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.
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