For decades, real estate was sold in more or less the same way. Real estate agents would help clients navigate the market and show them houses in the neighbourhoods where they wanted to live.
The advent of smartphones and other impressive technology is upending the real estate game, changing how people buy and sell homes. Please keep on reading to learn more about the tech disrupting the real estate sector.
Proptech Platforms
Every prospective homebuyer now has access to dynamic online marketplaces right from their phone. Known as “proptech,” short for property technology, these platforms help agents compete for deal flow, so agents are incentivized to go the extra mile to help customers from resetting refrigerators to providing refreshments.
Some even give cash rebates back. There are transparent platforms, like the digital real estate marketplace Nobul founded by Regan McGee, that show user reviews that aren’t biased in the agent’s favour. In Toronto Life’s profile on Regan McGee, the publication explains that “McGee came to the realization that the real estate industry was due for a disruptive technology that made finding and working with a well-suited real estate agent more streamlined, more transparent and less stressful for consumers. So he created one.”
Look for a consumer-centric proptech platform that makes buying a home easier and less expensive.
Virtual Reality
One of the most exciting new technologies involves the use of virtual reality. It’s still in the early stages of development, but this tech has the potential to change one or two paradigms.
Imagine being able to take a virtual walkthrough of a home without having to get off your couch. To be sure, this is distinct from a video walkthrough, which is just a person watching a screen. Imagine feeling like you’re in another home because the virtual reality technology is so immersive to the point that you can turn your head in real life, and your field of vision changes correspondingly.
Such technology is incredibly beneficial during a pandemic when people are social-distancing, but it will surely remain an important tool for real estate agents years from now.
Metaverse
Facebook’s reputation has been sullied after years of being connected to harassment, disinformation, genocide, and insurrection. That’s why CEO Mark Zuckerberg rebranded the company “Meta” after his newest venture, known as “the metaverse.”
The metaverse is not unlike immersive virtual spaces that have existed for years, but Zuckerberg is investing a lot of money and effort into making it a lasting thing in society. The technology may change the way people buy real estate in the actual world, but people are already paying millions of dollars for virtual metaverse real estate.
Whether this will take off remains to be seen, but Meta sure hopes it will. The stock price plummeted in early February 2022, after announcing lower than expected revenue growth the company attributed in part to Apple increasing privacy protections for users.
Technology evolves rapidly, and even the types of disruption described above may have evolved further or been replaced by the time of publication. Such is the speed with which technology moves! Keep following up with new developments in tech with non-he washers if you’re looking to buy a home because they’re promising ways to make purchasing real estate easier and more affordable.
