Your real estate tech budget: What to concentrate on in 2022
We hear you: “Oh, goody. . .yet another blog post on how I should spend more money.”
Actually, we know you have a tech budget (ahem), and we know that part of it is allocated to real estate lead generation.
So, we looked for the three most important pieces of technology that help generate leads.
The perfect CRM
Most established agents already own and use a CRM. Many of them despise what they have. Yet, your CRM may be the most important tech tool in your business..
The perfect CRM for your business, however, isn’t necessarily the same one that your buddy in Phoenix uses in his real estate business.
Because we can’t possibly know what your hot buttons are, we can’t recommend what to look for in a CRM. What we can tell you is that you’re more likely to use a CRM that you don’t hate.
Make a list of your current CRM’s limitations – the stuff that drives you nuts on a daily basis – and start shopping for one that better meets your needs. Ask colleagues what they use and why they like or dislike it.
As you cruise the internet, using the search term “best crm for real estate agents,” avoid articles published by companies that offer CRM systems to agents or by those who work for such companies (read author bios to find out if there’s an agenda).
This is the one piece of tech that every agent simply must have, so take your time, and be willing to spend as much as it takes on the one that is best for you.
3-D virtual tours
There seems to be a misconception among agents that real estate videos are popular with the public. They aren’t. When it comes to online home tours, they can’t compete with 3-D virtual reality tours.
And the popularity of the latter is growing, while video’s popularity wanes. For example, nearly 80% of homebuyers surveyed by Zillow said “… they wanted the ability to view a 3D virtual tour.”
“… the popularity of these tools is not going to wane any time soon, even as the pandemic continues to slowly fade,” according to Dan Handy at Zillow.com.
When homebuyers want to learn more about a listing, they don’t want to be restricted to what a videographer shows them. The ability to cruise around a home at their own pace, virtually, and to pick and choose which areas to scrutinize, is valuable to them.
Lest you think that this preference for a more immersive home shopping experience rose out of the pandemic, consider that a Coldwell Banker study in 2018 found that nearly 80% of homebuyers would prefer their first visit to a home be via virtual reality.
It also found that 62% of the respondents claimed that “… they would be more likely to choose a real estate sales associate who offered VR house tour capabilities as a service for their clients” over one that did not.
Listing clients expect virtual tours of their home while it’s on the market. Consider 3-D tours over video for maximum buyer engagement and seller satisfaction.