In the competitive world of real estate, it turns out that a charged phone with a reliable internet can be everyone's edge. Phillip Molnar of LA Times discusses how technology is changing the game in real estate and how one major real estate company gladly takes advantage.
There is one story on how real estate agent Jordan Clarke was able to attend to a panicked client's call from Washington D.C. regarding a promising property in Del Mar that has just gone on the market. Within a few hours, he was able to walk his East Coast clients through the remodeled home and impressed by what they saw on the live stream, an offer was made and the property and was sold for $1.1 million.
The use of online platforms such as Skype, FaceTime, and Periscope has then been used by agents when streaming with their buyers. Now, Redfin, a leading real estate brokerage is taking the technology a step further by allowing their website's users to select the Live Video Tour function which allows an agent to tour the clients through a property using a mobile phone.
"You are able to direct [an agent] just like you're there," said Clarke, a Redfin agent.
For now, the feature is only available in San Diego and Chicago but an expansion is expended in the coming year. According to the company, most of those who use the feature are local buyers who don't have the time and energy to checkout a listing in person.
So how does it actually work? A client goes on the Redfin website and sets the time they wish to have the video feed. The agent then goes to the property with a phone at the set time and walks through the property while discussing its features to the potential buyer who can ask for a close-up or to go back to a certain feature.
With the ever growing real estate industry, Mark Goldman, a finance and real estate lecturer at San Diego University believes that the industry is effectively keeping-up.
"You fast-forward to today where you can get real-time video streaming on a property, people can negotiate from around the world, send documents in a service like DocuSign. It's just another way technology increases efficiencies and transactions."
Goldman believes that the sluggish growth in inventory is only going to encourage the industry to become more aggressive and innovative.
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