What are the expectations of consumers now and how will that change in the future?
If a consumer wants to buy a house and they will want to move in as soon as possible then they should check the latest real estate technologies regularly.
My father went in for hip surgery a year ago and instead of being held hostage at the hospital for a week he was out the next day hobbling around on crutches. If he were to have had surgery 10 years ago it might have been there a whole week!
The biggest trend in consumerism is the decrease in time of the service life cycle.
This means it takes less time to get the same if not better result. It doesn’t mean we move faster because of our motor skills. It means we can accelerate the performance of our end result by integrating new real estate technology into our existing procedures.
Robotic surgery shows us that we can have a surgeon in Singapore operate on a patient in Pennsylvania without being physically present. For someone to get the best treatment they wouldn’t have to fly to Singapore to see the surgeon. They could visit the local hospital that has the technology already in place, set the patient up for surgery by the local staff, and have the surgeon operate without ever stepping into the room.
How does this apply to real estate?
Before we talk about the technology let’s talk about what components of the service life style will be accelerated.
- The pre-approval process will become instantaneous at the house because consumers will have the necessary qualification information on their mobile devices for submission.
- Showing times will decrease as a result of live video tours whether accompanied by the agent or video conferencing using the mobile device.
- Offer submission will happen at the property and response time will decrease dramatically.
- Quality of inspections will improve using infrared scanners.
- Accuracy of appraisals will improve because of the quality of syndicated information will improve.
- Title procurement will be immediately be produced by a click of a button.
- Closing time will accelerate and not involve physical signings.
These items will become consumer expectations soon if not already and the challenge for the industry is whether or not they are ready for the shift. These dramatic improvements to shorten the customer life cycle will make it easier for them to buy and easier for the REALTOR® to sell only if the REALTOR® can embrace the hard line trends that are coming their way. In Dan Burrus’s book Flash Foresight: How to See the Invisible and Do the Impossible, he explains the differences between hard line trends and soft line trends. The hard line trends are the ones I’ve mentioned above because we already have the infrastructure, technology, and talent to pull it off. The soft line trends are going to be which technology or software will be the ones to help us get there.
My advice is to focus on the hard line trends and build the skill sets around shortening the life cycle, not so much which tool you will use.
Add comment