Selling your home has never been easier or more streamlined—thanks to emerging technologies that are turning the real estate market on its head. Gone are the days when you had to manually develop a ballpark estimate of a home’s value and rely on real estate agents to showcase your house to potential buyers. In today’s golden age of high-tech real estate, much of the work is already done for you.
Home Information on Demand
The biggest 21st century development is the rise of sites like Zillow and Redfin, which allow you to virtually search homes as though you were shopping for a bike on eBay. In the past, you would have to rely on a real estate agent to provide you with listings of homes for sale along with accompanying information.
Now you can sit at your computer and take 3D virtual tours of hundreds of homes in your pajamas, all while comparing home values, HOA costs, square footage, and other essential information.
Home Appraisal Algorithms
Home appraisals are becoming more precise and accurate than ever, and it’s all thanks to technology. Automated valuation models (AVMs) are becoming the industry standard for determining the value of a home. These models use complex formulas that factor millions of pieces of data, including information about the home itself as well as the neighborhood and recent similar home sales.
From local school ratings to street traffic estimates, AVMs look at every piece of data available. A live home appraiser may come to a different conclusion about a home’s value, but it has never been easier to get an instant estimate on your own home or the home you’ve had your eye on.
iBuyers
Along with house flippers, iBuyers are part of the increasingly popular “We Buy Houses for Cash” business model, and they’re shaking up the real estate world. iBuyers use AVMs and other details to find valuable homes that they can turn a profit on. They then make an offer (usually a cash offer) to the homeowner in the hopes of buying and then reselling the home at a profit.
This industry is made possible by the same big data that AVMs rely on. Using complex computer algorithms, these inspired real estate investors are able to pinpoint the most lucrative opportunities with the least amount of risk. They also make it easier for homeowners to sell for cash. If your home is desirable, you might even receive an unsolicited offer from these tech-savvy buyers.
Drone Technologies
Drones are becoming ubiquitous in real estate for multiple reasons. For starters, they make the home appraisal process easier and more accurate. An appraiser can use drones to examine roof tiles, photograph difficult-to-reach crawl spaces, and even capture the overall feel of the neighborhood.
Drones can also be used to create stunning 3D home tours for use in the MLM and on real estate websites. Rather than just using a series of 2D photographs to show off your home, you can create an interactive experience that allows prospective buyers to virtually travel from room to room in stunning high definition. This can provide you with a huge competitive advantage.
Artificial Intelligence
There is an AI component to the AVMs mentioned above, but artificial intelligence is being used more broadly to revolutionize the whole real estate experience. Machine learning allows real estate search engines to intuitively learn a buyer’s preferences and optimize search listings accordingly—even accounting for preferences the buyer made be unaware of. For example, if you repeatedly click on Tudor-style homes while browsing houses for sale, the AI may pick up on your architectural preferences and optimize your listings accordingly.
Some real estate companies are also using AI chat boxes and other automated customer service solutions to provide delay-free assistance to potential buyers. Even slight delays can cause a buyer to lose interest, so this technology can be a game-changer for anyone looking to sell their home. In the coming years, we can expect to see AI play a much larger role in the home-selling process.
If you’re planning on selling your home, one of the smartest things you can do is use the available technologies to your advantage. There’s little to no downside, but the benefits can be substantial.
