Technology and Trends in the Real Estate Marketplace

The Search Process

Real Estate Agents continue to be a critical component in the home buyers search process. Home buyers are relying heavily on online sources and their agents to provide information, with decreasing use of some sources, such as newspapers and open houses.

The Internet has become an essential and indispensable tool in the home search process with nearly 90 percent of home buyers using it to search for homes, and 56 percent of buyers stating that the use of the Internet was the first step taken during the home buying process.

Typically, home buyers typically spends in an average of 12 weeks searching for a home and preview an average of 12 properties before deciding on their purchase.

Information sources used by home buyers in search for property :

What Interests Home Buyers

Top of the list for home buyer when they search for properties is the photos or images of the respective ad or article. The detailed information such as the property type and description which includes the size, amenities and well as the accessibility to the listed property are some key points that would influence the potential buyers.

With the technological advancement, potential buyers also lured with Virtual Tours of the property and Interactive Maps that would navigate the prospects to the exact location.

Home Buyer and Real Estate Agents

The home buyers still rely on real estate agents to be partners as they navigate the home purchase process. The confidence and trust that buyers place in their agent translates into repeat business. Agents who satisfy buyers by providing the services that matter are likely to earn repeat business.

Important Factors That Home Buyer Chose Their Real Estate Agents

When it comes to choosing a right real estate agents, home buyers prefers agents who are honest and trustworthy. The reputation of these agents are also crucial besides the knowledge of the property and it’s surroundings (neighbourhood). Quite a number of agents is a friend or family member(relative) of the home buyers and via referrals. Home buyers also looks for agents who are good listeners and responses in a timely manners. Agents that are easily accessible and tech savvy would also hold the slight advantage against its peers or competitions. Professional designation and the agent’s association is the least factor of home buyers choosing their real estate agents.

Response Time from Real Estate Agents

The expected response time for agents from the majority of home sellers (77%) would be within 30 minutes. However, only 24% of agents reply to the seller within 30 minutes.

On the buyers perspective, they (88%) expect a response from their agent within one hour and only 30% of agents who are able to meet these expectations. 100% buyers said their agent’s response time was important.

Technology and Real Estate Agents

In the 90s, the telephone was the primary source of contact between a client and real estate professional. Today, the Internet has replaced the telephone as the first point of contact.

Technology gives an advantage over other real estate agents. It allows agents to stay competitive and able to response and communicate to the clients faster. Technology also helps the agents to stay relevant besides saving precious time and money.

On the other note, referrals from friends and family continue to be among the most important factors when home sellers choose a real estate agent. In general, marketing in print media, such as real estate magazines and newspaper advertisements dropped significantly over the years.

Key Take-Aways

The real estate industry will always be a serviced industry. As clients looks for a open, honest and trustworthy agents to propose and provide solutions, real estate agents also need to stay competitive and responsive in a timely manner. With the internet technology, we are now smarter consumers and are consuming media and information via mobile devices at anytime, anywhere. Real estate agents that leverages on technology would have a clear advantage against its peers and competitors.

Besides changing the business landscape today, technology and the internet are also part of the key drivers that is able to accelerate the real estate businesses going forward.

QR Code Technology

The QR code system was invented in 1994 by Denso Wave. QR code (abbreviated from Quick Response Code) is the trademark for a type of two-dimensional barcode (matrix barcode) first designed for the automotive industry in Japan. The QR Code system became popular outside the automotive industry due to its fast readability and greater storage capacity compared to standard UPC barcodes. Applications include product tracking, item identification, time tracking, document management, and general marketing.

Sample of a QR Code

Originally designed for industrial uses, QR codes have become common in consumer advertising. Typically, a smartphone is used as a QR code scanner, displaying the code and converting it to some useful form (such as a standard URL for a website, thereby obviating the need for a user to type it into a web browser). The QR code has become a focus of advertising strategy, since it provides a way to access a brand’s website more quickly than by manually entering a URL. Beyond mere convenience to the consumer, the importance of this capability is that it increases the conversion rate (the chance that contact with the advertisement will convert to a sale), by coaxing interested prospects further down the conversion funnel with little delay or effort, bringing the viewer to the advertiser’s website immediately, where a longer and more targeted sales pitch may lose the viewer’s interest.

