How Real Estate consultants change themselves to be Tech Savvy and how it is useful for their Business

Technology and Internet have led to a paradigm shift in all the industries including Real Estate. In our own experience as Realtors, we have seen how our sector has evolved with these changing trends and how the attitude of the customers has also changed. From a task as simple as paying a telephone bill to a task as complex like buying/selling a house; Internet empowers the customer with efficient solutions and supportive information that helps them in moving one step ahead towards making the final decision. As per the researches done, today more than 90% of the customers initiate their home buying process through their mobile devices. The good part is that though technology increases the knowledge of the customer when it comes to Real Estate, but it cannot replace the human touch and that is why every customer will need a Real Estate Consultant to help them make their final decision. Internet has brought in a shift in the role of Real Estate Consultant from being the keeper of the listing to a guide and a negotiator for their client.     

Real Estate has evolved from being a traditional local brokers business. Gone are those days when the customers used to completely rely only on Real Estate brokers and agents for all the information required for their home search. The property portals now provide sufficient and the right amount of information in just a few clicks so that customer knows what he/she want and what fits in their budget. The role of an agent has now shifted from the first point of contact to a Consultant whom the buyer finally contacts for an expert opinion, guidance on financial planning and a quicker closure. Even with so much of information and facilities available online, in the end you would still need a Property Consultant to guide you through the process as the information available online is not sufficient to crack a transaction. You would always need proper expertise from the time of the booking till the last piece of documentation is complete.

Internet is now the first point of contact when it comes to research and it has a huge influence on the final decision. With so many opportunities available sitting in your comfort zone and without doing the leg work, online Real Estate helps the buyer to search for properties in a city where he/she doesn’t reside. Online resources provide us with all the requisite information to do their preliminary home research without actually visiting the project site. With maximum amount of information provided about a particular property with reference to the property details, prices, locations, 360 degree view, nearby amenities, contact details of the Consultant, price and feature comparisons with other similar projects etc; the trend of researching online is the technique followed by most of the home buyers now days. Also, seeing the success rates and the increased number of individuals using these platforms, the online portals have started incorporating processes to verify the listings and avoid any kind incorrect listing on their portal. The Real Estate consultants are trying to hold the pulse of the industry and are launching user-friendly websites and mobile applications to ensure a strong web presence.  

Moreover the age bracket of people buying or investing in property has drastically gone down and a lot of young people who are tech savvy prefer to go online before anything that they purchase, be it a phone or the most expensive investment of their lifetime i.e. their home. They look for listings through mobile apps and websites for searching the house they want and then consult a Real Estate professional who could show them the properties they have shortlisted. With Internet having so much influence on the final buying decision of today’s consumer, most of the retailers like Snapdeal, Amazon, Flipkart etc are working heavily on their app based shopping platforms as they are getting majority of traffic from the mobiles. Moreover, a lot of “angel investors” have been investing in these start –ups to capitalize on this booming market.     

Online presence also enables the delivery of more consistent and effective customer services. Through the availability of information online, not only will the end-user have a faster access and retrieval of the information but the customers can also look up to availability of timely, accurate and transparent information; especially in the cases that involves compliance and regulatory information. Our sector demands transparency in processes and the information that is shared with the buyers and we feel that having all the information online will introduce structure and transparency to our sector. The shift from the paper records to digital records management and maintenance is capable of providing more authentic and reliable information.

Today’s consumer goes online for the maximum portion of information that they are looking for to support their buying decision. They love to watch the videos, virtual home tours and read reviews about specific brands and their offerings and then consult a Real Estate professional to bridge this gap between their Internet research and actual home visit. There was a time when there was no Internet and the Brokers and the Real Estate agents only had the control over all the information related to buying and selling of the properties. Internet has led to reinvention of the role of a Broker Owner/ Agent and they now have to add more value to what a buyer has already seen online. Every passing day will add more and more information and facilities online, but at the same time every buyer would need a professional Real Estate Consultant to guide that buyer in making the best use of one of the costliest investment that he/ she is going to make.

