Digitalisation in the real estate sector, as in many other sectors, is no longer an option. It is essential: it is a matter of adapting or dying. It does not matter that the product remains the same: consumer habits are no longer the same, and you have to adapt to their needs and demands to survive in this business.
Business life expectancy and digitalisation in the real estate sector
The pace of digitalisation is accelerating all the time. The technological environment in which we work and communicate is evolving at a pace that is difficult to keep up with: change is constant, each technological innovation is faster than the last, and keeping up to date requires constant effort. But being late can have catastrophic consequences.
In fact, the lack of digitalisation is one of the main reasons why the average life expectancy of companies is shortening. The average has dropped from 67 years to 20, as a result of the technological innovations of the last decade. And this mortality rate seems to continue to accelerate: the more technological disruptions there are, the more difficult it is to adapt.
The life expectancy of a business in our country is between 5 and 15 years, and a large majority of new companies do not survive beyond one year.
Same product, new consumption habits
In reality, the product and the objective of the real estate market have hardly changed: construction is still done with bricks and mortar, the layout of a house is very similar and its function is still to provide a home for its buyers. The consumer, broadly speaking, is also still looking for the same thing: a property that meets their requirements in terms of surface area, number of rooms and location, and that fits the price they can afford with their savings or with the help of financing.
However, their consumption habits are very different from those of just a few years ago. They have become accustomed to buying all kinds of things online, ordering food from an app, choosing which television series they want to watch and having them available at all times and from any device. And this has consequences in all spheres of their life, including when it comes to buying and selling real estate.
Changes in the real estate business
Before the Internet, real estate ads were published in the paper press, offered little information and generated visits with just a telephone number. Now the panorama is very different: Internet ads allow, and practically demand, the most detailed information possible, quality photos of all the rooms in the house, floor plans, videos, 3D simulations and virtual tours.
It is not enough to provide a phone number either: communication channels have multiplied, and real estate agents must offer the maximum number of possible options, from live chat to email, WhatsApp, Telegram… both to request more information and to arrange a visit. Digitalisation has also reached other aspects, such as the digital signature of documentation and presence on social networks, essential for brand image.
How it affects professionals in favour of the digitalization of the real estate sector
All these changes directly affect the way real estate professionals work. Consumers expect 24-hour attention, as they already have in many other businesses. Being trained in new technologies is essential to be able to adapt to each new application and get the most out of each one. And you have to be open to this constant change because standing still is synonymous with falling behind in a very short space of time.
Getting help to get on the digitalisation train in the real estate sector
The challenge is significant and can be overwhelming. That is why it is interesting to consider having specialized help. It is impossible to be an expert in everything, but there are different technology companies with which you can collaborate to continue advancing in the digitalization of a real estate company.
Innovating alone is very difficult, but if you are part of an “ecosystem” of services, it will be easier to continue moving forward to provide customers with everything they need at any given time. Of course, this type of collaboration has a cost, but the price of falling behind in digitalization is even higher.