Despite the storm and subsequent travel issues, thousands of real estate professionals gathered in Orlando Nov. 11 - 13 for the newly-rebranded NAR NXT, The REALTOR® Experience 2022 to connect with one another and get a glimpse at the future of the industry. We were fortunate enough to have joined them, both as an exhibitor and as a participant in many lively conversations about the future of real estate.
Every conference we attend gives us the opportunity to connect face-to-face with others who are working to move the industry forward. That’s why we come away from every event reenergized and inspired. To that end, we left this year’s annual NAR gathering full of new ideas, based on the tremendous feedback we received from attendees, helping us cap off an eventful 2022 and giving us plenty to be excited about in 2023.
While the three-day event gave us enough to discuss to fill a book, we distilled a few of our biggest takeaways into the brief recap below.
Announced at the end of September, ShowingTime+ made its big debut at NAR’s event, and what a party it was! For a refresher, ShowingTime+ is the new, unified brand that will deliver brand new offerings in 2023 – including Listing Media Services and Listing Showcase – while bringing together ShowingTime, dotloop, Bridge Interactive, and 3D Home tours and interactive floor plans to integrate and simplify Zillow Group’s best-in-class technology offerings for agents, brokers and MLSs.
“Ultimately, our goal is to reduce transaction friction for everyone by offering an integrated, open platform for real estate professionals to run their business,” noted Jun Choo, senior vice president of ShowingTime+, when the brand was announced. “Nearly 90% of home shoppers and sellers work with an agent, and at ShowingTime+, we want to help agents bring them home.”
If the reception we received at the event is any indication, it seems that the concept of bringing together these solutions under one umbrella resonates with the industry as much as it did for us. Attendees learned firsthand how ShowingTime+ (the ‘plus’ means new offerings we’ll add to bring even more value to agents) will maintain the same high quality showing management, transaction management, and data and vendor relationship management solutions currently offered by ShowingTime, dotloop and Bridge Interactive, respectively, while also expanding those offerings to better serve real estate professionals.
As mentioned above, ShowingTime+ isn’t just a unification of existing best-in-class real estate software; ShowingTime+ is also committed to providing new solutions designed to elevate real estate professionals.
Conference attendees were among the first to learn that with the unveiling of Listing Showcase and Listing Media Services.
The two new services, both scheduled for release in 2023, draw upon the deep well of industry experience that forms the basis of ShowingTime+ and utilize the latest technology to offer a better way to present listings.
With Listing Showcase, listing agents gain access to a powerful branding tool that helps them differentiate themselves with eye-catching listing design options. With prominent agent branding at the top of each listing, larger photo sizes, interactive floor plans and more, Listing Showcase offers agents a way to truly stand out in their market.
Listing Media Services, the other new ShowingTime+ service talked about at the conference and which will be released first, is an easy, fast and reliable way agents can make their listings draw attention. Agents receive high-resolution real estate photography, downloadable floor plans, interactive floor plans and virtual tours from one place and for one price, giving them all the media they need to showcase homes in the best possible light.
Those looking to learn more about both services don’t have to wait until their respective releases in 2023; we’re offering the opportunity to join a waitlist for each service to be among the first to learn how to access them.
The housing market is always a hot topic at NAR’s conference. Taking place in November, the timing is right both for reflecting on how markets performed throughout the year as well as predicting what they’ll look like in the beginning of the year to come.
NAR’s chief economist Lawrence Yun spoke at the Residential Economic Issues and Trends Forum where he attributed this year’s rise in mortgage rates for the downturn in the housing market we’ve been experiencing. Despite the slowdown, Yun also predicted a 10% increase year over year in home prices to round out 2022, with a modest jump of 1% to follow next year and a jump of 5% in 2024. Yun’s predictions are supported by Zillow’s economic research team, who project home values increase by 1.3% in the twelve months ending September 2023.
We showed attendees at the ShowingTime+ booth our take on the latest market conditions using the ShowingTime Showing Index®, a free monthly report we offer online which tracks the average number of appointments received for active listings every month using ShowingTime showing management software, then reports the numbers by region and nationally.
For more on our latest findings on home showing activity, check out our Q3 2022 Home Showing Traffic Recap.
ShowingTime has been innovating home showing management for more than 20 years. Next year, the service known by many in the industry to be the solution for streamlining home showing management will be receiving a major new update that attendees were able to learn more about: the ShowingTime next generation experience.
ShowingTime’s next generation is a fundamental redesign of our showing management platform, streamlining the user experience while retaining the original functionality so many real estate professionals throughout the U.S. and Canada rely on every day. The re-engineered, modern interface is intuitive, flexible and adaptable to market conditions, all while providing a familiar experience. Best of all, this update will come at no extra cost to ShowingTime users!
One hallmark of all residential real estate conferences during the last few years has been a recognition that the industry has shown remarkable resilience throughout some tough times. This year’s NAR conference proved to be no exception, as we were regularly greeted by voices of optimism and confidence that the industry is prepared to shoulder whatever challenges may come its way with innovative solutions.
We’re proud to be among those working to streamline the industry and empower real estate professionals. The theme for this year’s convening was "Ready, Set, Grow," and what we had on display at this year’s NAR conference is just a taste of what’s to come from ShowingTime+ to help the industry move forward.