Today’s customer need a Real Estate Consultant, who can provide a perfect blend of FIT (Fulfillment, Inventory and Technology) in their hunt to buy their dream homes with least hassles. With customers using their mobile phones to search the properties and other Real Estate information, the concept of property portals tying up with Real Estate Consultants to offer last mile services and a one-stop shop to all the customers is the need of the hour. The digital world has connected the property owners, property buyers and investors and companies are making huge financial investments in tools and technologies to support their associates with their online marketing efforts. We would like to conclude by the saying, “To affect the real world, you have to be in the real world” and with the kind of field experience that Real Estate Consultants have, every home buyer/seller will still prefer consulting them to finalize and purchase their dream home. 

Future of Real Estate Franchising in India

Investing in any business requires the right mindset, planning and a risk taking appetite and when we think about how we had decided of getting RE/MAX in India, we go back to our thoughts of taking this high growth potential industry in India and clubbing it with a global, time tested franchise opportunity. Indian Realty Brokerage is a $6 billion market and we had introduced RE/MAX into India with the aim of professionalizing this industry in order to not only provide better services to the customer but also ensure that we work towards upgrading the status that a “Real Estate Broker” has in the society.  

We all have at some point of our lives come across with a property dealer, whether to buy a property, rent it, or sell it off for ourselves. Most of us perceive the broker to be an unprofessional part-timer opportunist who would either inflate property prices / rentals or make money from the buyer by selling it at a premium or hide vital details about the property which the buyer would come to know only after moving in. But at the same time, real estate brokerage is a highly lucrative business. A good transaction gives you king size commission and that is the reason why everyone wants to add Real Estate as one of their investment portfolios. There is a tremendous business opportunity in the field of Real Estate and with India now becoming a hub of franchisees, a lot of old and established players are expanding their footprints , looking for like –minded people who want to take their business to the next league. With RE/MAX, our vision was to bring in the same level of professionalism in the Indian Real Estate Brokerage industry that exists in the developed countries.

Real Estate Brokerage is evolving as a profession and it is no doubt transforming into a more organized and structured industry, presenting huge opportunities for educated professionals with entrepreneurial aspirations. This thought brings us to the topic that “How Real Estate Franchising works towards growing your business”. Let us just take a look on some key factors relating to the current Real Estate scenario and how as RE/MAX we have tried to make a difference:

Need for a Consulting Professional: With the growing number of people involved in Real Estate and the changing profile of the Real Estate clientele in our country, there is a need for this industry to work better. The customers want to deal with a professional Real Estate Consultant who is presentable and offers quality services along with counseling to help them make the best decision on their investment. The customers want to deal with a trained resource and want to be sure about the credentials of his/her Broker/Agent. In such an environment, RE/MAX helps our Associates to add that assurance that the customer is dealing with a well reputed organization that offers great customer service and experience. The brand definitely plays a very vital role in reassuring the trust in the hearts and minds of the customers.

Revolving Door Philosophy and Unsatisfactory Commission Sharing: In most of the cases, a Real Estate agent is an employee of an organization who gets a fixed salary and a commission of around 10% – 20% on every transaction. In such cases, what happens at the end is that in search of better opportunities and attractive incentives, there is a constant job hopping especially by the educated and qualified professionals who get better pay packages in the next organization they start working for. This leads to the lack of trust in the customers mind about the reliability of the Agent. RE/MAX on the other hands promotes “Entrepreneurship”; wherein the Agent works for himself but not by himself. With RE/MAX, an agent has an opportunity to gain a maximum percentage of the commission. This not only motivates him/her to service the customer to the best of their abilities but also gives an opportunity to earn more worth for his investments in terms of time and effort made into completing the transaction.

Emergence of one-stop-shops: The present day customer looks for an access to maximum number of properties under the same roof as it makes the process more efficient, manageable and more over saves a lot of time that gets wasted in going from broker to broker to find the right property. With the varied profiles of the entrepreneurs associated with RE/MAX, a RE/MAX Broker Office acts as a one-stop-shop for all kinds of leads related to buy/sell/rent/lease along with additional services under the same roof. To offer more convenience to the customers, the Associate can always connect him/her to the fellow Associates in the network to meet the requirements thus making it a win-win proposition for both parties.

