Category: Real Estate

The property sector in the United States came to a crashing halt in March 2020, when the first wave of COVID-19 hit the nation. Mortgage rates dropped by 34%, affecting home buying and selling plans. Retail vacancy rates spiked up to 20% and commercial property loan delinquency rates soared up to 11.49% in Q2 of 2020. Months of shutdowns, social distancing regulations, traveling curbs, stay-at-home mandates, remote working, online shopping, and home delivery led to a drastic decline in occupancy rates and rents. People shifted their working spaces from office to home which slashed the demand for commercial rental spaces. The liberty to “work from anywhere” triggered a mass exodus from expensive urban areas to affordable suburbs and rural areas, lowering home value growth in metros.
All these challenges forced the property sector into urgent changes. Along with reconciling fiscal and monetary policies, real estate leaders must capitalize on property management technologies – specifically automation – to recover and rake in profits. Bitwise Industries observes that “the immediate need for innovation and automation is now a necessity to not only survive but to truly thrive in the real estate industry.”

Read more: What’s in Store for Real Estate This 2024

How does automation help a highly fragmented industry like real estate to manage multiple operations in one place and sync a horde of activities?

Automation in Real Estate: Fostering “All in One Place – All in Sync”

McKinsey’s survey identifies that automation and remodeling of work processes enable businesses to control costs and mitigate uncertainty during recessions. A real estate firm needs to efficiently coordinate multiple business functions such as managing buyers, sellers, and properties, contracting and leasing functions, property listing and tracking, finance and accounting, and so on. Automation helps sync and manage all these activities in one place. Here’re the top five real estate processes that can benefit from automation:

1. Optimize internal workflows

Automating internal workflows improves your team’s productivity. Having a well-synced project management system with up-to-date dashboards, real-time analytics, and reports, automated document flow, task reminders, deadline notifications, meeting schedulers, etc. can save your workforce’s time and improve their focus on value-adding functions.

2. Enhancing customer journey

Custom real estate software and integrated PropTech solutions allow customers to create, view and modify personalized wish lists, look up and find property information, and filter details based on different criteria. Realtors can leverage Virtual Reality techniques to improve customer experience by offering virtual tours, 360-degree property views, and 3D site plans. Integrating mortgage calculators, neighborhood descriptions, and an easy ordering process enables customers to buy, sell, or rent properties easily.
Read more: How Virtual Reality Can Transform Real Estate Operations 

3. Improve sales and marketing processes

Real estate marketers and salespersons can leverage automation to sync all their leads in one place, access lead information anytime on their phone, create custom client lists, save time with lead routing, automate drip email campaigns, set up activity-based email workflows, keep track of previous interactions, and send out reminders and updates to clients on time. All these lead to higher conversion rates.

4. Manage invoices and finances

Manual invoicing and payment processes consume your team’s valuable time and affect your organization’s scalability. Automated, all-in-one property management software allows you to centralize, oversee, and streamline the payment process without any paperwork. Automating financial management improves your processes with customers, partners, and suppliers. You can easily track orders, gain approvals, send notifications, and obtain real-time visibility into each transaction using the real estate management software.

5. Carryout field and property inspections

Leading property inspection software offers customizable templates and checklists for property managers, field inspectors, site auditors, and clients to schedule inspections, record on-site data, and auto-generate reports. Automating the whole inspection process reduces both manual errors and report submission time. This helps find out the quality and condition of a property (home), secure governmental approvals quickly, and fix the best price for the listed property.

Benefits of Real Estate Automation: A Quick Recap

• Streamline workflows and back-office tasks
• Reduce tedious paper works and manual jobs
• Improve focus on value-adding functions
• Monitor property managers and personnel dispersed across various locations
• Implement innovative ways to showcase and market properties
• Process invoices and payments on time
• Improve customer service and attract more buyers
• Eliminate supplier management hurdles

How Fingent Enables Real Estate Companies to Leverage Automation and Digital Technologies

We help real estate companies and property managers to prepare for a digital, data-driven, and sustainable future. Our projects demonstrate the value we deliver to the real estate industry.

#1. Rentmoji, The All-in-one Property Management Platform

Inefficient communication systems, disconnected business segments, and poor customer experience failed to deliver the expected ROI to our customers. They needed a single platform that centralizes all the aspects of the property management life cycle. This resulted in the development of Rentmoji, an all-in-one property management suite that helps streamline and manage diverse operations in the industry.
Analyzing the challenges faced by different stakeholders in the real estate business, we automated key processes and implemented top-notch security solutions. Rentmoji now serves as a robust single-source property management solution for residential rental properties (Single-Family Rentals and Multi-Family Rentals), CAM, and HOA management.

• The company grew from 2 to 160 employees within two years of implementing the software
• Customized portals and integrations for tenants, owners, and vendors
• Structured lead management process and extensive syndication
• Enhanced speed-to-market with cloud capabilities and automation

#2. End-to-end CRE Transaction Platform

An investment brokerage firm in the United States was struggling to adapt to the changing Commercial Real Estate (CRE) market demands. They required an integrated solution that will offer them real-time visibility into the performance of property listings and visualize data insights for brokers and investors to make better decisions. To help them realize the benefits of data-backed decision-making, we created a modern net lease trading platform. It improved their CRE transactions and sales. The customer can now manage 10,000+ listings via the trading platform and track 1031 exchanges effectively. They also have access to reliable ROI metrics based on current and future trends.

• Predictive analytics matches properties to investors’ preferences and expectations
• Projected revenue charts and financial summaries help business analysts
• Place and manage offers on multiple listings and update them on the fly
• Brokers can use the application to easily demonstrate listings to prospective buyers

Leveraging the Latest in PropTech to Navigate the New Normal

The global pandemic emphasized the need for all aspects of real estate to embrace technology. Buying software to merely run your operations remotely isn’t enough. Technology capabilities should allow you to generate value and respond swiftly in a pandemic-afflicted economy. 58% of real estate organizations struggle to integrate their legacy applications with innovative tech solutions. It exposes these businesses to major financial and operational impediments. Fingent custom software development experts aims to help such businesses by bridging their technology talent gaps and developing all-in-one, integrated, custom PropTech solutions.

Across the globe, the real estate industry took a hard hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, which left millions jobless. The huge migration of construction workers affected thousands of construction projects. The once-booming realty market experienced a shattering impact.

Not for long! The resilience of the industry paid off. Here is a look at how the real estate industry met the challenges head-on and what is in store for it in 2024.

