When Technology Met Real Estate
By Ale Zamora
From smartphones to automobiles, technology can be found in nearly everything we encounter in a single day. It’s momentous advances have made today’s modern world greatly different from even ten short years ago. While most of its impacts and uses are still bewildering to many of us, digital products can largely benefit us and make our lives easier (when we can understand how to use them, of course). To us in the real estate world, its developments are becoming more and more apparent each day, and have the power to completely change how both homeowners and agents do business. Here are 3 of some of the most impressive successes of this digital age.
Apps & Social Media
Perhaps the most widely known technological platforms are social sites, such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and specific smartphone apps, like Zillow and various mortgage calculators. Social media is a great platform to share and promote listings if you’re an agent or a homeowner; it gives you the power to reach an audience beyond just your own hometown. Along with home-searching apps, you can check out local listings without even stepping foot outside of your home. The utilization of these digital tools gives us great power at just the touch of a button, and are great ways to give any property a popularity boost. Be sure to read one of our previous blog posts on the best apps for real estate here.
Smart Homes
Image credits: Dogtown Media
While it’s now become normal to control many appliances with the touch of a button on a remote or phone, but how about controlling your whole house with the same kind of technology? Installing a smart home system has been one of the biggest trends in the past few years, and the control it gives homeowners comes with many, many benefits, from giving one an extra sense of security when away from home to saving money and the environment with easy “lights/power off” buttons. Having a “smart home” can also help tremendously when the time for resale comes around.
Virtual Reality
Did you ever think going to an open house could be done without physically attending one? You better believe it, because another huge tech trend in real estate is virtual reality, or VR. As previously mentioned, you can “walk through” a home if you own a VR headset, and even see what a property would look like with your personal touch with applications like rooomy. Virtual reality is a great asset to the real estate realm, saving you time and money when searching for a home.