Technology once touted as revolutionary is now also being touted as a menace. Thankfully, state governments worldwide are doing their best to maintain a balance between life and technology. In all honesty, many are not completely Luddites yet but are despising how tech has hurt their lives, especially bosses calling after work hours to get something done.
Toronto is a technologically advanced city. Unfortunately, it was brought to its knees like the rest of the world because of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the city is open but not completely because strict COVID-19 regulations place; technology came to the rescue of businesses. Yet, many are still closed and are facing permanent closure.
Hence, this has created controversy in the government’s decision to keep cities shut as thousands of lives have been devastated and livelihoods. Thanks to technological advancements, the real estate sector survived, and now let us discuss them in brief detail.
How did the real estate industry of Toronto save itself during the COVID-19 pandemic through technology?
When people could not visit properties in person, they had to see them through video calls. For some properties, only their virtual layouts were shown to people. This hardly could convince the normal buyer, but those in need bought properties after careful monitoring.
It wasn’t that easy; constant sanitizing, face masks, and many rounds to ensure the property was properly staged and locked, plus the daily reporting, made their routine all but stressful.
Video conferencing, social media, remote working have helped real estate survive the harshness of COVID-19. Though real estate technology will never replace a real estate agent completely, certain resources can be utilized to narrow down the search of technological options helping real estate agents.
Social media networks and their marketing modules
This has become one of the primary targets of real estate marketing professionals and needs. Undoubtedly, social media marketing has been (and continues to be) effective in raising brand awareness with billions of active users worldwide.
Social media is also an excellent platform for communication with target customers and generating leads for real estate businesses. Keeping up with the latest trends is an important factor in having an online presence standing out from the rest.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn are among the most popular social media platforms used when promoting brands. Social media ad campaigns on Facebook and Instagram are gaining popularity as it helps marketers set a target audience based on age, gender, location, etc.
LinkedIn and Twitter are platforms that focus on the business-to-business aspect in searching for and connecting with the correct individuals in this aspect.
Virtual Reality platforms for Real Estate
Numerous different virtual reality platforms are shaping real estate marketing for good. Their development has helped make the lives of buyers and sellers as easy as possible. Here are some of them
Virtual Staging
Buyers should understand that not all homes are guaranteed to be staged. They often look for properties that they can see themselves living in, and when the unit is empty, they feel no personal connection. An array of cost-efficient websites allows people to import pictures of an empty unit and furnish it themselves with virtual furniture to understand better how it could be decorated.
As a seller, virtual furniture is not as appealing because it is not present when clients see the property themselves in person and are not real.
Virtual tours and virtual private tours
Virtual tours are videos that showcase the best features of any home. A lot of tech companies have added virtual tours to both websites and apps. In fact, these videos soared in popularity in the past few months.
Many buyers also prefer walk-through tours recorded by real estate agents because it provides an authentic in-home experience classified as a virtual private tour. These showings are one-on-one viewings for individual buyers either via FaceTime or another smartphone video software. They have proven to be cost-effective for both sellers, buyers, and real estate firms in the industry.
Smart homes are likely to have more value.
The term itself is a broad term used to describe any form of home automation. Home automation indicates the ability to control certain items around the house using either a voice command, smartphone, or handheld device.
The National Association of Home Builders and Consumer Electronics Association reveal that homes having a certain smart home technology either fully automating their home or doing it to a certain extent can help homeowners raise the sales price of their property anywhere between 3 and 5 percent.
Also, 81% of people with smart home devices said they are more likely to buy a home (be it a townhouse or a condo) with similar smart home technology.
Real Estate and other relevant Apps
People driving through neighborhoods or looking through newspaper classifieds to check property listings are now out of date. Searching for listings is now done online, and with the emergence of apps, websites are now left behind.
Apps have made the process simple, smooth, and easy. Other than that, numerous real estate firms have developed processes making the search for a home much easier. Among them are Calculators and Maps for Average Monthly Sale Price.
Conclusion
At the moment, technology is going along nicely with real estate. However, such technology cannot completely replace the physical real estate journey a customer goes through to purchase a home. We all are hoping that the pandemic ends soon so everyone can be back on track.