Meeting the Challenge Head-On

The arrival of the Coronavirus vaccine geared up the real estate segment for yet another phase in early 2021. It realigned itself with buyers’ new expectations. Though the real estate sector has not remained immune to recalibration, it has shown remarkable resilience in the face of the pandemic.

Early 2021 saw a growing thrust toward digitization and technology adoption, beginning a new era in this sector. There has been a significant rise in virtual property events, cloud-based services, digital launches, and much more.

The real estate market is always in flux. It is highly localized with different conditions in different cities, states, and metro areas. Understanding the fundamentals of this segment can help you stay on top of all these changes and challenges that come with the economic downturn. As we gear up for a new year ahead, let’s begin by understanding what factors change the real estate market.

Read more:How Technology Can Solve The Challenges Of The Real Estate

Factors That Will Impact The Real Estate Market In 2024

Though it may be tough to estimate the exact sales volume and value growth, there seem to be enough catalysts to give rise to optimism.

• Real estate prices: Real estate prices are influenced by local buyer demand and the amount of housing supply that is available for buying. Lower rates attract more buyers and vice versa.

• Shifting property needs: The pandemic forced people to spend more time indoors. Hence, there has been a shift in property needs.

• Consumer house-buying power: Affordability is affected by incomes, inflation, and interest rates. When incomes increase, homebuyers might be able to afford higher-priced homes than they could have previously afforded.

• Mortgage rates: Interest rates impact demand, home prices, and affordability. It also fluctuates on factors such as Federal Reserve policy, bond market, inflation, and so on.

• Housing inventory: When housing supply is low, demand is high. This increases sellers’ market. If the supply is high, on the other hand, there will be more buyers to purchase them. This will slow down price growth and the real estate market will remain less competitive.

• Cycles and crashes: Along with the overall economy, the real estate market tends to be cyclical. There will be booms and busts. Fortunately, homeowners today are more financially equipped to handle the loans they have taken.

A Peek Into The Future Of The Real Estate

Among all the sectors, the real estate segment is showing tremendous growth. Here is what we can expect in 2024:

1. Effect of work-from-home on real estate

As the pandemic grinds on, tenant preferences will drive changes in real estate. Many homeowners will gravitate to newer buildings with better ventilation systems and modern amenities like touchless systems.

2. The rise of PropTech and digital transformation

The no-touch scenario has catapulted the innovations of PropTech to center stage. A 3D self-guided tour of the home can be a unique experience. Some real estate firms have put their entire leasing and renewal processes online.

3. Last-mile funding by the government

Governments help for delayed construction projects, along with incentives and attractive payment schemes are attracting homeowners. A fall in interest rates has been an additional incentive. So, developers will continue to witness a surge in inquiries across key real estate segments.

Technologies To Invest In To Remain Resilient 

Property technology is booming and changing the way we look at property investments. This digital landscape is allowing both the buyers and investors to view multiple properties without ever having to move out of the comfort of their homes. Here are some examples:

1. Rise of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence can accelerate the decision-making process as it aids in asset identification and selection. AI algorithms constantly test the feasibility and effect of different parameters. AI can also help predict any safety hazards or construction defects. This can save a large amount of time and money.

AI’s predictive analytic algorithms can find variations in the demographic pattern of the micro-market. Among many others, it can also detect the income distribution of individuals in the vicinity. This aids in identifying the true intrinsic value of the property.

2. Cloud-based technology 

Cloud-based technology assists in the storage of large data. Information regarding properties can be stored and retrieved by stakeholders to answer any customer queries. This lowers manual work and saves time spent in looking for papers.

Read more: A Comprehensive Guide To Modern Cloud Application Development

3. Virtual tour

The spread of Coronavirus restricted movement making it difficult to visit a property in person. However, virtual visits can now be arranged to help buyers make an informed decision.

This allows stakeholders to set up a virtual meeting with the buyer and answer all their questions related to the property. Thus, instead of depending on imagination buyers can now ‘see’ for themselves.

4. Robotic process automation

Robotic process automation (RPA) can be used to automate regular clerical jobs at the site. These jobs may include regulating contracts and approvals between multiple vendors.

RPA enhances the likelihood of more deals being closed. It is more dependable as it significantly reduces human error.

5. Mobile apps 

Rental and purchasing mobile platforms have gained popularity in recent times. The real estate industry constantly faces high-level competition. Hence, it demands a digital solution that can aid agents in their work and allow buyers to discover what they are looking for.

These digital solutions can include mobile applications for both agents and buyers. Developing a mobile app can distinguish you from the competition. They increase your chance of being found by your customer before your competition.

Mobile apps are more engaging and can provide a more rewarding customer experience. Customized solutions in the mobile app enable your agents to quicken the sales process.

Proptech Expertise Of Fingent Can Enable Your Business To Remain Resilient

Fingent is well-versed with the complexities that come with the development and implementation of real estate technologies. We are here to understand your idea and turn it into reality. With our expertise, we can create products that are driven by AI, Video conferencing, and more.

Take a look at: How Fingent created an all-in-one property management solution for Rentmoji, a leading Real Estate management firm in the US.

Our dedicated team can offer a wide variety of real estate software services. We strictly adhere to local data privacy and protection policies. We ensure to keep up-to-date with legislation so that apps remain secure and ready to use anytime, anywhere.

Case Study: With our experience in providing Proptech solutions, we were able to create a customized web-based application for UBRealty Inc.

Fingent ensures that you are market-ready, armed with competitive technologies. Our experts can help you discover the PropTech potential in your real estate business. We have hands-on expertise and skills in the industry. We can collaborate with you and tailor software to your specific needs.

Fingent is equipped to create the most sophisticated and stable applications that meet your requirements. By partnering with us will enable you to use real estate software that is a perfect fit for your business values and expand your market scope. Drop us a line and let’s discuss your needs.

Why Implement Virtual Reality in your Real Estate Business

Virtual Reality is rapidly becoming a part of every modern business, and the real estate industry is not excluded from the list. In fact, VR technology opens up many innovative opportunities for real estate businesses to market their listings in a better way.

Generally, a real estate deal involves checking the listings, price negotiations, and an in-person visit to the property. This workflow is very robust and has always brought forth good results. However, it is very time-consuming for both the client and the realtor. Sometimes, visiting the property can be inconvenient for the homebuyers as well. This is where Virtual Reality tools can be a game-changer.

Related Reading: Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality: Transforming The Real Estate Industry

Virtual Tours

VR technology allows realtors to showcase the property to their clients as if they were there in the flesh. The client just has to put on a VR headset and experience an immersive three-dimensional tour of the property. Potential homebuyers can virtually visit multiple properties this way, even without having to leave their home once. This allows them to make an informed decision when buying or renting the property.

