With AI (artificial intelligence) tools like ChatGPT taking the world by storm, many industries are looking for ways to boost profits and streamline processes using technology. Of course, real estate professionals, including real estate agents and brokers, are no exception. Indeed, real estate technology is particularly well-suited to revolutionize the industry. From using AI to find the right deals to using the latest CRM technologies to manage clients, here are all the latest tech trends to maximize your real estate profits.
AI: The Latest Real Estate Technology
AI is the next frontier of real estate technology. While still somewhat in its infancy, promising AI startups are already showing that artificial intelligence can find deals and opportunities faster than a human or multiple human employees ever could.
Artificial intelligence is not just beneficial for real estate professionals to find deals. It has a wide variety of use cases in the real estate world.
For example, suppose you want to email clients every Wednesday to inform them about new houses in your area. You could leverage technologies like ChatGPT to craft that email for you. All you would need to do is ask ChatGPT something like, “can you write me a short email intro to send to my clients about real estate in Boca Raton, FL?” ChatGPT will give you a head start, and then you can either have the AI refine it, manually refine it yourself, or find a talented writer to turn it into a genuinely exceptional piece of work.
Either way, AI helped streamline the process by providing a foundation. You no longer have to sit and stare at a blank document wondering what to write.
If you have a real estate website, AI can also help with chatbots to help people find the real estate they want. Continuing with the example above, you could have an AI-powered chatbot on your site that someone could ask, “can you show me all homes under $500,000 in Boca Raton?” The chatbot could then interpret the question and help the user.
AI can also do the same for mortgage professionals, builders, contractors, and anyone else tangentially related to the real estate business.
CRM Tools Build Client Relationships and Boost Retention
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management, a genre of software that makes it easier for businesses to track clients from initial introduction to deal closing.
Real estate professionals use CRM systems in a variety of ways.
Agents and brokers use this software to track leads. When customers call or enter their information on a website, their contact information can go into the CRM database. Agents can use this database to send emails, schedule follow-up reminders, and track which customers led to a successful closing and which fizzled out.
Those involved in the financial aspect of real estate use CRM systems for similar purposes. CRM software can track where customers are in the loan process, whether that’s initial pre-approval or all the way to loan completion and funding.
Lastly, investors can use CRM tools to track potential investment candidates. Sometimes investors are not interested in a particular project but might be interested in one down the road. CRM tools can help compile that list, for example, and make it easier to reach out to those individuals or companies later.
CRM tools help maximize profits by tracking customers, clients, and investors through your pipeline. Instead of emails or spreadsheets, where mistakes are easy, CRM software packages ensure real estate professionals are on top of all their deals all the time.
Virtual Reality Tours
When the global pandemic hit in 2020, real estate agents, investors, and mortgage professionals had to pivot to operating in an online-only world. Instead of walking into an open house and signing all the paperwork in person, buying a home meant looking at it online.
While much of the pandemic has subsided, thankfully, prospective homeowners still love the concept of perusing a home virtually before going to see it physically. VR, short for Virtual reality, is a win-win for agents and customers alike: clients browse more homes online, which is easier for them, and agents waste less time showing clients homes they won’t ultimately desire. Either way, it leads to less work and higher margins for agents. For these reasons, there are virtual tours of homes available on most major home search sites.
Virtual reality has also significantly impacted developers, particularly in the pre-construction phase. Prospective buyers often have trouble visualizing a home’s layout from blueprints, but if you hand them a VR headset, they can get a better sense of their new home. Builders typically see a significant boost in sales and profits when they implement VR technology into the selling process.
The Right Real Estate Technology Will Maximize Your Profits
Technology has revolutionized every industry, including real estate. AI is the next frontier of that revolution. However, plenty of existing tech has already transformed the industry, like CRM systems and virtual reality. These technologies have already demonstrated their value and ability to benefit the real estate industry.
Whether you are starting as a new entry in the industry or you’re a seasoned professional, the best real estate tech, including AI, CRM tools, and virtual reality, will help you streamline your operations and boost your profits.