Cut throat competition: With a low entry barrier that Real Estate has, we find anyone and everyone doing Real Estate directly or indirectly. Just to gain more business, many agents end up giving discounts to their customers and these discounts impact on the post sales services offered by these Agents. On the same hand, at RE/MAX we train our Associates on getting and promoting “Exclusive Listing and Mandates”. An exclusive mandate not only safeguards the associates time and interest in the listing but also helps in getting the best possible price in least possible time through dedicated advertising and marketing of the listing. Exclusive Mandates have worked beautifully for our Associates as well as customers. The customer does not have to go to any other Broker during that time frame and the Associate dedicates all his resources towards that particular listing.    

Network as Networth: In Real Estate, a good network lets you attract more leads, generate referrals and thus generate more business. The conventional way of doing business within a confined territory has moved to doing of business not only nationally but globally. RE/MAX with a presence in 95 + countries with more than 7,000 offices globally and a network of 100 plus offices in 30+ cities in India, helps our Associates to take advantage of this extensive network. The global referral network of RE/MAX has build networking tools that connects the brokers and the agents all over the world.

Technology innovating the Real Estate Business:  Technology has completely changed the way we operate and has helped us in making our lives easier. Features like an interactive website, mobile apps, search engine optimization, google adwords, social media, tie-ups with property portals etc are some testimonies of the significance of the technology in Real Estate. RE/MAX offers a myriad of services when it comes to technology which has changed the way our Associates operate. With facilities like Contact Database Management Systems, RESAAS, online buyer referral matches, Design Center etc our Associates give their customers an added advantage of giving them options to buy and sell globally. Moreover the Broker Office set up is such that the Associates get every kind of administrative and back end support when it comes to technology so that they utilize their time and resources in doing productive work of closing transactions.  

Real Estate is shifting towards the paradigm of getting more regulated, organized and professional and so have the business practices evolved to match up to this growth. A lot of International consultancies and brokerage firms are paving their way to the Indian realty market and the investors today trust and rely on Real Estate Consultants like RE/MAX when it comes fair dealing, commitment and multiple services under one roof. The new age brokers have begun their journey from being Brokers to Real Estate Consultants and this is what we have been preaching since the time we came to India. We have always been working on building a healthier and cleaner perception of the broker community and in a short time span of 6 years, RE/MAX with its network has been able to build up an image of Honesty, Integrity and Trust as the core value of its Associates.  

To organize the Brokerage sector, we realized that one would need a team of professional Real Estate agents who would like to do business at a bigger scale not only locally and nationally, but internationally as well. With this there arose a need of having an established and organized player in the Indian market that can act as a differentiator by adding more value and services to cater to the rapidly evolving needs of the customer.  Building of such a business requires heavy investment, a team of experts and a wide spread network to reach out to maximum number of people. This was when we realized that getting a franchise like RE/MAX into the Indian market would be helpful in taking Indian Real Estate to a level in which it operates in developed countries. With our franchise opportunities, we aim at providing a local, regional, national and global network, world-class training, advanced technology platform, power of collective marketing and a host of support services that help our franchise owners and business associates in taking their Real Estate business to a next level!   

Depreciating rupee and appreciating NRI Real Estate Market in India

As a matter of fact, when the rupee depreciates, the Indian Real Estate sector becomes more affordable as well as profitable for NRI investors. The Indian realty market has always been a lucrative option for investment.  Ideally the depreciation of rupee should have a positive impact as it gives a direct financial benefit to the NRI’s as their affordability increases because of dollar appreciation.

Indian Real Estate is one of the fastest growing sectors which give good return on your investment. For anyone who invests in dollars, the cost of buying that property comes down to nearly 20 – 25%. It has undoubtedly increased the purchasing power of the NRI’s and the kind of profits they earn and the capital appreciation that they see becomes comparatively very high. In addition to it, the developers are also taking keen interest in capturing this NRI interest. With announcing of a lot of schemes like discounts on down payment, attractive payment plans etc; a lot has already been happening to attract NRI investments to the Indian market. Conducting of property shows and events in some parts of the world where people of Indian origin are based further adds to the opportunities available for their investment. 

