All around the world businesses are continuously and rapidly moving towards a more digitised way of working, collaborating and communicating. This is equally true for the real estate industry; with the increase of tailor made software solutions and a range of technologies that cover sales, data analytics, marketing and lead generation, construction, settlement management, and more.
Even in a human centred industry such as real estate, automation software and technology is the future. Let’s take a look below at some of the key areas where digital tools are leading to a paradigm shift in the property development and real estate industry.
Automated Valuation Models
Property appraisals are a common service within the real estate industry. This process is generally undertaken following a specific methodology where relevant features known to have an effect on building price are taken into account, in order to determine property value. Despite the fact that valuation and opinion on a given property may be somewhat consistent across industry practitioners, research from MCSI shows that the inherently subjective nature of the process often leads to an error margin of more than 10%.
Automation Valuation Models (AVM) are designed in order to eliminate this rate of error and value property based on a database of comparable transactions and other features including current physical infrastructure. These tools are generated by using economic and geospatial data, machine learning and the physical characteristics of a given building. This type of technology also aims at reducing the time, cost and ensuring consistency and objectivity across valuations, making it a powerful tool for companies aiming at providing cutting-edge service to their client. While it may be a heavy investment in the beginning, its dividends are evident in the long run.
Marketing and Lead Generation
In 2015, real estate industry research showed that nearly one in three real estate agencies and franchise leaders intended to implement marketing automation in 2016. This was largely due to the fact that around 74% of real estate executive ranked marketing automation as “valuable” or “extremely valuable” for recruiting new agents.
Given the trends towards automation and digitisation of marketing tools, one particular area in which real estate automation software has made a huge difference is in marketing and more importantly, lead generation and maintenance. Once an arduous process of collecting business cards from a limited number of industry contacts and manually entering this information on separate databases, industry-specific software now allows you to digitise this process, not just making it faster and more efficient, but also increasing your reach to individuals through a range of online platforms, including social media, email campaigns, and other real estate websites.
With automatation, you have the right tools to effectively follow lead performance and management, and support your sales efforts. This is supported by the evidence generated by Nucleus Research, which shows that marketing automation leads to approximately 14.5% increase in sales productivity and a 12.2% reduction in marketing overhead.
Expediting the Sales Process
Sales and contract management is a major component being largely automated and digitised by real estate automation software and technology. From pre-enquiry through to settlement, communication with sales agents, managing a range of contracts and accounts, as well as other activities inherent to the industry are increasingly being carried out with the support of a rich variety of digital tools, allowing you to expedite the sales process and cut down on delays and inefficiencies.
Given that the core of a real estate agent’s activities are centred and dependant on sales, bringing in buyers is crucial to the success of the business. According to the National Association of Realtors, nearly seven out of ten buyers interview only one real estate agent when buying their homes. With automation involved in your sales processes, projects can ensure maximum lead and buyer conversion. Using digital tools to enhance your sales process also allows you to optimise lead generation, allowing you to sell faster, with better visibility and control.
Construction and Settlement Management
Real estate automation software also assists with tracking and managing your transactions, removing room for human error and, untimely, delay and cost. This holds true not only across the sales process, but through construction and settlement too. Great technology is the only way to drive outstanding processes. Take for example the management of purchaser and valuation bookings, something that if not conducted well and underpinned by good technology will bring significant settlement risk to projects. Dissemination of documents and the establishment of set procedures for settlement preparation through technology will also support buyer satisfaction.
Conclusion
Digital tools are changing the way both real estate agents and property developers carry out their business. With real estate automation software and technology, you can cut not only significant cost but also risk and management effort across your operations.
To learn more about Property Shell, contact us to understand how we are enabling optimised projects that meet the challenges of an increasingly competitive property market.
