#4 Real Estate Trend 2023: A Dramatic Surge in Demand for Online Real Estate Services

Welcome to 2023, where everything you wish for is just a touch of your smartphone away. Think of anything; there’s probably a digital alternative for it today. The real estate industry is not immune to this Internet reform either.

Real estate was a complete offline playground for the longest time. Ask your parents — they’ll tell you how they relied on newspaper ads and ‘On Sale’ property signs to scout for houses. The most exposure to the real estate market was through property dealers, brokers, or real estate agents, who had advertorial property posters in their offices.

To sum up, real estate was a lot of effort back then. Safe to say, no one longs to go back to the old-school way of buying, selling, or renting real estate.

Fortunately, Internet penetration brought along a far more efficient and time-saving process of exploring real estate and buying and selling homes. Even though many believed the real estate sector to be immune to technological advancements, a fundamental shift in operations has been observed, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Let’s have a quick look at the real estate statistics –

• A 2021 survey by the National Association of Realtors found that 97% of buyers used the internet during their home search.
• Another National Association of Realtors survey of 2018 shows that 90% of real estate businesses have websites with the most common feature being property listings.
• A 2019 report, again by the National Association of Realtors, states that 40% of millennials go online for real estate information. It also showcases that 46% of Generation X found their homes via mobile devices in 2019.

These insights are a clear indication of how successfully the audience is exploring the online real estate market. As we dive into the third month of 2023, the market is witnessing an even greater spike in demand for online real estate services.

In this blog, let’s go over online real estate services that are gaining tremendous growth and popularity in 2023 –

A Boom in Online Real Estate Services

Third-Party Buyers

A new real estate trend has been making rounds lately, known as the iBuying trend. It is helping people eliminate the hassle of selling the house to a buyer. You see, the process of house selling isn’t easy. It’s stressful, to say the least. From finding the prospective buyer to shortlisting the right new owner to negotiating final selling prices to preparing documents, it’s a lot. You would also need to take care of house inspections, repairs, and home showings. Managing it all with your work and family obligations can be challenging.

In such a scenario, the buying trend comes as a blessing. As per this trend, you can get in touch with third-party buyers like Opendoor to buy your property. Once they buy it from you, they put some money into it to make it more profitable and sell it to a new seller. The best part is they handle all the home processing stuff — from home inspections to major repairs to arranging home showings.

All you did was list your property on a third-party buying platform, and the platform took care of it.  It charges almost the same as an agent commission for selling costs.

However, it comes along with its own set of disadvantages too. You’ll be selling your home for a relatively lesser price than if you had sold it yourself. These platforms may also charge you an additional service fee.

If you’re a buyer purchasing a house from a third-party buyers’ platform, you enjoy the easy accessibility of the house listing. However, the selling price now also constitutes extra costs, such as service charges, profit share, etc. Naturally, the home acquisition price goes up a bit.

Virtual Assistant Real Estate Agents

Real estate is a pool of activities — you’re always dealing with one task or another even when not closing a deal. But if you want to work smarter and not harder, a virtual real estate assistant is your best bet.

Here is a list of tasks a real estate virtual assistant can help you with –

• Calendar management
• Scheduling events and tasks
• Email management
• Website updations
• Bookkeeping
• Listing Marketing
• Online campaign creation
• Manage client reviews and feedback
• Transaction management
• Data entry
• Deal closing arrangements

Real estate agents have lately been hiring VAs to reduce their workload from operational tasks. Doing so will allow you to focus better on your primary job, i.e., closing a deal.

Online Closings

Digital technology is making the management of virtual documents of a deal easier. You can not only explore or buy a property online but also close the deal online. Tools like electronic signature apps and remote online notarization are streamlining the process. It’s convenient for everyone – the buyers, the sellers, and the real estate agents.

Closing Remarks

Whether these online real estate trends will survive the year or not, time will tell. However, it’s best to not jump on every trend and make decisions as per your real estate business needs.

If you need help pushing the horizons of your real estate marketing, ZipperAgent’s tools can help you. From automation to social media marketing to transaction management, use these tools to create more opportunities and close more deals.

For more hot real estate market trends and insights in 2023, keep following ZipperAgent’s blog space.