How the best agents are using technology to sell homes

Every real estate agent knows that house hunting can be a gruelling and time-consuming process for both vendors and buyers. Fortunately, there are new and interesting technologies cropping up every day, that are helping agents and salespeople get house hunters into their dream homes – and quick. 

Serious buyers tell us there’s nothing worse than turning up to an open home, to find the place isn’t anything like they’d expected. A clear, detailed and honest listing goes a long way in ensuring that the right buyers are turning up at your viewings. 

Here are four technology solutions to help you build a first-rate listing for your vendors. 

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth ten thousand

While video would hardly top the list of the newest and most innovative real estate tech on the market, it’s surprisingly under-utilised by many salespeople. A walk-through video injects movement, life and emotion to a property listing. It’s easier for buyers to picture the layout and scale of a home, and better understand how the place may fit their needs. It also offers you, as the agent, an opportunity to step in front of the camera to showcase your personality and build your brand, helping you connect with buyers and sellers at a personal level.  And remember, making a video slideshow of the still images you’ve taken of a property doesn’t count.  

It’s virtually sold

With a 3D virtual tour, potential buyers can comfortably explore a property without setting foot outside their own front door. Like a video, a 3D tour gives house hunters a better idea of the layout, size and interior design of a home but, unlike video, a 3D virtual tour puts the buyer in the driver’s seat. They can explore square foot by square foot (or should we say square pixel?) of a property at their own pace, in their own time. It allows those detail-oriented buyers to take time to picture where their own furniture could go or what redecorating they’d do, without the stress and time-pressures that may come at a 20 minute open home visit. A 3D virtual tour is also understandably a game changer for new developments, such as apartments or off-the-plan homes, where buyers can’t physically walk through the place they are looking to purchase. 

Drone on and on about it

Many real estate photographers also offer drone photography. This is particularly helpful when regular images fail to capture the full breadth of what the property has to offer – for example, a dairy farm or lifestyle property.  A property with many unique features also benefits. Imagine a drone image that can capture everything from the tennis court and swimming pool, to the horse stables and paddock of friendly llamas. Even a “regular” home in a prime location can benefit from a drone image, to show off that park, beach, lake or mountain range next door.  Drone photography can also have privacy implications for neighbouring properties, so be sure to ask your photographer about this. 

Dial it up with Diakrit

Diakrit offers real estate agents a range of high-tech property solutions, such as D-Furnish, a software that lets customers decorate, plan and mentally “move in” to their new dream home online, or D-Style, where users can paint walls, change floor colouring and get a feel for the potential opportunities to improve the home. They offer everything from virtual reality walk-throughs to flythrough animations, that serve as ‘fuel for the imagination’ for potential buyers. 

Keep growing your business by reading how to become the go-to agent in your area, five relationships every great agent should have or, if you’re new to the market, check out our list of things every new real estate agent needs to know.