In our recommendation, it is always good for NRI’s to make use of such opportunities if they are looking for a long term return on their investments. If you go through the reports of some Real Estate players, the markets of both Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities are already witnessing an increased level of interest by NRI buyers. It has been seen that the luxury Real Estate has always been of major attraction to the NRI’s but the markets like Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Pune, Punjab, Calcutta, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Chennai, Coimbatore, Trivandrum, Cochin, Trichur, Calicut, Bangalore, Mysore etc are seeing rising NRI interest in both residential as well as commercial Real Estate. We should be hopeful of seeing some good transactions taking in the coming months. Keeping in mind all the factors, anyone who wants to avail this opportunity will have to make quick decisions as the property market of India and the rupee keeps fluctuating. So if the NRI’s want to invest back in their homeland, this is the time to make that lifetime investment.  Moreover the investment procedure in real estate has been greatly simplified for the NRIs making it all the more attractive to them. Adding to the list of advantages, the NRIs can also avail great tax benefits by investing in real estate in India as most of the countries have a double-taxation avoidance agreement with India.

So though this decline in the value of the rupee is being successful in fetching the NRI interest in the Indian market, but it is also time for the developers to do much more than just increasing the inventory in the market. The market is full of negative sentiments due to the delays in the delivery of the projects faced by most of the customers. The NRI’s are taking maximum advantage of the current scenario and are expecting maximum benefits from the same. To keep up to their expectations and also to boost the future investments, the realtors need to focus more on the delivery part of the project. The untimely delivery may act as a hurdle for the current as well as future investments. The attractive propositions available in the market along with the stable property prices make a perfect blend for NRI investors to invest at such times. My suggestion is to make optimum usage of such opportunities to bring back funds to the sector. It will also have a direct impact on the domestic enquiries and will give the much needed psychological relief to the market sentiments.

At this point of time, buying of the properties from an investment point of view becomes one good option for the ones who look for long term returns. To all the NRI’s, it comes as one of the most preferred investment as it also comes as an additional income to them in addition to being a safe long term investment. Indian realty market has a variety of options that suit their preferences and their budget as well. However the current market sentiments are pretty low, so they might act as a hurdle in making the final purchasing decision.  It is the time when the realty players need to take the right actions to make it a profitable proposition to both the parties.  

Booming Online Real Estate Sector

It is very interesting to see these new trends taking up the traditional methods of doing Real Estate. It is a fact that gone are those days when the customers used to completely  rely only on Real Estate brokers and agents for all the information required for their home search. The property portals now provide sufficient and the right amount of information in just a few clicks so that customer knows what he/she want and what fits in their budget. The role of an agent has now shifted from the first point of contact to a Consultant whom the buyer finally contacts for an expert opinion, guidance on financial planning and a quicker closure. Even with so much of information and facilities available online, in the end you would still need a Property Consultant to guide you through the process as the information available online is not sufficient to crack a transaction. You would always need proper expertise from the time of the booking till the last piece of documentation is complete. Internet has been successful in shifting their role from the keeper of the listing to a guide and a negotiator for their client.

Internet is now the first point of contact when it comes to research and it has a huge influence on the final decision. With so many opportunities available sitting in your comfort zone and without doing the leg work, online Real Estate helps the buyer to search for properties in a city where he/she doesn’t reside. Online resources provide us with all the requisite information to do their preliminary home research without actually visiting the project site. With maximum amount of information provided about a particular property with reference to the property details, prices, locations, 360 degree view, nearby amenities, contact details of the Consultant, price and feature comparisons with other similar projects etc; the trend of researching online is the technique followed by most of the home buyers now days. Also, seeing the success rates and the increased number of individuals using these platforms, the online portals have started incorporating processes to verify the listings and avoid any kind incorrect listing on their portal.

