Learn how new advances in mobile technology are rapidly changing the real estate listing to help differentiate your brand
Most likely, you’re holding the one tech tool that will transform the way in which real estate is bought and sold in the future – your smartphone.
Consider 86% of the world’s 8 billion people are smartphone users1, with more than half (51%) of digital buyers shopping on their mobile phones at least once a week.2
While the pandemic may have accelerated use of technology among buyers and sellers, experts say mobile shopping for real estate is only getting started.
“During the pandemic, we saw homes purchased by people who only viewed a virtual tour,” says Kyle O’Boyle, Senior Manager, ShowingTime+ Sales. “I think we’re going to see more of that in the future. Especially when markets get really hot, we’re seeing people make offers without even driving by the house because they can look at a drone photo or video and see the neighborhood right from their phone.”
Listing Photography and Media Imagery Matters
With more buyers shopping online, the picture quality and rich media of your listings help tell the story of a home, and the way your listings show up on their mobile devices has never mattered more.
“You want to make sure your listings look great on a smartphone because that’s where everyone is looking today,” says O’Boyle. “Smartphones today have retina and 4K type displays with high resolution, so your photos also have to be high quality. Listing Media Services’ photographers shoot bracketed HDR (high dynamic range) photography, so they look absolutely incredible on a mobile phone,” he says.
While nine out of 10 buyers find photographs the most useful website features in their home search3, the virtual tour and interactive floor plan also need to look great on a smartphone to create an effective first impression with buyers.
According to the Zillow Consumer Housing Trends Report, 2022, most buyers agree that virtual tours help them get a better feel for a space than static photos alone. Most buyers also claim that they wasted time during their home search viewing properties without a floor plan and would not have visited the property if they understood the floor plan better before the visit.
“Our virtual tour and floor plan are made for mobile. You can see exactly where the photos were taken in the home’s floor plan, and you can walk the house in a virtual tour to see it all with accuracy and detail,” says O’Boyle.
The Future of Mobile Real Estate Technology Is Now
Fueled by advances in AI-driven innovations, agents and customers now have enhanced tech tools like Listing Media Services’ interactive floor plans, which offer an immersive viewing experience that localizes the photography and virtual tour with a dynamic floor plan.
Listing Media Services’ interactive floorplan combines all three — high-res, HDR photographs, a virtual tour and a floor plan — in one mobile-ready, unique listing experience.
“It’s very different from what everyone else is doing in the virtual tour world because the AI-enabled interactive floor plan is showing you exactly where the photos were taken and its exact perspective on the floor plan, which is usually the No. 1 question buyers have,” says O’Boyle.
Mobile Technology – a Key Tool in Closing the Listing Appointment
According to NAR’s 2022 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends report, buyers still consider the agent their leading information source in the homebuying process, followed by a search on their mobile or tablet (74%).
Agents also rely on solid mobile technology to bring their sellers’ listings to life with imagery and immersive experiences that engage more buyers.
The conversation over the type of photography and rich media you’re using in your listings begins with the listing appointment. Listing Media Services gives agents the ability to schedule and book a photo shoot with just a few clicks on their phone while closing the listing contract with a seller.
As soon as the seller selects a time to schedule a photographer, O’Boyle says the agent can go to the Listing Media Services’ booking site and schedule a photographer in real-time. “We have lots of agents who will pull up the site on their phone and show a seller who’s about to sign the listing contract at the listing appointment and say, ‘Hey, Mr. and Mrs. Seller, let me show you exactly when the photographer can come out this week. They can be there tomorrow at 3 p.m. Do you want to book?’”
Within a day or two following the photo shoot, the agent receives a notification with the photography, virtual tour, interactive floor plan and any other package options, like aerial photography, or add-ons, such as virtual twilight, virtual staging and amenity imagery. They can then view and text or forward via email to their sellers, who can then view everything on their smartphones or desktops.
“Everything you’re doing as an agent with Listing Media Services is 100% mobile ready,” he says.
The Future of the Mobile Search in Real Estate
Five years ago, people may have been shocked to learn that people were buying homes, commercial properties and cars on their phones – start to finish, but O’Boyle is convinced that is where the future of real estate is headed.
He says we’ll see more virtual shopping not only in residential real estate but also in the commercial space. Already, O’Boyle has noticed more investors skipping the cross-country trip to walk a commercial space and opting instead for a virtual tour with drone photography and video on their mobile devices.
“I think we’ll see more of that digital commoditization of bigger purchases essentially right off our phones or desktops,” he says.
Indeed, more than half of all buyers said they would be somewhat confident making an offer on a home after viewing a virtual tour and skipping the in-person viewing, according to Zillow’s Consumer Housing Trends Report, 2022.
AI advances could also enhance the mobile shopping experience by leveraging voice technology and rapid search capabilities; allow homeowners to use their interactive floor plans to renovate a kitchen; or send alerts to smartphones, notifying a homeowner of an aging water heater.
The future role of mobile in real estate is full of change and new possibilities. Agents who are first to embrace today’s new mobile listing media technology will be better positioned to differentiate their brands and meet consumers’ demands for cutting-edge listings – all within the palm of their hands.
1 Statista, 2023
2 DataReportal, 2023
3 NAR 2022 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends
