The real estate industry has a wealth of technology at its fingertips, but what works in practice and how does it serve an agency’s needs?
We put that question to our leadership panel, who offered an insight into the technology they use every day, and how they assess what’s likely to work for their organisation.
Michael Choi – Area Specialist founder
What’s the one piece of technology you can’t live without and why?
Generally speaking, my mobile phone. All the apps and systems are on it that allow me to run a national business from anywhere.
Specifically, I love Facebook lead generations systems, they are unbeatable in my opinion.
Name the top tech that you’ve tried and loved, as well as how it helped your business.
We created a website called 3secs.online that automatically values properties.
We send out a text message to our database every three months asking them if they want to know what their property is worth in three seconds.
People put in their address and we cross reference that address with our database to find the owner’s details and we follow up accordingly.
This avoids wasting a lot of time combing through cold data.
Tell us about a piece of tech you’ve tried and disliked and why.
YouTube. It’s owned by Google so it has Google data. You can advertise to people who have searched key words on Google.
This all sounds great, however the return on investment is substandard in comparison to Facebook to generate leads for our agents.
What’s the real estate tech trend you think we will see more of in 2022 and beyond?
I believe most agents are wanting more lifestyle and to be more mobile, so more tech to help them work from home or wherever they want.
For consumers, the ability to search, compare and sign up with a real estate agent virtually without needing to meet them will become more popular.
I believe the process will become quicker, like buying insurance.
I also believe there’s space for agents to use NFT’s (Non-fungible tokens) to help create clients for life.
For example, when you sell a property the buyer could get a NFT of the property they purchased this could go into their metaverse profile to help them build on their digital social status.
Blockchain, cryptocurrency and sales in the metaverse are all big buzzwords in real estate at the moment. Do you think they will take off in Australia?
They have already taken off in Australia, none of these have geographical boundaries so it has nothing to do with the country.
People are seeing crypto as a fantastic way to invest long-term. I also have plenty of friends that day trade and no longer have a full-time job.
The Commonwealth Bank is the first of the big four to facilitate cryptocurrency when most would think they are in competition.
The metaverse will be part of our everyday life, the digital and the IRL (in real life) world will now be one. People may not want to unplug as they will feel superhuman.
Eleni Roumanous – Agents + Co Director
What’s the one piece of technology you can’t live without and why?
Right now, our business is extremely excited to be using two pieces of technology that connect us to the external world – Inspect Real Estate (IRE) and FlikitOver.
IRE has become a staple in our technology stack the last four years and we have come to appreciate their continuous investment in technology and ability to move their product to meet market expectations.
FlikitOver has allowed us to do just what the name says! We “flick over” agency agreements, leases and any documents that may require review and signatures. It is exactly what we needed to keep our business running over the last two years.
To streamline our productivity and internal workflow we use Slack, which works for us really well.
Name the top tech that you’ve tried and loved, as well as how it helped your business.
Again, I would say that Inspect Real Estate has been the best to market in the last few years.
It has helped us streamline our leasing department and allowed for immediate, real-time access to the information that tenants and landlords want.
When used to the system’s full capabilities, this technology is a game changer.
Also Property Me as it is by far the most superior CRM I’ve used and also the only one I know of with such wide capabilities, where absolutely everything is included in its features.
I love that I don’t need to purchase separate inspection, maintenance or file apps, they’re all included.
Tell us about a piece of tech you’ve tried and disliked and why?
We have yet to come across a piece of technology that we are unhappy with.
The reason being is this: whenever new technology is being suggested for use in our office, we ensure our entire property management team reviews the product and makes a group decision about whether the new technology would benefit the team and ultimately, our landlords and tenants.
Sometimes, if not chosen wisely, technology can be a hindrance to our environment and cause anxiety for some in our business community.
We have tried several apps and platforms that we have not continued with, not because they were poor, they just weren’t beneficial to us and the way we’re structured.
What’s the real estate tech trend you think we will see more of in 2022 and beyond.
I believe we will be seeing the emergence of CRMs with no trust accounting requirements move into the main stream.
Over the last 20 years, we have seen landlords paid by way of cheque (which took days to deliver and clear), we then were excited when EFT was introduced (which had a three-day clearance) followed by EFT with same day delivery of funds.
Today, we have platforms that are allowing landlord payment in real-time as soon as the tenant makes payment! While this is not revolutionary, I believe the mainstream will appreciate this next move!
“Blockchain”, “cryptocurrency” and sales in the “metaverse” are all big buzzwords in real estate at the moment. Do you think they will take off in Australia? Why/Why not?
Absolutely we will see these buzzwords, however for the real estate sector to embrace the abilities of these platforms, we would need to see some regulation around their usage.
Also investors in real estate are “bricks and mortar” people who may take a bit longer to find confidence in the new less tangible, tech products.
Alexandra Stamatiou-Buda – McGrath Estate Agents
What’s the one piece of technology you can’t live without and why?
Mobile Phone– it connects us and allows us to do business
Name the top tech that you’ve tried and loved, as well as how it helped your business
Agentbox. It allows us to store information about owners and has the systems in place to follow-up. The technology also has the ability to send out mass SMS to keep in contact.
What’s the real estate tech trend you think we will see more of in 2022 and beyond?
Online auctions, due to changing landscape with Covid. It also allows buyers who are remote to bid. This creates a controlled environment where mainly serious bidders register.
“Blockchain”, “cryptocurrency” and sales in the “metaverse” are all big buzzwords in real estate at the moment. Do you think they will take off in Australia? Why/Why not?
In the short-term no, as it hasn’t been around for that long.
However in the next, 10-15 years, potentially! It’s like when online advertising first started instead of print, and now print is virtually dying off.
Lisa Novak – Novak Properties
What’s the one piece of technology you can’t live without and why?
Without a doubt, my mobile. It’s my third arm! These days these phones do it all.
You’ve got to have the latest model too. They are responsible for doing so, so much. I cannot live without mine, my screen time sits at around 11 hours a day.
Name the top tech that you’ve tried and loved, as well as how it helped your business.
For me the easiest and most basic of technology is the most appealing.
I’m using devices so often that I need them to be quick and simple to operate and not fiddly.
I have this fantastic light that attaches to my sun visor so I can film videos in-between appointments from my car.
Lighting is actually so important. An audience can tune out quickly because the light or sound was bad.
Tell us about a piece of tech you’ve tried and disliked and why?
Selfie sticks. I honestly cannot stand them. They’re fiddly and I find the video content can be disjointed when using them. That’s my personal experience.
What’s the real estate tech trend you think we will see more of in 2022 and beyond.
Short, snappy video content and apps that assist with that!
As we consume more and more content, the shorter and more concise it is, the better. I think Insta reels and TikTok.
“Blockchain”, “cryptocurrency” and sales in the “metaverse” are all big buzzwords in real estate at the moment. Do you think they will take off in Australia? Why/Why not?
People are nervous about anything new and it takes time and levels of trust for the general public to catch on particularly when investing money is concerned.
I don’t believe enough is known yet and personally I think we still have a way to go until these virtual worlds and currencies truly take off.