Moreover the age bracket of people buying or investing in property has drastically gone down and a lot of young people who are technically savvy prefer to go online before anything that they purchase, be it a phone or the most expensive investment of their lifetime i.e. their home. They look for listings through mobile apps and websites for searching the house they want and then consult a Real Estate professional who could show them the properties they have shortlisted. With Internet having so much influence on the final buying decision of today’s consumer, most of the retailers like Snapdeal, Amazon, Flipkart etc are working heavily on their app based shopping platforms as they are getting majority of traffic from the mobiles. Moreover, a lot of “angel investors” have been investing in these start –ups to capitalize on this booming market.        Online presence also enables the delivery of more consistent and effective customer services. Through the availability of information online, not only will the end-user have a faster access and retrieval of the information but the customers can also look up to availability of timely, accurate and transparent information; especially in the cases that involves compliance and regulatory information. Our sector demands transparency in processes and the information that is shared with the buyers and we feel that having all the information online will introduce structure and transparency to our sector. The shift from the paper records to digital records management and maintenance is capable of providing more authentic and reliable information.

Today’s consumer goes online for the maximum portion of information that they are looking for to support their buying decision. They love to watch the videos, virtual home tours and read reviews about specific brands and their offerings and then consult a Real Estate professional to bridge this gap between their Internet research and actual home visit. There was a time when there was no Internet and the Brokers and the Real Estate agents only had the control over all the information related to buying and selling of the properties. Internet has led to reinvention of the role of a Broker Owner/ Agent and they now have to add more value to what a buyer has already seen online. Every passing day will add more and more information and facilities online, but at the same time every buyer would need a professional Real Estate Consultant to guide that buyer in making the best use of one of the costliest investment that he/ she is going to make. We feel that as a Real Estate Consultants, we should be able to provide a perfect blend of FIT (Fulfillment, Inventory and Technology) to the consumers in their hunt to buy their dream homes with least hassles. There is a need of providing a platform that provides the inventory along with the technological expertise. A perfect scenario would be if the property portals tie-up with Real Estate Consultants to offer last mile services and a one-stop shop to all the customers for their Real Estate needs. With the digital world connecting the property owners, property buyers and Consultants, online Real Estate is an ideal platform for information dissemination. Internet has added more options for the end user to do the preliminary research for the home buying process, but ultimately majority of home buyers still prefer consulting a Real Estate professional to finalize and purchase their dream home. 

Bird's eye view for realty market for the year 2016

Indian real estate is moving towards a direction where we are having global investors amongst others seeing the long-term potential as our economy is amongst the fastest growing economies in the world. If you look at the industry reports, it comes as a surprise that in the year 2014-15, India received FDI of around USD 19 billion in addition to an increase by 20-25% in FDI raising it to USD 30 billion even though the year was slow for Real Estate. To add to this, an estimated amount of around $2.8 billion came from the private equity players. With a lot of action and regulatory changes, the industry has a mixed reaction but we feel that the year 2016-2017 will be positive for a lot of markets. Speaking specifically of the year 2016, we see the secondary market booming at a good pace. As a matter of fact, the last two years were more of a policy formation and adjustment phases starting from the supply to the demand phase.

If we look generally from an investor’s point of view, everybody will only invest in projects that make financial sense. The Indian market is a very attractive market and there is a lot of funding that can come in from different sources. The year 2015 lacked the internal confidence, which led to a sluggish business environment. For Real Estate, the realtors must focus on end users based strategies and utilize the skills and resources to make Real Estate a better experience for the customers. We look forward to a new generation of developers who will work towards improving the image and services rendered by realtors at all levels. With an emphasis on skilling people and niche; marketing techniques like digital media, social media, concept and need based selling are the trends that can make 2016-17 fruitful for investors. The current customer demand is for ready-to move in apartments and areas like NCR, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Kochi etc are some places can be looked upon for investment. At the moment, since the prospective buyers are looking for ready to move in properties that have a quick possession, secondary market will be in focus.