As for the real estate companies, employing VR tools allows them to expand their reach to more clients. As the internet is not confined to any physical boundaries or borders, realtors can offer their listings to global clients as well. This can be of great help to long-distance buyers as well as to those who are looking to migrate to a different country.

Realtors can also offer a 360-degree virtual tour of the property for clients who do not have access to a VR headset. Alternatively, they can create an interactive virtual tour, wherein the user can move from one place to another within the property by clicking on various hotspots. Both of the guided and interactive virtual tours can be easily included along with the property listing on the website.

Virtual Staging

Virtual Reality also allows realtors to add furniture and other essential items in the property so that it looks more appealing and cozy to the clients. Staging has been an integral part of the real estate business for years and is widely used when uploading photos of the property on the website. VR technology can make this more realistic.

Virtual staging is one of the best ways to market a newly built home or apartment. This can be done by creating 3D tours of the property with furniture and fixtures. That makes it very simple for the client to visualize how their future personal space will be. As this connects potential buyers to the property emotionally, it motivates them to make a quick decision.

Real estate businesses can also employ VR technology to boost the sales of under-construction properties using virtual staging. Realtors find it very difficult to market such properties because empty buildings and unfinished structures do not attract buyers at all. This gap can be efficiently filled using architectural 3D visualization and virtual staging tools.

Virtual Commerce

Virtual staging of the property has another benefit too. Apart from creating a premium and lasting impression on the potential buyers, it can also promote virtual commerce. Realtors can easily add a purchase option with any element when staging the property and creating the 3D tour. This allows the clients to customize the space as per their personal preferences.

For instance, real estate businesses can integrate an online store with the staged elements. This will give the clients the options to, say, change the style of the furniture or choose a different light fixture. This not only makes the virtual tour of the property more interactive but also allows customers to imagine how it will be when they move in.

Even if a client does not make any changes to the interior staging during the virtual tour of the property, there are still chances that they may find the items included in the 3D tour interesting and may buy them eventually when they buy or rent the property. This is always an added advantage for the realtor.

Related Reading: Tech Disruptors in the Real Estate Space

The Key Benefits of Employing VR Tools in Real Estate Business

The most striking advantage of incorporating Virtual Reality in real estate business is that it saves time for both the realtor and the client. It is much cost-effective than taking the client to check out multiple properties.

Besides, an immersive 3D virtual tour of all the properties listed on the website will be available round-the-clock to the clients, which means that they can virtually visit any property at any time. This allows realtors to work with more clients, which means more opportunities to sell a property.

Another great thing about VR technology is that it gives clients an instant sense of ownership. As they get the options to customize the space as per their liking during the virtual tour, checking out the different areas of the property quickly establishes a personal connection with the clients.

This can be very helpful in inspiring them to make a purchase or sign a rental agreement. It is also possible to add to the customer experience by including interactive tools in the virtual tour, such as mortgage calculators and neighborhood descriptions.

There is no arguing that Virtual Reality has already made an impact in the real estate industry. Most of the big names have adopted the technology for improving their reach, and soon, every real estate business will incorporate VR technology for better productivity.  

If you would like to work with an expert to build your VR strategy, we custom software development experts can help you. Contact us.

What are preconfigured solutions?

SAP Preconfigured solutions are implementations featuring standard functionality or common patterns. Since they include common enterprise features such as supply chain, finance, and inventory management, preconfigured solutions can be deployed rapidly. In simple terms, SAP preconfigured solutions are simple, ready-to-consume solutions that adapt to your business needs.

SAP Rapid Deployment Solutions allows the development of preconfigured solutions for specific functional areas, complete with pre-built reports, preconfigured content, and predefined best practices. Such suites enable enterprises to deploy software easily, with accelerated implementation times, and predictability in cost and scope.

Each preconfigured solution is a complete, end-to-end implementation. Enterprises may adopt it as such, or use it as a base for developing a full-blown customized solution. Open source solutions allow enterprises to download the source code and customize the solution.

Traditional preconfigured solutions came on-premise. The SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud heralds the cloud version of preconfigured solutions.

Related Reading: What is Business Process Expertise in SAP and Why You Need it

How preconfigured solutions enhance industry operations?

Preconfigured solutions spare enterprises from “rediscovering the wheel.” When solutions exist for standard requirements, it avoids the wastage in development efforts. Preconfigured solutions save time, trial-and-error, and labor. The in-built accelerators allow rapid implementation and configuration. The shortened time to market delivers a competitive advantage to firms.

A preconfigured solution offers a working model with glitches removed. These solutions connect key functional areas, to streamline operations and improve communication flow across departments. It automates routine and repetitive functions and offers well-structured content that improves visibility into key fields.

SAP offers built-in support for industry best practices. Solutions developed using SAP combines the latest technology, industry best practices, and processes in a single package.

Developers using SAP to build preconfigured solutions can adopt a modular and scalable approach. They mix modules to create targeted solutions such as CRM, field management suite, ERP and more. Clients may choose the most relevant reporting tools for their reports using SAP Business Intelligence Adoption rapid-deployment solution. SAP Predictive Analytics Content Adoption rapid-deployment solution helps to implement a predefined predictive analysis use case.

Transforming various industry verticals

Preconfigured solutions deliver efficiency improvements in several industries and verticals. Five of them are mentioned below:

1. Real Estate

Unstandardized information, inefficient processes, and weak communications often affect the real estate industry. Preconfigured solutions enable enterprises to streamline data and workflows. 

Developing preconfigured solutions for key functional areas of the real estate industry allows business owners to access information in real-time, prevent opportunities from slipping through the cracks, and remain in control of the business. Here are a few key functional areas where pre-configured solutions can come to the rescue of real estate enterprises:

• Document management with powerful search and sort functionality.
• Process automation functions to streamline operations.
• Contact maintenance to keep track of customers and upcoming tasks.
• Reporting and analytics to generate and share data and other critical information.

2. Supply Chain and Logistics

Preconfigured solutions make the complex supply chain relationships simple and easy to handle. SAP’s Model Company for supply chain planning offers a ready-to-run, comprehensive solution, complete with relevant business content, accelerators, and enablement services.

The suite co-opts:

• Demand planning to manage demand streams and increase productivity.
• Response and supply planning.
• Supply and allocation planning.
• Deployment planning.
• Sales and Operations planning.

The inbound and outbound integrations with SAP S/4HANA ensures seamless integration with other functional areas, such as sales. Businesses gain improved visibility to the upstream and downstream business value chains and can visualize the entire supply chain network. The preconfigured solution aligns demand and supply plans with financial targets and key performance indicators.

