What are the Impacts of Digital on Real Estate Trades?
Over the years, digital has grown, disrupting different sectors of the economy, and real estate has not deviated from the rule. Indeed, the sector that has undertaken for several years already its digital transformation has brought out new services such as 3D modeling, the automated lease contract, virtual visits to housing … more and more connected. But the digitization of real estate does not stop there since it has directly impacted all traditional trades that revolve around.
Trends in an increasingly connected real estate sector
With the breakthrough of digital, traditional agencies have had to review their specifications, thus impacting the commercial landscape of the sector in a radical way. Professionals in the field must constantly evolve to adapt and compose daily with new computer media that has become more than indispensable today. Data, geolocation, home staging, Augmented Reality, 3D … today, we no longer visit an apartment like 10 years ago. All these new tools bring certain dynamism to the sector, pushing real estate agencies and developers to innovate in terms of services.
New professions for new skills
The digital revolution has also been taking place on the ground of the employment it has revolutionized. According to a study conducted by AGEFOS PME in October 2017, three business lines are directly impacted by the digital transformation: customer relations, rental management and co-ownership as well as management and management jobs. As a result, the real estate industry has seen new professions emerge to meet consumer demands and align with technological innovations.
Whether real estate agents, architects or developers, all these real estate players have had no choice, but to take the path of digital transformation to meet new market expectations. With all the changes implied by the evolution of the sector, companies are led to recruit profiles called “hybrid” with both expertise in the field and being able to understand the new challenges of digital and use the tools. It is in this dynamic that the sector has opened its doors to welcome digital marketing and IT professionals. Employees will need to learn new skills to be in tune with the technological advances that have taken hold of the sector and not lose the thread.
The new faces of real estate
Renowned for being a conservative industry, real estate has been able to impose itself and be force of proposition by playing the card of the innovation. We can see today on LinkedIn that real estate companies have many digital profiles are part of the workforce: Digital & CRM Manager, Acquisition Project Manager, Business Developer … Moreover, it is not uncommon to find real estate job offers that are looking for real estate negotiators with advanced digital skills, or able to use Facebook or LinkedIn social networks, exploiting the method of social selling. All these new players have the same motivation: to be in step with the digital revolution.
Real estate agent: an endangered actor?
According to a study conducted by two researchers from Oxford University (Frey and Osbom), the real estate agent is doomed to disappear in the coming decades! While these new profiles have redrawn the housing landscape, the traditional real estate agent remains a major asset for the housing sector. Although consumer habits have evolved with the digital, the real estate agent will not replace the benefit of collaborative platforms and online ad portals.
Indeed, nothing replaces the expertise of physical intermediaries and exchanges in an area where the human factor takes precedence. Buyers and sellers need to interact and be advised by professionals they trust, especially when it comes to renting a home or even investing in a life plan. It is for these reasons that the real estate agent can only evolve and gain skills in a context of increasing digitization.
