New Tool Makes Working with Socially Distant Clients Easier

Posted on July 10, 2020 by Nate Bortz

OneHome, revealed earlier this month by CoreLogic (a real estate market data and analytics provider) is a virtual collaboration portal that “facilitates seamless interaction between agents and their clients.” Instead of relying on multiple tools to remotely guide your client through the home buying process, OneHome aims to be a “one-stop-shop.” It includes a virtual marketplace where you can directly communicate with clients, AI-enabled home search results, and access to financing, insurance, and home improvement providers all in one portal.

Some unique features that are sure to make your job much easier are the “Planner” and “PropertyFit.” Planner is a guided checklist in the form of a timeline that explains every step of the home buying transaction process – minimizing any client confusion. PropertyFit is where OneHome flexes its AI-learning muscles. It uses the client’s previous home browsing data and shows them homes that are most likely to meet their needs.

OneHome is expected to be nationally available by the end of 2020. As the real estate market continues to shift along with the pandemic, how do you plan on using new technologies with your clients?

Real Estate’s American Dream

Posted on June 25, 2019 by Kaylee

The American dream. Owning your own home is the largest transaction an average American will make in their lifetime. Conventionally, as a salesperson or broker, you are the catalyst to make that dream a reality. Showing homes, placing offers, negotiating and eventually making the deal. Customarily you work on commission which incentivizes you to get the buyer into the highest transaction you can. To the untrained eye that customary 3% commission doesn’t look like much but as an agent you know that it can add up to thousands or tens of thousands. In 2018 $80 billion dollars were paid in real estate commissions. This is where the traditional real estate market exists and where current events seek to shake the ancestral market.

Now, more than ever, social media marketing is crucial to reach those customers. Networking, blogging, creating relationships online will all make or break your business. When you have real estate brokerages that are setting new precedence online by allowing more time for focusing on the customer – whether it’s for the buy or the sale. They offer a do-it-yourself approach, such as providing title services, and securing the best mortgage, ultimately offering the buyer an all in one experience. How can you compete? Get online. Start with a social media marketing course like ours and learn how to open doors to new customers and keep your legacy clients coming back. The lessons in this course will take you through the development phase of your social media presence, and on to a place where you are confidently creating online content that represents you in the best light possible. Aligning yourself with your buyer or seller and maintaining a virtual presence will keep your business and reputation attractive to clients. Using Social Media effectively as a real estate professional takes a certain amount of finesse, but if done correctly, can be a major catalyst for advancing your career.

Brokerages of the Future Face Challenges

Posted on September 19, 2018 by Nick Walsh

According to a recent Forbes article, brokerages have been avoiding big changes in their business models to meet the needs of their customers and employees. Residential real estate continues to be sold via real estate offices, brokers and exclusive property listings, but that seems to be changing quickly. In the past, brokers closely held real estate listing data. Multiple listing services have helped centralize data and websites have made it easy to publish. In other words, technology changes are causing brokers to lose their role as keeper of the information.

Potential problems facing brokerages include:

Technology (e.g., artificial intelligence & blockchain)
Real estate agents are increasingly organizing themselves into powerful teams and putting increased demands on brokerages for more services and facilities.
Startups with innovative business models (e.g., Amazon & Expedia) that can potentially challenge legacy brokerages.

Forbes describes brokerages of the future will be a company that:

Spend more on technology and research than marketing and payroll combined.
Deploys AI and sophisticated technology to anticipate and meet the demands of its customers.
Creates a custom experience for each website or app visitor (via AI and technology)
Provides its customers with sophisticated tools that help them identify, locate, assess and purchase properties, aided—but not controlled or managed – by a real estate agent.
Leverages the blockchain to optimize and secure all interactions and transactions with its clients, employees, and partners.
Understands the mobile nature of our society, and creates innovative and creative ways to market to and engage with mobile client base.
Offer different ways to hold real estate listings, such as keeping some as exclusives, sharing others as multiple brokerages listing and offering certain types of listing via an online shopping car model of listings.
Becomes less reliant on physical offices for customers visits, while expanding offices as workplaces for its agents and teams.
Supports and brands its various agent team structures, handling them as “companies within the company,” where the teams are co-branded with the company, rather than sitting under the brand.

The human service aspect of real estate won’t go away when real estate remains a high-value transaction. But clients will demand more control and brokerages will likely spend more time studying, predicting, and pursuing their clients. The business model of how brokerages operate in the future will likely shift.