Related Reading: Seamlessly migrate to S/4HANA with these tools and methodologies

3. Healthcare

The healthcare industry is under pressure to innovate while keeping up with regulations. Preconfigured solutions automate regulatory concerns and compliance. Ready-to-run process models and scenarios enforce standardization with tight quality controls. It improves efficiency in research and development. Accelerators support rapid design and implementation.

The most popular modules of SAP’s preconfigured solutions in healthcare are meant for:

• Research and development
• Production
• Regulation
• Quality and traceability
• Logistics and transport
• Purchases and provisioning
• Marketing and commercial

4. Sales and Marketing

SAP preconfigured solutions infuse efficiency to customer-facing functions and increase customer satisfaction. Its most popular implementations in the sales and marketing domain include:

• Predicting customer demand based on real-time data.
• Tracking sales history.
• Automating sales operations. The solution tracks all processes, from ordering of raw materials till the delivery, and takes care of auditing, notifications, and reporting.

5. Financial Services

The SAP Model Company solution for Financial Services offers a ready-to-run, comprehensive solution to support the core financial processes, including:

• General accounting
• Cash and treasury functions
• Planning and forecasting

These preconfigured solutions come with relevant business content for a specific use-case, accelerator, and enablement service. These solutions enable gap analysis, address resource bottlenecks, and support lean implementations.

Today’s enterprises seek efficiency improvements and cost savings without compromising quality. Fingent uses SAP to build pre-configured solutions that enable enterprises to realize such goals. Implementing these custom-built pre-configured solutions helps you transform your processes across various business areas and improve your customer relationships. 

Contact us to get a free consultation with our SAP Experts. 

How Extended Reality Is Transforming Business Environments?

Picture yourself diving into crystal-clear Grecian waters or taking a walk on the moon, all the while sitting in the comfort of your home.  As fantastical as this may seem now, Extended Reality is making this possible as we speak. What is Extended reality and what are its powerful real-world applications? Let’s check.

Understanding What Extended Reality Is

Extended Reality is a blanket term that encompasses all virtual and real environments generated by computer technology. This includes components such as Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality. Extended Reality is poised to completely revamp the way businesses interact with the media and has the potential to allow seamless interaction between the real and virtual worlds allowing its users to have a completely immersive experience. 

Three Remarkable Components of Extended Reality

These components fall under the category of immersive technologies that can affect our perceptions. Here is a little bit about them:

Virtual reality: Virtual reality transposes its users to a different setting through a simulated digital experience. It makes use of a head-mounted display (HMD) to create an immersive experience by simulating as many experiences as possible. Virtual reality app development has witnessed significant adoption in industries like healthcare and real estate. 

Augmented reality: Augmented reality services have emerged as a powerful tool in various industries, including healthcare and real estate. With the development of augmented reality apps, businesses can enhance user experiences by overlaying digital elements onto the real world. This technology offers exciting opportunities for immersive and interactive interactions, transforming the way we perceive and interact with our surroundings.

Mixed reality: Being the most recent advancement among reality technologies, mixed reality is experienced through mixed reality glasses or headsets where you can interact with physical and digital objects in real-time. 

Related Reading: Augmented Reality Vs. Virtual Reality – The Future Technology

The implementation of these technologies through extended reality is enabling businesses to create innovative solutions and increase customer engagement, reduce human error and improve time efficiency. 

5 Powerful Real-World Applications 

“The market for Extended Reality is expected to have a compound annual growth rate of more than 65% during the forecast period of 2019-2024,” says Mordor Intelligence. 

Check out these five real-world applications of extended reality:

1. Entertainment and Gaming

The entertainment and video games industries are the foremost users of Extended Reality. Camera tracking and real-time rendering are combined to create an immersive virtual environment, allowing actors to get the real feel of the scene, thereby improving their performance. The extended reality also allows for multipurpose studio environments, thus reducing the cost of an elaborate movie set.

Video gaming is enhanced by the ability of Extended Reality to create a comprehensive participation effect. This allows users to dive into a completely different reality. Other entertainment events such as exhibitions and live music can also be enhanced by the capabilities of Extended Reality. 

2. Employees and Consumers

• Training: Extended Reality allows employees to be trained and educated in low-risk, virtual environments. Medical students, surgeons, firefighters, pilots, and chemists can closely simulate risky scenarios with minimal risk and less expense. The experience they gain will prove invaluable when they handle real-life situations.
• Information: Replacing physical manuals, Extended Reality can enable technicians to focus on the task without having to flip the pages of a manual. It can even connect an expert remotely to the real-time issue for his expert advice. This would save organizations a whole lot of money, and more importantly save them valuable downtime as they wouldn’t need to wait for experts.
• Improve customer perspective: Simulating virtual experience brought on by specific diseases and impairments can help doctors and caregivers receive empathy training. 

Related Reading: How Top Brands Embrace Augmented Reality for Immersive Customer Experiences

3. Healthcare

Extended Reality is improving healthcare by streamlining medical procedures while enhancing patient care. Allowing surgeons to visualize the complexities of the organs in 3D, it is enabling them to plan each step of a complicated surgery well in advance. Essentially, it is ensuring that surgeons can perform surgeries in a more safe, effective and precise way.

4. Real Estate

Extended Reality makes it easier for real estate agents and managers to close a deal by enabling prospective homebuyers to get a real feel of the property. The layout scenarios that are enabled by Extended Reality enhance customer experience while providing strong business opportunities. 

Related Reading: AR and VR- Game Changers of Real Estate Industry

5. Marketing

Extended Reality enables marketers to give their consumers a ‘try before you buy’ experience. It allows consumers to be transported to a place, immerses them in that world and motivates them to explore it. As an example, Cathay Pacific used a 360◦ video with hotspots to help potential customers experience the brand firsthand. That increased customer awareness by 29% and brand favorability by 25%. 

Face the Future with Extended Reality

There are many more advancements and applications to be discovered with Extended Reality, and it is soon going to be imperative to competitive advantage. Don’t let your business fall behind. Consult with Fingent, a top custom software development company, today and ensure you stay ahead of the curve. 

What Is Augmented Reality?

Do you fancy playing Nintendo’s game Pokemon Go? Or used the IKEA mobile application? These are 2 examples of how Augmented Reality technology has taken over the digital world to heights. 

The much-hyped AR technology has had a technological breakthrough in recent years and has witnessed many innovations. Snapchat Lenses are yet another example of AR technology implementation. AR keeps the real-world focus. It adds virtual elements to improve the user’s experience. 

