Real estate industry experts have a message for Realtors and agents: Get with the proptech program.<\/p>\n
Yes, the industry reacted to the pandemic-fueled market crash in the spring by jumping on video conferencing platforms and ramping up virtual tours, but there\u2019s a lot more tech that real estate pros could be taking advantage of.<\/p>\n
\u201cVideoconferencing technology isn\u2019t new, but we\u2019re slower to adopt technologies than we\u2019d like to admit,\u201d Nick Bailey, chief customer officer for RE\/MAX, LLC<\/a>, said during this week\u2019s 2020 REALTORS\u00ae Conference & Expo<\/a>. \u201cThe reason is that we don\u2019t want to see or hear ourselves. We have to get over that and use it.\u201d (Pro tip for Zoom users: If you don\u2019t want to see yourself, use the Hide Myself feature<\/a>. Then you won\u2019t be distracted by any pandemic weight gain.)<\/p>\n The pandemic has made a couple of things sparkling clear. As panelists in the \u201cCOVID-19 \u2013 Transforming How Realtors\u00ae Do Business<\/a>\u201d session agreed, technology was a huge driver in the industry\u2019s V-shaped recovery after lockdowns. They also said trends spurred by COVID-19 aren\u2019t going away.<\/p>\n Consumers love the efficiency and flexibility of being able to virtually tour 10 homes and visit only 3 or 4 top candidates. Also, many people will likely be uncomfortable touring houses<\/a> for quite awhile.<\/p>\n Now the pandemic has helped demonstrate the value of proptech tools for Realtors and agents, who can use them for keeping in touch with clients, as well as for marketing and prospecting.<\/p>\n \u201cIf every agent can take away two pieces of technology to be more efficient, it will improve their business,\u201d Bailey said.<\/p>\n Just a sample of the panel\u2019s recommended tools<\/a>:<\/p>\n It\u2019s remote online notarization (RON) integrated with e-signatures that could be the biggest efficiency game-changer. However, there are few hurdles, which the Texas Land Title Association<\/a> outlined in April: Many lenders and county clerks will not yet accept documents notarized online; there are a limited number of RON vendors and registered e-notaries; and consumers as well as industry professionals simply don\u2019t understand how it works.<\/p>\n Still, integrating a tech ecosystem to create seamless, fully-digital transactions appears to be where the industry is headed. \u201cEmbracing title companies and lenders who have that ability for full electronic signings and closings will be important,\u201d said Andy Ambrose, practice lead at DocuSign Notary<\/a>.<\/p>\n For all that tech can do to save time and money, panelists agreed that nothing can replace the value of personal relationships for consumers \u2013 and for agents.<\/p>\n \u201cFor many real estate professionals, the pandemic reminded them about how much they love working with people and not just to sell real estate, but to check on their customers and families,\u201d said Marilyn Wilson, managing partner of WAV Group<\/a> and president of RETechnology.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n For Bailey, the proptech surge has one really bright spot: \u201cIt has reminded every agent that they are the most important part of the real estate transaction, and that\u2019s not going to change anytime soon.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (TECH NEWS) As the pandemic makes proptech even hotter, savvy real estate pros need to know what tech tools can do for their business. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337832,"featured_media":16759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[710,2067,2066,1234,1100],"class_list":["post-16758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-estate-tech","tag-agents","tag-pandemic","tag-proptech","tag-real-estate-news","tag-realtors"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/11\/RealtorHomebuyers.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/337832"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16758"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16760,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16758\/revisions\/16760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n