SaaS, smart technology, augmented and virtual reality, blockchain applications and artificial intelligence have collectively enhanced value propositions for buyers, sellers, realtors, managers and investors. Advancements in real estate and property technology promise to automate workflows, reduce application times and costs, improve asset management and data accessibility, and enable scale. eSignatures, localized MLS platforms, transaction management technologies, showing tech and improved customer relationship management applications have already proved invaluable to sell-side real estate to pave new paths for quality lead generation and customer acquisition.
Now, as years of slim inventory, low rates and increasing prices give way to reduced demand—particularly in the housing market—mortgage lenders, commercial real estate investors, property managers and other players are reassessing their models, reinvesting in research and development, and exploring new ways to implement new technologies to prepare for the inevitable market rebound.
Solutions providers, meanwhile, are focusing on critical areas of the real estate value chain—customer experience and closing times, business intelligence and data-driven decision-making, green technologies and more—to boost productivity and profitability in equal measure and, just as importantly, to differentiate in an industry facing significant economic headwinds.