INDEX:
2. Trends in real estate marketing techniques: where the sector is headed
3. Conclusions: where property management is headed
Introduction
The beginning of the year, beyond new year’s resolutions and good wishes, is a good time to take note of the state of the market and how we are dealing with it, so that during the following year, we can undertake improvements that will translate into a greater number of transactions and property sales. To this end, property marketing trends are a good thermometer for understanding how property is not only sold, but also bought and rented today.
On the other hand, in such an active and changing market as the real estate one is, we can never afford to lose the perspective of all the new tools and methodologies that are being used, and apply the most suitable ones to our typology and sales model. Which are the trends that will mark the sector during 2019?
2. Trends in real estate marketing techniques: where the sector is heading
2.1. Virtual Reality
Do you remember when in the 1980s, 3D glasses became a revolution? Soon, the already archaic/ out-of-fashion pieces of cardboard with coloured plastic were seen to be impractical, but today, on a hyper-connected planet, the time-saving technologies that simulate reality are the most demanded in a society that always seems to be in a hurry.
In the case of the real estate market, virtual reality is here to stay, and is present in software that generates virtual tours of different properties. In this way, it is no longer necessary for the agency to juggle organising visits to properties and from the user’s perspective, they can appreciate how each house is with total realism and depth in detail without the need to move and at any time.
Technological resources + time saving tools + comfort + improved services is the winning formula for any agency that wants to improve its customer service and invest in effective real estate marketing techniques. Try virtual real estate tours now.
2.2. Mobile tools
In the previous point, we highlighted the fact that relocation is an advantage that makes it possible to incorporate virtual tools into the real estate world, a trend whose main supporters and mobile phone users.
In Spain alone, 82% of the population makes daily use of mobile devices. This means that any real estate marketing techniques that involve mobile use as their main objective will have a much greater chance of impacting potential customers.
Encouraging communication with the agent through WhatsApp for example or facilitating the management of appointments or requests for information are both crucial real estate marketing techniques, but it should also be ensured that each of the promotional channels (website, files in portals, etc.) are prepared for use and display via mobile.
2.3. Videoconferencing
In line with everything we have seen up to now, the traditional gesture of going to an agency, informing the client and then making an appointment for the client to visit the flat that we believe best suits him, is on the way to being replaced by other, faster and more effective means.
Thus, by means of video conferences, our agents can have direct contact with their clients and address their needs without having to go through the office.
But the advantages offered by video conferences allied with other technologies do not stop at “face-to-face” services from any location: by incorporating them into the virtual tour software, the property can be shown while its main characteristics are discussed, while doubts, questions and other needs that the client could not resolve on his own are raised.
As if this last advantage were not enough, videoconference systems can be used for several clients in the same session, allowing us to show the property not only to one interested party, but to a couple or even dozens at a time. What used to take an entire afternoon or even weeks to show a single property can now be resolved in a couple of hours.
3. Conclusion: where is property management headed?
You can get the impression from reading the trends that will shape real estate marketing during 2019 (and beyond) that everything will happen on the Internet and that the high-street agencies will be out of business. Something far from reality and far from the current trend.
Technology at the service of real estate agencies is becoming more established and is presenting itself as an ally of management, not a substitute for it. A sale will not be closed, at least in the next few years, via Skype, but the use of video conferences will allow what was previously achieved with three or four visits to the agency, to be signed in one when all the doubts were resolved beforehand from the comforts of the clients’ living room.
In the same way, a virtual tour of a property will not fully replace the “real” visit, but it will serve as a filter so that we do not have to spend the whole afternoon showing flats that, had the client seen their peculiarities beforehand, would never have wanted to go see in the first place.
In short, each of these advances and trends in real estate marketing are based on pillars that increasingly shape our daily lives: the use of technology that is convenient and saves time. Is your agency ready for a new way of selling properties?