Moreover, this slowdown in Real Estate is not an indication of problem, rather it’s a return of normal market rates and a more balanced and mature market. With a majority of home buyers between an age group of 28-35, the changing economic conditions of the country will surely add to consumers’ wallets and allow them to either make the purchase of their first home or upgrade to a new one. The trends like smart cities, green cities, high rise cities, affordable housing etc are attracting a lot of investors and developers to cater to the these buyers. Big players like DLF have studio apartments within 39-45 lakhs of range in early 2016 in a lot of Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities. With a lot of positive regulatory changes that have taking place and in process for 2016, Real Estate looks in a good shape and in a path from revival to recovery.  

RE/MAX Brings You Closer towards top Realtors in India

RE/MAX India has been making every effort to bring structure into India’s neonate real estate sector. In lieu of the same, our company has taken up a number of measures to promote real estate brokerage as an entrepreneurial opportunity among youngsters. Currently, RE/MAX is present in over 35 cities across India and has also setup over 100 offices in the nation. Besides, our company has also brought investors and aspiring real estate agents close to the crème de la crème realtors in India.

Keeping the above pointers in mind, we have set up a number of real estate portals for the benefit of real estate agents and investors. Moreover, we also have Real Estate Brokerage Training Academy for aspiring agents; we have also earned lots of accolades for our consistent performance in the Asia-Pacific region. Basically our aim is to position RE/MAX India as the market leader in India’s real estate sector and present it as a trustworthy brand.

Lastly, the company’s established brand name and image has led to extensive national advertising on hundreds of real estate websites, and worldwide sponsorships; so the collective power of marketing by thousands of Affiliates has converted us into one of the highly respected and best-known names in the world. Additionally, many entrepreneur magazines have ranked RE/MAX as the real estate industry’s best franchise. So at RE/MAX, you will for sure find an extensive list of top Indian realtors; no wonder buyers and sellers flock to RE/MAX.

Why Are Realtors Aiming at Real Estate as a Top Franchise Business in India?

Real estate companies in India have currently been offering a wide variety of real estate business franchises to run. No wonder realtors are flocking to real estate as a top franchise business. After all this is the only form of enterprise that guarantees great returns on investment or ROI. Some of the best real estate business houses are the best franchises to help in the actual growth and development of the real estate sphere in India.

Here are a few reasons why realtors have been aiming at some of the top real estate companies as a top franchise business in India:

·         Most of these companies do not incur any royalty or advertising fees upon the owner of the brand in a certain area.

·         Some companies also have awesome infrastructure and well protected office territories.

·         They have ready to use and complete business building technologies that are apt solutions for business houses.

·         These real estate giants also offer new and relevant training to all the agents who will become future employees at the franchise centre; these might even include trainings for agents and managers.

·         By associating with an established brand one also gets to reap the benefits of positive customer feedback due to good customer satisfaction records in the past.

·         This business front is a great way to partner with the niche real estate companies in India. Such type of unspoilt business avenues is not present in any other business sector in India.

·         Agents and realtors get to set up innovative and large to small footprint office spaces that are apt places to conduct meetings with clients.

·         Most important of all, this is a rapidly expanding, 100% commission based model. So the client and realtor as well as the real estate company get to reap the benefits out of such an alliance.

The best part is that Indian realtors and beginners, who want to set up an office of their own instead of working under a property owner’s office, involve with renowned real estate brands. Such brands guarantee a highly productive network of dedicated personnel and immediate aid in case of necessities. One such real estate biggie is www.remax.in; the company is nearly 90,000 agents strong and has over 6,300 offices spread over 90 countries. In India alone the company is present in 40+ Cities with more than 400 affiliates; all of this is occurring in over a 100 offices.

An association with established real estate companies by realtors who aim at real estate as a top franchise business in India today entitles to also win over a number of business front related advantages. First of all, they award several types if regional and broker office franchises. Some brands also recruit full-time, top-performing real estate agents and train them for superior performance. Besides through such associations, a realtor also joins a group of top-performing real estate agents within the recruiting business. So ultimately the realtor is at the gainer’s end. He or she not only becomes self-employed but also enjoys an accelerated career growth in the real estate business.