We all know that technology is changing the real estate business.

So, while many old school REALTORS® and Brokerages fear these changes, those that will emerge as the leaders through this disruption will be looking for the opportunities.  And there are many.

Mike Delprete, strategic advisor in real estate tech recently produced an interesting report titled 2018 Emerging Models in Real Estate.  It’s a long read but if you are interested, here it is.

It gives an excellent snap shot of who’s who in the real estate technology companies with a focus on the UK and the US with a little Australia and Canada sprinkled in.  It talks about the huge amount of money these companies have raised and the market share that they are taking away from traditional real estate companies. It talks about their growth, their value proposition, their branding and their marketing.

Mike talks about the human factor in real estate transactions.  In the slide below, it clearly defines not only that the customer wants a human involved in the transaction, it tells us why.  In the CNE course, we talk about Fear of Loss as a major influencer in human behaviour and bullet point three clearly spells out one of the major values that a great REALTOR® brings to the real estate transaction.

As long as you can make people feel confident that you can ensure the best possible outcome for them, they want you involved.

The technology evolution gives us the opportunity to be valued and respected for bringing a high level of expertise to the transaction.

What does high level expertise look like?   It isn’t your ability to generate leads.

Expertise as a REALTOR® is:

We have decades of change coming to the real estate business.  There will be new models emerging and old traditions fading.  Technology brings an exciting level of efficiency to what we do and this will give us the opportunity to do more of it.

My prediction?  Fewer REALTOS® will do significantly more transactions at lower commissions.  Great REALTORS® will be in high demand and will be more respected for the value they bring to the transaction.  Mediocre REALTORS® will be replaced or become low paid cogs in the system.

Technology will do much of the mundane work and will free REALTORS® up to do the work that matters and that we love to do.

Tune in next week for a philosophical look at the future of teams in Real Estate.