURVEYORS TO IMPROVE THE PROPERTY SELLING PROCESS.

The property industry has reached a crossroads, according CCO of Offr, Philip Farrell: “What is key here, and it’s not just as a result of Covid, is that the property industry is now going through the most radical change in how it operates in 100 years. That is going to continue and is going to be driven by proptech and tech products”. Necessity is the mother of innovation as well as invention, and Covid has woken surveyors up to the need to adopt new technologies. This is something that Jonathan Fenn, Director and Head of Ireland at BidX1, has noticed: “There’s definitely been a tech awakening in our industry since Covid happened. It’s very much been at the front of the transactions. There are a lot of adaptions around digital viewings, 360º tours, digital floorplans, interactive viewings, and that’s all well and good and it’s really improving the outlook for the property and how it appears online. More importantly, we see changes around the bidding and the closing parts. That’s ultimately where our industry needs to make big strides and introduce technology to it. The more transparency we can put around bidding, the more speed we can put around closing the sale, that’s going to have a huge impact on our space”.

FEATURE

Colm Quinn

Journalist and Sub-Editor,

Think Media Jonathan says the company is working with about 20 strategic partners around Ireland and the advantage for these smaller firms is the speed of transactions.

New tech available There are a multitude of companies offering new tech to help surveyors advertise, sell and complete the transaction process. Healy Hines, CEO of Beagel.io, says the company’s platform offers a way for agents to upload properties online and then those interested can view details and make offers online 24 hours a day. Healy explains: “Beagel Bid is a bidding provider; we power the online bidding transaction for the estate agent. We effectively enable them to run their businesses 24 hours a day. We connect the estate agents, their vendors/clients, any purchasers, anybody that’s interested in the property, solicitors, everybody who’s involved in the transaction, and give transparency on the overall bidding process”. When someone expresses interest in a property, they can see what the current offer status is. Once they express an interest in it, they can make offers and be kept updated live with what offers are made on the property. Philip Farrell explains that Offr is a button that sits on the agent’s own website in their branding. When viewing a property, you click the button and a panel will pop up in the agent’s colours. In this panel, buyers can upload proof of ID and proof of funds, register to bid, make bids, make appointments, and complete a virtual viewing and a 3D tour: “It creates one environment for everyone to plug into so they are able to transact in a much more efficient manner. They can submit offers and the agent can decide what conditions they require. The agent must approve people to make their offers. Agents can decide the levels of compliance and details they want from each buyer before they submit their offers”.

IAM Sold Property Auctions runs online auctions and public auctions across the island of Ireland.

Director Patrick Convey explains that IAM Sold fully manages the auction process for the estate agent and supplies them with their own branded auction page for their website: “We support the agents from the appraisal of the property, we issue the auction agreements, get all the compliance, money laundering, etc. Once we get the instruction back in, we liaise with the vendor’s solicitors, get auction packs, carry out the auction marketing and sales support, deal with inquiries for agents and then manage the auctions, be they online or public auction events”. For surveyors who deal with a lot of land and farming property sales, LSL Auctions offers an online auction service. CEO Brendan Hannigan summarises what the system enables surveyors to do: “We’ve created a multimedia upload functionality on our platform that allows videos, plans, photographs and any surveying data to be uploaded. People can watch videos of property or land, or any other information that needs to be uploaded. The system can then be set onto a timed option, for example, starting in a month and running for a month, or starting in a month and running for a day, or it can be for a live option, specifically live for a period of time”.

Adoption time Healy says that with Covid-19: “What agents are realising is that there’s a lot of technology that’s out there to help them improve their businesses and become more efficient”. The two most important pieces of tech residential surveyors should adopt according to Jonathan are something to allow people to bid digitally, whether it’s binding or non-binding, and secondly, a method of allowing legal documents to be listed online. Patrick highlights online bidding and online auctions as important for agents to adopt: “Auctions are a hugely popular method of sale across the globe in the likes of England, Australia and the US. Ireland is really in catch-up mode”. The property industry is one which suffers from a trust issue according to Philip and new tech can

help alleviate this: “The perception in the market is that there are a lot more fake bids than there actually are … If you have someone making an offer and they know anyone else who is bidding has had to go through the exact same process, that gives them comfort. They trust it. They can see on the screen the offers that have been made, so they know it’s much more transparent”. “ AGENTS ARE REALISING THAT THERE’S A LOT OF TECHNOLOGY THAT’S OUT THERE TO HELP THEM IMPROVE THEIR BUSINESSES AND BECOME MORE EFFICIENT. Jonathan says the new technology available to residential surveyors is there to help them and improve the service they offer to clients: “Really, I think another message is when sellers are deciding who they’re going to use when they’re selling something, it’s important for them to now consider technology. It’s all well and good using an agent with a reputation but they need to consider is technology going to be a part of their transaction. Are there going to be digital viewings? Is there going to be digital bidding? Are the legals going to be available in a data room for people to view? Because ultimately for the seller, if these are all there, it’s going to give the buyer a better experience and probably close the sale a bit quicker”.