QR codes storing addresses and URLs may appear in magazines, on signs, on buses, on business cards, or on almost any object about which users might want information. Users with a camera phone equipped with the correct reader application can scan the image of the QR code to display text, contact information, connect to a wireless network, or open a web page in the telephone’s browser. This act of linking from physical world objects is termed hardlinking or object hyperlinking. QR codes also may be linked to a location to track where a code has been scanned. Either the application that scans the QR code retrieves the geo information by using GPS and cell tower triangulation (aGPS) or the URL encoded in the QR code itself is associated with a location.

Today, we see more and more businesses or brands using this technology on their products (catalogues, labels, POS, and etc.) or being displayed at their store fronts. It forms a ‘call-to-action’ and an engagement opportunity with their prospect or customers.

However, we must be cautious and mindful of the URL or link that we want the scanner (person who scans the code) to the landing page. As the device used are mainly a mobile device, the landing page requires a mobile optimized site and it should be a simple engagement and user interface for its users. Many brands or advertisers have overlooked at the importance of the landing page and its application when using the QR Code for their product or service. Never create a link to the company or business main webpage using a QR Code, it would be suicidal!

QR Code is an excellent call-to-action to engage with prospects and customers for lead acquisition; brand campaigns; on-line registration; product info (text/video); product authentication, product tracking and eventually collating big data. Would it benefit the brand or company if they know who is exactly purchasing their products, how frequent they purchased these products, the location/outlet they purchased them and etc? Think about the endless possibilities of the data and information acquired.

In South Korea, a hyper-market (Emart) creatively used QR Code in one of their campaigns that not only met their objectives and expectation (with increased sales, membership and brand awareness), the campaign also won 5 Lions Awards at the Cannes Lions 2012; 2 prizes at London International Awards and 7 prizes at the Spikes Asia 2012 (global event in the creative communication and advertising field).

You can view the campaign video via this link : https://youtu.be/EvIJfUySmY0  or simply scan the QR Code below to view : 

We can easily download a QR Code scanner on our mobile device from Android Apps on Google Play or Apps Store on iTunes for free. FYI, on of the social messaging platform – ‘WeChat’ has a QR Code scanner function build-in into their application.

To generate a QR Code, there are many providers that we could find from the internet and I would recommend www.qrstuff.com as it is relatively easy to use to create the QR Code we desire. Once you have key-in the URL, your QR code will be automatically shown as a preview (on the right) and you can download and safe the QR Code on your computer or mobile device. It’s as easy as ABC…

You might want to test the QR Code with your mobile device(s) before you actively uses it. Again, I would strongly suggest that whatever your landing page/link that you have embedded on your QR Code, it must be a responsive-designed landing page/online site.

Malaysia’s Digital & Internet Snapsots

*source : wearesocial.net

Digital Revolution – The Game Changer for Businesses Today (In A Nutshell)

The Internet, in the 1990s, opened whole new avenues for communication and information sharing. The ability to easily and rapidly share information on a global scale brought with it a whole new level for individuals and organizations. We were given the ability to publish on any topic, to a local or global audience, at a negligible cost, particularly in comparison to any previous communication technology.

The digital revolution have changed everything. It changed the way consumers consume media & content and the way we communicate. Prospects are now very mobile, always connected and on the move. They are now more information and tech savvy. They always know what they want, where they want it and how they want it, either to consume information or to make a purchase.

So how do businesses adapt to these changes? For some businesses it would be either a ‘make or break’ situation especially in today’s competitive environment. I believe businesses have no better option but to adapt to these changes and start embracing this ‘digital revolution’ as part of their strategy conversation.

With rising operating and overhead costs and the changes on the consumers buying behaviour, quite a number of businesses are struggling to stay profitable and to sustain their businesses. Their products and services can potentially be a topic of consumers’ conversations, for bad or good. This could lead to a ‘double-edged sword’ scenario.

As for retailers, they face a new challenge in consumers’ behaviour called ‘showrooming’. ‘Showrooming’ is the practice of examining merchandise in a traditional ‘brick and mortar’ retail store or other offline setting, and then buying it online, looking for a better bargain or a lower price.

With the emergence of E-Commerce (Electronic Commerce), it created a great deal of impact for retailers and markets. Economists have theorized that e-commerce ought to lead to intensified price competition, as it increases consumers’ ability to gather information about products and prices. Individual or business involved in e-commerce whether buyers or sellers rely on Internet-based technology in order to accomplish their transactions. E-commerce is recognized for its ability to allow business to communicate and to form transaction anytime and anyplace. The power of e-commerce allows geophysical barriers to disappear, making all consumers and businesses on potential customers and suppliers.

So are you or your organization leveraging on the digital revolution or the Internet-technology for your businesses today?