The Role of Technology in Real Estate

As technology continues to advance at an unprecedented pace, it has become increasingly important for those in real estate to keep up with the latest innovations that affect the industry. However, familiarizing yourself with the ever-changing landscape of real estate technology can often be a challenge, even for the most tech-savvy of individuals.

By working with a trusted brokerage like Royal LePage Team Realty, you’ll be able to make the most of the opportunities available to you, allowing you to succeed with confidence and ease. After getting to know you and the situation that you’re in, our knowledgeable agents can identify the most promising tools and applications for your specific needs. Our industry experience and expansive professional network can provide you with a wealth of resources, allowing you to streamline your process and achieve your goals, no matter if you’re a buyer or a seller.

Promotion / Awareness

In the age of the internet, digital promotion is a must. On the one hand, sellers can rest assured that their home is being promoted to as wide an audience as possible.

Through the MLS® system, your home is exposed to a large number of buyers browsing online.

Team Realty’s websites, a resource to showcase our client’s listings and any scheduled open houses, in addition to introducing our team of professional real estate agents.

REALTOR® social media platforms are great for promoting listings and virtual tours.

Many individual REALTORS® also have websites for promotion of their listings.

On the other hand, it helps buyers find a home that truly checks all of their boxes. Buyers no longer have to wonder if they’re looking at the best option available. Because of the above-mentioned services, it’s much easier than it’s ever been to find a home that meets their short and long-term goals. Through the MLS® system, buyers can filter results by location, price, beds, baths and many other features.

Staging / Showing

The process of staging and showing a home has also become more essential. This was especially true throughout the global pandemic, as many REALTORS® have adapted their practices to include virtual tours and showings, allowing buyers to experience another home from the comfort of their current one. Digitally or virtually staging a home, without materially altering the main components or the perspective of any given room, can be a useful tool for presenting a vacant home online.

Professional photography has always been an effective tool for promotion, and this is especially true now. With advanced technology like 3D cameras and the use of drones, professionals can take incredible shots of the home and property from angles otherwise impossible with a regular camera.

Data Gathering / Analytics

Another strength of digital promotion is that it is often trackable, allowing sellers and their REALTORS® to document any successes or shortcomings the listing may have across various platforms. Many platforms allow us to see how many people have looked at a listing, as well as information on how other competitors in your area may be doing.

Here’s what data analytics may reveal, depending upon the site:

Number of Views

Time on Page

Bounce Rate (How many people left quickly after viewing the listing)

Location of Visitors and where they originated from

Conversion Rate (How many took action after viewing the listing)

Documents

There are now many technology services being used by our team of real estate professionals, such as DocuSign, that allow for legal/financial documents to be completed online. This allows:

The ability to review and sign documents from where and when it is convenient for you.

Any easy way to organize and access your important files.

Cloud-based technology which keeps your documents backed up, preventing loss.

Less of an environmental impact.

Networking

We have access to a vast network of experienced professionals from a wide variety of industries — a network that technology has only strengthened. This makes it easier to help you every step of the way. If you would like to streamline your real estate process as much as possible while also finding the best results, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’ll be glad to answer any questions you may have.

Real Estate in Ottawa has been a hot topic for some time now. Despite the industry’s sudden shutdown at the beginning of the pandemic, home sales picked up as soon as it was announced that the Real Estate industry was deemed an essential service. Since then, Ottawa residents have been fascinated as they watch homes sell within days of going live on MLS®, often with prices considerably above their asking price. It was humbling to see how the market transformed during the early stages of the pandemic. Like most Canadian industries, Real Estate had to quickly alter business practices to protect the health and safety of our agents, clients, and the general public.

Ottawa is the hottest market in Canada. Until 2017, Ottawa had maintained a slow and steady growth of the average home price. 2018 and 2019 proved much more active, and then, despite the pandemic, 2020 a year-over-year increase of 19.5%. This is the most significant increase in over 30 years and surpasses the number of residences and condominium properties sold in 2019.

There is talk about the risk of Ottawa having a bubble, where prices rose too quickly. However, we have actually been in a reverse bubble, with prices on the lower end of where they should have been. Big Canadian cities like Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton saw sky-high prices, but these increases were unsustainable, which ultimately caused their bubble to break. While our current year-over-year price increases are not sustainable, we firmly believe the current home prices are reflective of the stature of Ottawa and the strength of our market. Ottawa house prices still remain well below the average of other major cities in Canada. We are just catching up to those other major markets.

Our battle now is getting inventory to sustain the current need. Many properties are going into multiple offers, causing high levels of frustration among buyers. Builders are starting back up again, which is excellent, but we need more listings from those holding off. The hesitation around big moves in the current climate is understandable, but numbers prove that now is a great time to be out on the market.

COVID-19 slowed us down in Ottawa through March and April 2020, but we were the last to shut down and the first to start back up. This did not mean business as usual. Our industry had to quickly find ways to keep our agents, clients, and the public safe while helping those who needed to buy and sell Real Estate.

Our Royal LePage Team REALTORS ® were trained and equipped with access to programs that made transactions more convenient, but COVID-19 required a broader range of online tools to be accessible for Real Estate services. Being essential meant that we were tasked with changing the face of Real Estate in Ottawa appropriately to meet our growing community’s demand.

We found ways to limit physical interactions, set out new guidelines, and entered the virtual world. With the vast amount of information now available online, buyers and sellers can complete the entire process without ever leaving their homes. Anyone with an email address can access a database to check listing prices, sold prices, and other information on properties sold in Ottawa. We also introduced Virtual Open Houses and expanded virtual tours, 3D images, and self-guided virtual tours.

Buying a home in 2021 certainly looks different. We had to adapt while coping with a challenging covid situation that made our person-to-person business very difficult to manage. Our team’s resiliency, and this fantastic city, are why we have been able to keep our doors open. Despite how navigating the market has changed, our values remain the same, and business is done the old-fashioned way. People helping people!! However, we are now more inclined to offer a virtual fist bump instead of a handshake. We are thankful to have been able to remain open and proud of how our industry reacted to the changes that COVID-19 brought. We are fortunate that we live in a market that has been Canada’s most stable for the last 25 years. We are proud of our industry, our sales representatives, and our entire Royal LePage TEAM!

Category: Real estate technology