The housing market has been on fire for the last couple of years, and one of the proponents of this is how easy technologies are making it to find, buy, or sell a house. Not restricted to local listing agents anymore, people can easily go online to get everything that they need and more. It doesn’t come as a surprise that so many people seek these tech-driven solutions to the housing market, given the smart home craze. With the smart home market tipped by Markets and Markets to grow at a CAGR of 10.4 percent over the next four years, it’s clear that the housing market is becoming increasingly associated with tech. For buying and selling with ease, these applications of tech have become the leading products that customers seek nowadays.
Immersive online house viewings
Photos for online listings and even those put up in the windows of real estate agents can never tell the full story of a house. People have become very good at taking eye-catching pictures, making rooms and builds seem larger than they are, and glossing over any imperfections. This can make the viewing process tiresome, as you turn up to several addresses only to find that the house isn’t as good as the images imply. This is where fully-immersive 360-degree virtual reality (VR) tours come in handy. There are a few listings websites that cater to 360-degree images, allowing you to get specific looks around certain rooms, but VR property tours put you in the house as though you’re there. Immersion VR says that virtual reality property tours help online customers to picture the space properly. With the VR tech, higher conversions can be expected as it helps viewers be more informed prior to the still important viewing.
Fast, free, and professional online advice
Professional advice and the help that’s exceptionally necessary during the house-buying process has never been easier to get. Of course, there are countless blogs with people writing up their experiences and opinions, but the most useful are the trustworthy organizations like Trussle, which offer mortgage advice for free. They consider the advice just to be a part of good customer service, making the platform stand out as a competitor. The platform has more than just a contact form, though, with its browser-based live mortgage and remortgage comparison matrix and speedy offers showcasing how streamlined the process can be with the right tech implemented. For example, the online mortgage broker offers a five-day Speed Promise on a decision on a mortgage.
Live trackers for the cumbersome process
For all of the modern advancements in technology, the house buying and selling process is still rather archaic, with several agencies and specialists still required along a chain of hardcopy paperwork. The time everything takes is a bore, and worst of all, most people don’t even know how far along the process they are, or the connected people are until the tasks are completed and sent back. Just as you can with postage now, some solicitors have established an online case tracker system that allows you to log in and see what’s been done and what yet needs sorting. Many can be downloaded as smartphone apps, showcase your case as a timeline of key events and to-do lists, and some even integrate a messaging service so that you can easily make contact if something looks off. While much of the system is as cumbersome as it was 20 years ago, new applications of technology within the housing market are making the process of buying and selling homes easier.
About the author
Andy Martin works as a freelance writer for various clients in the technology, gaming and real estate sectors. He is a University of Leeds graduate. He studied New Media and now writes search engine optimized content for agencies around the world.
