During this confinement time, real estate professionals have realized that there is a new enemy: the distance.
For those who had not started a digital transformation strategy, the conclusion was clear: they had to start the change as soon as possible and use the technologies to get closer to their customers.
This didn´t mean that they had not used technology until now. 82% of the API community in Catalonia, before this crisis, already used the API technological platform, where they find everything they need for their daily work. Taking into account API´s studies, before the corona situation, 75% of real estate agents relied on big data tools to perform property valuations.
However, in the last two months, the professionals’ digital strategy has made a big step and has pivoted towards the technological solutions defined below, putting the customer at the centre of all their processes.
– Digital signature: Many real estate companies have taken advantage of the confinement time to implement and finish adapting to digital signature tools that allowed them to continue working remotely. The digital signature tool on the API services platform for real estate agents got 60% of the clicks in confinement time.
– Big data: Tools to evaluate and understand the market continue to be the jewel in the platform, being today the technological tools they use the most.
– Virtual reality solutions: These solutions bring properties closer to clients, avoiding unnecessary visits, which is key today. In the confinement time, the interest in these platforms has increased and we anticipate that this will be the star product in these “new normal” weeks back to the office.
– Digital home staging: The solutions to show all the possibilities you can get from a simple photo have also created a lot of interest among our agents.
– CRMs and Portals: Yes, it was something that the agents were already using before the confinement, but this time has served to do a reevaluation of the technologies they normally use. We have heard a lot of discussions. The professionals, in this time, have discovered functionalities of their CRMs and evaluated the portals response facing the crisis, as well as their contacts, sales, and cost ratios. Will this change the status quo in the coming months?
Many real estate businesses had taken steps towards digital transformation, others had begun to draw up a plan to go digital, many already used technology, but definitely, agents are no longer reluctant to change. This crisis has given more than a little push to their digital transformation. Today, proptech is no longer a fantasy, is a reality.
During the confinement time, in API, we have received hundreds of requests to change real estate business strategies towards digital experiences that put in the centre the client and their needs.
We still have to see, if these tools will end up being part in our routine or we will return to some old habits, but what seems clear to me, is that professionals have stopped seeing proptech as a risk, to see it as a world of possibilities to get even closer to a client who needs professionals more predisposed and reactive than ever.
Professionals need technology to be more competitive and tech solutions need someone who adds the human part, know-how, market knowledge, and who accompanies the client in a hard process, so full of illusions and insecurities. The perfect combination is the real estate success of the coming years.
Sheila Gracia
Service´s Director at Catalonian Real Estate Agents Association