The AR technology superimposes a CG (Computer Generated) image of the real world for the user. For instance, the Pokemon Go game provided its users with superimposed images, allowing the users to catch Pokemon simply by looking at their smartphones. The game had 65 million users as it gained popularity. 

What Is Virtual Reality?

If you have used VR devices such as Play Station VR (PSVR), you would understand how Virtual Reality technology completely provides an immersive experience by completely shutting you off from the rest of the world. 

VR technology is a display technology to create a simulated environment for the user. The key players in VR technology include Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and so on. 

Augmented Reality And Virtual Reality: Game-Changer For The Real Estate Industries

AR and VR technology has seen immense growth in recent years and is continuing to grow rapidly. According to recent Statista reports, by the year 2025, the total revenue in the VR/AR industry is estimated to be $2.6 billion. 

Initially, the real estate sector has been using 3D Video and 3D Photography for creative interactions with their clients. They used to portray this technology for showing their clients the interiors of the buildings etc. Virtual reality, thus enhanced the viewing experience for the clients of real estate builders and agents, without the viewers having to visit the premises physically.

From helping the construction industry to market, improve and maintain sites to train the workforce on security, Virtual Reality is a game-changer for the real estate industry! Let us see how:

Why The Real Estate Sector Needs AR And VR Technology Implementation

Virtual and Augmented Realities are Immersive Technologies that can create a new reality altogether by leveraging the 360 space. These technologies save time and expenditure significantly for buyers, sellers, agents, etc. Technological advancements have contributed to the increased use of immersive UX (User Experiences), thus easing the process of selling and/ or buying residential and commercial real estates. Implementing these advanced technologies in Real Estate will ease both buying and selling of properties.

Related Reading: Check out how real estate technology helps predict property prices

AR And VR Technologies: Benefits In The Real Estate Industry

A recent survey by the National Association Of Realtors stated that 95% of users search the Internet before buying a property. The major benefits that can be leveraged out of AR technology are as follows:

1. Better Clarity Over Properties

Augmented Reality technology makes everything real and interactive with its ability to carry blueprints and images in real-time. AR mobile applications offer users a visual walk through the properties.

2. Cost-effectiveness

AR replaces traditional marketing techniques offered by realtors to reach out to potential buyers. In addition to saving cost overheads, AR technology improves brand loyalty as well.

3. A Better Reach-Out Platform

An AR mobile application on your smartphone offers a better reach-out than having to physically be present in worksites.

4. Offers A Global Reach

With VR, arranging virtual visits, showing users the properties virtually, and negotiating costs with the users are made easy, even to long distance buyers.

Related Reading: Check out how smart home technology is creating an impact on real estate.

AR/VR technologies allow users to refine searches and avoid unproductive visits to any property. Let us walk through the key benefits that the technology of Virtual Reality has to offer:

5. Virtual Visits

VR technology allows people to visit properties virtually which not only saves cost but time as well. Putting on a VR headset, users get an immersive experience by having 3D walk-throughs of properties. There are 2 types of 3D virtual tours. They are as follows:

• Guided Visits – These are for existing properties that lets you capture a 360-degree video. Users can wear a VR headset or a gadget such as Google Cardboard to view the properties. This does not require any programming or complex rendering. 
• Interactive Visits – Users can decide where to move within the property, by choosing specific hotspots in their field of view. 

6. Virtual Staging

According to the statistical report by the National Association Of Realtors, 77% of real estate agents prefer to use virtual staging to help potential buyers to associate with a property they intend to buy. VR technology helps realtors to market-specific staged properties with minimal investment. 

With the advent of technology, 3D tools are used to create a virtual representation of spaces with required furnishings. For this, the 3D photographs are taken and further staged with the help of a 3D scanner. 

7. Visualizing Architecture

Architectural Visualization has become immersive with the advent of VR technology. Potential buyers can imagine how their future properties will look like. The 3-dimensional computer-generated environment helps realtors create full-scale models of buildings and properties. VR technology thus helps in pushing thresholds without the risks associated with time and costs.

8. Efficient Communication With Tenants 

3-dimensional tours in real-time with tenants can help landlords and real estate agents communicate with their tenants effectively. The VR technology is found to be more efficient and productive in case of vacation rentals especially. This is because businesses that offer short vacation rentals have high turnover rates associated with it, compared to others.

9. Virtual Commerce

According to a recent eCommerce statistic report, 77.24% of potential buyers who intend to buy online, abandon their idea of purchasing. This shows a lack of convincing customers to go ahead with their initial choices. Virtual Reality technology finds use in these situations with its immersive capability.

With the mobility element of the VR technology, around 24 million VR devices were estimated to be sold globally, according to insights from CSS. 

With VR technology, after taking a virtual tour of the property, users can order from the virtual store as well.

Related Reading: Read on to know What Not To Do In Real Estate Business.

AR And VR Technologies – Future Game-Changer For The Real Estate Industry?

Immersive AR and VR technologies provide users the benefit of Analytics. This feature allows realtors to now derive critical insights and enhance the buying decisions of potential customers.

Providers of Analytics can offer web-page related KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). This includes page views and web sessions. Nuanced buyer behaviors can be better judged with data analytics. 

To conclude, AR and VR technologies reduce unnecessary expenditures associated with staging and scheduling visits. It helps users visualize properties and reduces the overall costs. 

Use of VR to support USA smart cities are forecasted to reach $330 million by the year 2024. 

AR and VR technology is surely the next big technological breakthrough in the real estate industries. For more insights on how to transform your real estate business digitally with immersive technologies, call our strategists right away!

Can Smart Home Technologies Reshape The Real Estate Industry?

“Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home,’ sang American actor and poet Howard Payne back in 1822. He never could have imagined back then what a home, more specifically, a smart home could be 200 years later. From smartphones to smart homes, smart is the buzzword. Automation, ease, and freedom – that is what a smart home provides and that is what people are looking for today.  In this article, we will consider how smart home technology is creating an impact on real estate now and will continue to do so into the future

What is Smart Home Technology?

Automation is a major factor in smart home technology. When your coffee pot goes off at a pre-set time or a sprinkler system goes on and off when you’re out of town, you are using automation. But “smart home automation” goes a step further in that it includes remote monitoring and programming. They become “smart” when you can control and communicate with several devices from great distances. With the rise of tablets and smartphones, you can now connect everything from phones, TVs, lights and much more. These are invented with the intent to make the home comfortable and safe. The question is, are common people interested in smart homes?

