How agile are you? The ability to move quickly and easily in today’s real estate market is pivotal to servicing and helping clients navigate the quicksand-like conditions and challenges they face buying, selling, and financing a home. As inventory levels rise, it will be crucial to find solutions that support buyer and seller demand for more digital services, reduce common stress factors related to typical real estate processes, and help you build trust with clients, so your business stands out from the competition. 

Build trust with technology

In a survey we recently conducted about home-selling experiences, respondents ranked moving, preparing their home for sale, and planning a funeral as some of life’s most stressful events. Sixty-three percent of respondents said they even considered taking their home off the market because of how tedious it was to prepare for showings and open houses.

Understanding how to leverage available technology-based solutions to provide the personalized service needed to help sellers reach their goals – and reduce their stress – can help you gain and build their trust.

There is a plethora of digital tools you can use to provide the real-time data and immediate responses needed to appeal to both buyers and sellers. Smart websites, community information, AI listing descriptions, virtual staging, mobile loan apps, online showings and self-tours using instant access codes are just a few examples.

Prop up clients’ needs with proptech

The application of information technology and platform economics to real estate markets affords sellers the ability to manage their real estate transactions in a way that works best for them. In our survey, more than three-quarters of those who had sold a home said they spent more money preparing it for sale than they wanted or expected to. More than half said they would accept less for their homes to avoid the time and energy of preparing for open houses or showings. 

"The application of information technology and platform economics to real estate markets affords sellers the ability to manage their real estate transactions in a way that works best for them"

Coupled with traditional real estate, proptech can offer solutions that enable you to be more agile in responding to individual client needs. Most agents will tell you that the majority of their clients care about three things:

• Selling fast

• Selling for the best price

• Doing it on a timeline that works for them

Does your seller need to sell fast? Working with an iBuying solution, agents and brokers can present sellers with an immediate cash offer option alongside their usual marketing and listing options. A quick cash offer enables the client to move within their own timeframe and eliminates the need for open houses, showings, and lengthy buyer contingencies. We work with hundreds of agents in this way. If the seller selects the cash option, the agent also receives a full three percent commission from us. 

While there is no silver bullet (regardless of what today’s tech-based solutions promise), embracing the tools that support building trust through personalized services will be key in riding the next decade of inevitable change and creating more opportunities for your clients to take advantage of under any market conditions.