6 Changes To Real Estate Caused By Modern Technology
Real estate has always been a very personal field. Prospective home buyers feel more comfortable when there is an expert present to answer questions and offer their professional opinion. However, technology has progressed in such a way that some standard real estate practices have had to change. Of course, most of these changes are positive, streamlining the process to ensure that everyone can find a home that suits them and is still within their price range.
Unfortunately, you probably won’t become aware of these changes until you are faced with them, and it is rare for people to buy or sell their homes more than once in ten years. As such, some of these differences may catch you unawares. Therefore, this article will inform you of any real estate changes that have occurred because of advancing technology so that you are prepared for what the market offers in 2022.
Virtual Home Tours
One of the biggest changes to modern life is the fact that most daily tasks can be performed from a remote location. This means that you may be asked to perform a virtual house viewing when looking for a prospective new home.
Video call technology and internet speeds have advanced at such a rate that estate agents can craft a 3D walking tour of a house for sale and send it to potential clients. This virtual tour makes it easier for working people to arrange a viewing of a property, especially if it is far away from your current address, and there is minimal disruption for the people looking to sell the property. What’s more, a virtual tour allows the real estate agent to pause for questions and take as much time answering the buyer’s queries. It is still a wise move to visit the property in person before you buy; however, virtual home tours speed up the initial search process so much that they are used by almost every modern real estate agent.
International Buying
Another key benefit of living in the age of the internet is that it is easier than ever to invest in property overseas. The improved levels of communication mean that anyone looking to buy a second property overseas can do so while still maintaining the ability to keep a watchful eye on their purchase. All it takes is a video call or email to stay up to date on your tenants or communicate with professional service people in the local area. Also, negotiating with real estate agents in these regions is a cinch.
A second home can provide you with some extra income; however, homes for sale in your local area may be too expensive for you to consider. Fortunately, international markets can have a lower cost of living than your current address. Just look at the real estate in Florence for confirmation of this. Therefore, it is even more possible for you to own real estate overseas in 2022 than it has been in the history of the property market.
Faster Responses
There was a time in real estate when you had to wait several days to find out about a property or a bid that you have placed. This is because you had o arrange appointments over the phone; however, things did become easier when PCs found their way into the home. Still, you had to ensure that you were in front of the screen to receive news. This was always difficult for anyone with a full-time job as most real estate agents only work during standard business hours.
Now, things are even easier thanks to the same technology being available in your pocket smartphones. You can receive emails wherever you are or use real estate apps to monitor the progress of any prospective homes you have your eye on. This means that more people are able to secure the homes they want to live in, leading to a higher success rate for property owners.
Neighborhood Searches
The local area is one of the most important aspects to research when buying a home. The house itself may be perfect; however, a poor local job market, a lack of schools, or a high crime rate can significantly reduce your quality of life. There was a time when you had to rely solely on the advice of a local real estate agent to learn about these details, but those time has now long passed.
All it takes is a quick online search to find out the stats for your local area, which will reveal crime numbers, and the average cost of living, and list a series of local amenities. You can even use read the local newspapers online to get an idea of the type of activity that occurs in the area before you move there. What’s more, google maps lets you take a virtual tour of anywhere in the world so you can monitor the surrounding area for anything that may make your life difficult. Everyone is different, but make sure that you do a thorough search to ensure that you can live the way you want to in your next home.
Updates To Home Technology
Most modern technology is designed to fit the current housing market. This means that companies have to create new tech that can be installed by the average homeowner, and therefore you should be able to update any home to fit your current lifestyle.
It is entirely normal to integrate sustainable energy practices into the home in today’s climate, which is why most real estate agents will recommend homes where this is possible. Technology also plays a huge part in your entertainment, so homes need to be able to accommodate smart speakers, T.V. lights, security systems, and more. Therefore, most modern real estate is sold by how much it can keep up with advancing technologies, as well as the previous parameters used by home buyers.
Accurate Pricing
House prices have always been roughly guided by the neighborhood they exist in. Your house is very likely to cost the same as your neighbors, for example. This will only have changed if one of you had a sizeable extension; however, things have become more complex in recent years.
While real estate agents will use the value of other houses in the area as a guide price for any homes that hit the market, AI technology has made it possible to refine the pricing methods overall. Artificial intelligence can perform scans of a home to find reasons to drop the price for prospective buyers. The materials used may grow in value or the device may predict a common trend that will make the house invaluable in the future. As a result, house pricing is a more unique exercise than it once was, and homeowners are paying less for their houses.
Conclusion
Anyone that is seeking to make a move that involves the property market should have a good idea of how it functions. Fortunately, you now have a more comprehensive idea of how the market has changed in recent years, and how it is likely to evolve. Tech like AI and smartphones are going to be in the public consciousness for a very long time to come, so make sure you are adapting your property search to accommodate these advancements.