The Merger of Real Estate and Lifestyle

In this day and age, owning a home defines your way of life. When people invest in real estate, they look for comfort and security. Somehow real estate and lifestyle have always been intertwined with each other. And just as technology has had a positive and powerful impact in improving lifestyles, it has also had an impact on the housing sector. Now real estate is not only about owning a patch of land, but it is also no more about where you are located. Rather, it is more about what you can do within the given area on a more digital level. Would this have an impact on real estate?

According to the forecast by the International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Smart Home Device Tracker, the global market for smart home devices is expected to grow by 26.9% year over year in 2019 to 832.7 million shipments. As consumers adopt multiple devices within their homes, we can expect this sustained growth to continue with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.9% over the 2019-2023 forecast period. And they expect double-digit growth in the market of smart homes.

Talking about Canada, for instance, IDC estimates that half of the Canadian population will be 55 and older in just one generation from now. And most of these potential buyers would prefer an age-in-place or an independent or assisted living environments, which would invariably lead them and their families to invest in smart homes.

Smart home services provide a whole range of benefits. Some are related to monetary benefits while others are related to comfort, all factors that would greatly impact real estate. This has bought some great benefits to real estate firms in closing deals and generating more revenue.

How Realtors Are Winning Tenants With Innovative Mobile Apps

It is Easier to Resell a Smart Home

A vital consideration for an investor is the resale value of the property. The greatest impact home automation systems and devices have on real estate are that they increase the resale value. They usually raise the home value in terms of curb appeal. As smart home technology becomes more prevalent, home-buyers will see the benefits of investing in a smart home.

Adding home automation features and amenities can only do good. Along with location, market, condition, neighborhood, and age of the home, technology is also factored in when determining the market value of that property. Surely a home with smart home devices will have a greater value than a home that doesn’t.

Quicker Selling Time

The formula for selling your house fast is figuring out how to appeal to home-buyers. Multiple factors such as the location of your house, the condition it is in, the price and the features of the property can determine how quickly it will sell.

Marketing your home effectively, featuring smart home technology is another critical step in selling your home fast.  A home buyer would be more inclined to buy a ready to move-in home than having to install smart home features after purchasing the property. Real estate listings with smart home technology upgrades sell faster than homes of a similar price per square foot.

Attract a Variety of Potential Buyers

Smart homes were believed to fit the lifestyles of the rich and famous or technologically gifted few. But now smart home products and systems are adopted by consumers across generations and communities. 

According to statistics, the largest home buyers are millennials. Many of them are attracted to homes that have smart home technology features.  Installing smart home products in a house can provide a millennial home buyer with a “wow” moment when they enter the home and thus improve the chances of attracting them.

The same research also says that single women are also investing in real estate. Installing a smart home security feature in a house can be attractive to a single parent who might be especially interested in security for their home and themselves. 

Related Reading: Check out how Fingent can enable property managers, streamline their operations with PropTech.

Getting Smarter

Smart homes are now the norm. Home automation elevates the wow-factor of a real estate listing. The addition of smart home technology is very attractive to a potential buyer. And we can be sure that as technology continues to evolve, home buyers will continue to be attracted more towards smart homes because of the conveniences it offers.

Along with equipping homes with smart home technology, real estate firms can benefit from other technologies specifically designed to streamline the way they work and bring in business. Contact us for more information on that.  

Adoption of Predictive Analytics

The Commercial Real Estate (CRE) industry is growing. New business models and competition, extensive use of technology, and changing tenant and investor expectations are redefining the face of this industry. Each year brings new technologies that alter the way agents approach their work. As investors are ready to change their business models with a tech-enabled ecosystem, CRE companies and agents will have to adapt to the new demands and technology trends. The market will remain wide open only for those who are ready to accept the change and adapt to new technologies.

Get to know how smart home technology impacts real estate.

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Based on the industry market research report on the state of the commercial real estate industry in the US, there are almost 1.3 million properties with an average sales volume of $55 billion. Over the past five years, the commercial real estate industry in the US has grown by 2.6% to reach revenue of $1 trillion in 2019. Moreover, it is estimated that the CRE industry expansion is expected to continue over the next five years.

“The CRE property values (specifically NNN properties) are unique in that the pricing is not driven strictly by the underlying real estate, but also by the lease terms and a single tenant’s credit rating”, says Camille Renshaw, co-founder, and CEO, B+E. This shows the relevance of analytics in tenant/property data.

Related Read: How Real Estate Technology Helps Predict Property Prices

Predictive Analytics Occupy a Pivotal Role in CRE

No investor cares about what the property meant in the past. They are keen to know about the future of the property or how its potential value will escalate in times to come. Here comes the significance of PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS, which uses past and present big data to make reliable, proof-based predictions about the future development of a property.

CRE is an industry sector that contains an abundance of data. Over the past years, analytics are slowly taking up its role among numerous listing sites. Its chief role is to provide both buyers and sellers more context about the property and its qualities. However, analytics that really benefits CRE agents is still a rare thing to find. This is where predictive analytics comes into place.

Predictive analytics tracks consumer (basically buyer/seller) behavior to understand the conditions in which they are most likely to buy or sell. This helps an agent to better utilize their time and resources, which in turn maximize the overall sales. It is expected that over the next few years the adoption of predictive analytics in the real estate industry will accelerate. Besides, studies also show that predictive analytics is one among the many real estate technology trends to follow in 2019.

CRE companies/agents can achieve clear and practical insights for different strategic actions that they must adopt by combining data from different sources and advanced analytics technologies. This includes predictions like analyzing the tenant’s benefits due to flexible leases, customer and traffic information for a retail center or staff usage information for office space, etc.

Features like heatmap analysis, property rental calculators, projected revenue charts, return during lease analysis are a few examples of predictive analytics that agents generally use to showcase how a property will perform in the future and its possible return on investment.

Related Reading: Check out how Fingent provided integrated Prop-Tech Solution for real estate brokers.

How Predictive Analytics Benefits the CRE Industry

Predictive analysis allows an agent to suggest the perfect property that matches their investor preferences, expectations, and goals. This saves time and risk by providing the investor with a reliable return on investment metrics based on past and present data as well as the future expected trends of their investment.

It also allows the agent not to have any specific financial background, as the analytics platform does its job to suggest a property that guarantees to provide its investors with positive cash flow and high return on investment.

It is possible to carve analytics, which can even identify the ability and education levels of possible agents from a list and suggest it to a CRE company based on use cases.

Many AI-based applications help its agents or even investors to get a detailed and personalized report by simply providing basic information like area, the fund available, risk level, expected CAP rate, etc.

In addition, such tools can even be customized for agents that will give them answers to queries like:

• Is this the right time to invest?
• What would be my ROI – maybe in the next five years?
• Neighborhood status and track record?
• How much is my existing portfolio worth?

Such predictive recommendation engines have proven to foster deeper engagement and increase ROI. For instance, Amazon’s predictive recommendations had a success rate as high as 60% in some cases.

Related Reading: The Impact Of Big Data Analytics and How it is Changing the Real Estate Industry

As a CRE Company, What Must We Do?

Developing an enterprise-wide strategy and supporting it with a sound technology core has turned out to be important for a commercial real estate company. This must be supported by data gathering and analytical techniques. According to the CIO surveys performed by different agencies, only one-fourth of organizations globally across industries have currently in place an enterprise-wide digital vision and strategy.

A solid technology strategy that is spread across the industry stands as the first step towards effective technology deployment and integration. More efficient utilization of IT budgets and resources also needs to be considered. This will include evaluation of how data capturing is performed, use of predictive analytics, advanced tracking and reporting management AI tools. A well planned and phased deployment of technology will likely yield amazing results than waiting for your turn and jumping into the development and implementation process.

However, there are a few things that require consideration before starting to work with a PropTech company. A CRE company must admit the fact that, when starting off working with a PropTech firm, they must not consider them just as vendors of a product or service, as this can very well limit the range of benefits that the company can achieve.

Instead, try partnering with them on potential innovations. Identifying a single point of contact to take up conversations with PropTech and a coordinated approach supported by guidelines to evaluate the features developed must also be taken into consideration. In addition, make sure that the size, scale, maturity, level of innovation, and relevance to existing business is conveyed properly to the PropTech company.

Commercial real estate technologies are relatively new and most of the PropTech companies are only beginners in the CRE Industry. They tend to make decisions quickly compared to CRE companies, which can end up delivering wrong results or create anomalies in the process flow. A shared understanding must be developed by the partnering company to allow successful coexistence. 

Related Read: Top Technology Aids To Accelerate Real Estate Growth

Predictive analytics is transforming commercial real estate by enabling stakeholders to make data-driven decisions, identify risks and opportunities, and optimize operations. To leverage the full potential of predictive analytics, commercial real estate firms need a reliable partner like a custom software development company. Such a company can provide customized solutions that integrate predictive analytics tools with existing systems, unlocking actionable insights that can drive business success.

How to improve real estate sales with chatbots?

One of the biggest technology disruptions that have occurred in the world of marketing over the past couple of years has been Artificial Intelligence powered chatbots. The growth of machine learning and natural language processing capabilities have made chatbots more human than ever in terms of engaging with prospects.  Studies have shown that by 2020 it is expected that 85% of all engagements that a customer has with a business will be through self-service options and chatbots and not a human point of contact. Just like with other business sectors, the real estate industry also needs to make note of this rising trend of AI conversational tools that are gaining affection from consumers worldwide. If you are part of the real estate sector and wondering how to drive more results with chatbots, then here are 5 ways to try:

Related Reading: Read on to find trending technologies that can accelerate your real estate business.

Automate your first point of contact

If you deal with rentals or sale of property or homes as a business, then a conversational chatbot can be deployed on your website to serve as the first point of contact for a prospective buyer who visits your site. No longer do you have to hire dedicated customer service representatives exclusively in shifts if you want to have a 24X7 live chat support on your website to help buyers make choices faster.

A conversational chatbot can easily handle multiple visitors simultaneously without forcing them to wait for a live agent to connect and handle their queries. This automation combined with instantaneous response will definitely reflect as lowered operational costs for your business as well as increased customer satisfaction via quicker responses.

Effective lead qualifying

Reports show that 63% of customers are likely to return to a website if it offers live chat support. So you definitely need to have an extensive chat support system for your internet presence. But then comes the downside. Not all who chat with your agents will be a prospective lead. Some people may just chat for information that necessarily doesn’t transform into a business deal. So is it worth investing a human agent to qualify all incoming chat queries?

It would be a big no! Your human agents need to be assigned to handle only important leads that have the potential to transform into a direct deal. The lead qualifying part can now be handled by conversational bots that can use a series of questions autonomously to gauge the interest level of a visitor. It can then qualify the visitor as a valuable lead or not by comparing their behavior to previous cases of lead interactions and thereby assign scores of lead maturity.

Leads with a higher score will have more chances of being converted into a deal and can be passed on to human agents for further communication. Those with lower scores can be continuously nurtured by the chatbot themselves by supplying them with more information about the property they required assistance. Thus, your human agents can be utilized for better high-level sales while an AI-powered chatbot can handle repetitive questionnaire and lead qualifying rounds efficiently.

Personalized selling

AI-powered Chatbots can be trained on a number of behavioral patterns of typical real estate customers to facilitate a more personalized and insightful conversation. By carefully asking a sequence of questions, the chatbot can drive potential buyers into booking a deal for a property without even the need for a human agent to take over.

The bot can study individual preferences of all visitors and offer personalized recommendations that are bound to strike a chord with their interests. For example, if a prospective buyer with an interest in shopping wants to rent or buy a house through a real estate portal, then a conversational bot can seek their preferences through smart questions and recommend them properties near to shopping destinations. Same goes for recommendations based on interests such as budget, number of rooms or bathrooms required, car parking facilities and much more.

Efficient follow-up

It may take more than a couple of engaging conversations to lure a prospective buyer into making a decision to invest in a property. Conversational chatbots can interview visitors, collect their contact information and offer them time to think about the prospects that were showcased. They could then automatically follow up with them by triggering emails requesting an appointment to view the property directly or take it to the next step which may involve a direct discussion with a human agent.

Either way, the chatbot can facilitate follow-ups much more efficiently and in a timely manner based on visitor preferences. It can also send email alerts to agents regarding upcoming visits by a prospective customer with their detailed history of conversation to help them convert the lead into a deal faster and with more profit. If the entire process of chat support and subsequent email follow-up was to be handled by human agents, then their chances of missing out on follow-up schedules and also higher chances of errors in data collection and information exchange.

Faster information discovery

If a human agent is deployed for chat support on your website, then he or she may need time to scour through the vast scathe of data available in your property database to recommend suggestions to a prospective customer. Add to this, the complexity of applying filters manually to find properties that suit the buyer’s interest will only make information discovery a lagging and slow experience for a visitor.

This time loss is a blow to engagement levels for a potential buyer and they could leave your website if there is too much delay in getting the information, they sought from a human chat support agent. A chatbot, on the other hand, is connected to your property database and can instantly extract all valid property features based on customer interests. They can provide information on the chat window or upon instructions from visitors, can email it to them and can even book an appointment with a local agent to arrange a visit to selected properties physically for the buyer.

Digital innovations such as an AI-powered chatbot has the potential to transform engagements between buyers and real estate businesses considerably. As you have witnessed the top 5 scenarios where chatbots can turn out to be more efficient representatives of your property business, the remaining aspect is selecting the most efficient technology to build your own custom real estate chatbot.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence are highly complex in terms of technology development and would require advanced levels of technical advisory and development support to enable the best for your business. This is where a technology partner like Fingent can be your saving grace.

Related Reading: Check out how Fingent created an integrated software solution to tackle multiple real estate challenges.

Our consultants can help you build the most intelligent AI-powered chatbot to help improve your online property sales efficiencies. Get in touch with us to explore world-class digital solutions that the best players in the real estate sector are continuously investing to grow their business.

5 Technology Trends Real Estate Players Should Watch Out For

Digital transformation is today the hottest area of interest in almost every business sector. With the huge growth in a digital savvy user base, enterprises big or small are continuously investing in new age digital technologies and tools to help them serve customers better and survive the tough market competition. The real estate sector is no different in this regard as digital technologies have reshaped both the customer and property landscape over the past couple of years. From facilities such as a simple listing of properties online to AI enabled best property matching based on preferences, the list of digital innovations in the real estate sector is huge. If your primary business is centered around real estate, then the following 5 technology innovations should certainly be on your watch list for 2019.

Augmented and Virtual Reality Applications

Today, real estate is a globally accessible commodity and not restrictive to localized demand. A property may attract interest from buyers across the world and not just in the vicinity or city that it is located. The challenge then lies in providing a holistic experience for the interested buyer to have a good look and feel of the property before investing. It may not always be possible to bring them physically to the place due to cost or other travel related concerns. This is where technology such as AR and VR can make a difference. With hardware devices, making AR/VR capabilities, inexpensive and accessible, property managers can easily facilitate an AR/VR demo for buyers to make faster and better decisions from anywhere. Another useful application would be for homeowners to use AR/VR to decide their home décor or construction techniques. For example, the positioning of furniture, temporary or permanent interior fixtures, etc., can be decided way before the actual construction begins. This allows more planning and elimination of cost overheads wherein both buyer and builder would have a clear understanding of how the building is to be constructed.

Check out how AR and VR are revolutionizing the real estate industry.

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Big Data Analytics

Real estate is one sector where pricing is a highly dynamic constituent. There are a number of factors influencing property or land prices and very often owners or enterprises that manage properties find it hard to offer competitive or profitable pricing to prospective buyers. However, several forward-thinking players have now started to utilize the power of big data analytics to get the most preferential pricing schemes that bolster both interests from buyers as well as maintain a competitive profit margin for sellers or property owners. Historical rental or property cost data along with trends such as demographic changes, population density, preferential behavior, amenity choices, spending patterns, etc., are supplied as data insights into powerful analytical systems. These in turn offer insights or in other words recommendations for property owners to price their offerings competitively and enhance the overall buying or rental experience for a consumer.

Related Reading: Find how Big Data is influencing the health care industry.

Innovative Property Management

The rise of start-up culture and the global workforce paradigm has impacted the real estate sector considerably. Today, it is not just one major tenant that leases an entire building or space within a building to set up its office, but several players invest to take up co-working spaces. In fact, studies have shown that shared workspaces have grown at an incredible rate of 200% over 5 years from 2013 to 2018. Co-working spaces facilitate companies to set up a presence where their best employees prefer to work thereby helping in boosting retention levels. For the real estate sector, this change in occupancy trend has called for the rise of innovative property management software that incorporates several new technology offerings. For example, power and other utility services have to be shared among multiple tenants in a co-working space and this requires the property management tool to be integrated with an IoT powered building management system that can monitor occupancy levels, adjust power and other environmental support features like lighting, temperature control, etc. Doing these tasks manually would require considerable overhead and hiring of a large workforce. Autonomous IoT integrated property management solutions can easily facilitate multiple tenants to collaborate in a workspace saving them the hassle of worrying about unwanted costs and the owners can have peace of mind without having to deal with manual supply and maintenance of essential support services.

Related Reading: Check out tips to select the right software for property management. 

Blockchain Powered Smart Contracts

While some of the technology advancements we mentioned before require autonomous property management, blockchain is the key ingredient that can help make it possible in real time. The decentralized and highly immutable features of blockchain can help transform real estate management and property leasing considerably. An owner or landlord can easily rent out or sell portions of his property with agreed terms and conditions all recorded on smart contracts. The contract makes the details of the sale or rental highly encrypted and complies with all local laws and regulations. Besides, several government agencies are increasingly investing in blockchain to set up regulatory repositories that can autonomously validate land records, property and tax implications and much more. So, if real estate buyers can bump up their investments in blockchain, they can turn to become more compliant and legitimate in the market. This would increase affection for their offerings for prospective customers.

Digital Advertising and Sales

Today, a large portion of prospective buyers or leasing clients are hooked to social media and other digital channels to gain information. As a real estate dealer, you need to ensure that your properties are marketed in the right digital channel and reach the right audience within such channels. There are tons of social media advertising platforms that help you filter your target audience to the finest level. If you do not want to spend time on the filtering part, there are AI-powered tools that help do the job even better than humans. AI is not just limited to ad filtering for the real estate sector. There are intelligent chatbot applications available today for deployment in your website. These bots can converse with potential buyers when they inquire on your website, collect their information, suggest them the best choices based on their preferences, pass the right information to sales agents to take the lead further and ultimately help them close it quickly. From marketing automation to intelligent sales conversations, there is a host of digital solutions that the real estate players, can utilize to win customer hearts with personalization in highly competitive markets.

Related Reading: Watch out for the emerging technology trends of 2019.

No longer can the real estate sector be labeled as a laggard in terms of technology innovations. There are plenty of digital avenues where smart players can invest and stand out from the competition. We have showcased 5 of these avenues that are increasingly driving more value for adopters and we believe that these should be on the watchlist of any real estate player in 2019. Going digital friendly is no easy task, especially if you do not have a sizeable technology team in-house who is well versed in all these innovations. But that is where a technology partner like Fingent can prove to be the decisive factor in on-boarding the best technology innovations in your real estate business. If you are aspiring to be a leader in the real estate space through technology, talk to our experts today to explore the vast opportunities in digital transformation for your business.