Real Estate Sales: A Rapidly Changing Business Sector
A variety of real estate brokers compete in today’s real estate sales market, all eager to win prospects, sign mandates, and close deals. In the face of such strong competition, people’s imaginations expand in order to stand out, which typically entails the purchase of novel equipment, a unique pricing position, or more customized assistance.
The real estate industry is evolving, and new players are emerging, attempting to break the established rules of conventional agencies and achieving consistent success year after year. Focus on the most significant changes: the profession’s digitization, the dramatic growth in the prestige of real estate agent, and the development of tools.
The development of “neo-agencies”
The key distinguishing feature of agencies that emphasize the lack of physical touch is a much lower commission rate than typical agencies. It will be approximately 2% or 3%, for example, as opposed to the customary 5% to 10%.
The concept is meant to be more flexible than typical agency operations, with features such as 24-hour access to its online area and all of its papers, an appointment-making tool, the ability to track visits made online, and smartphone access to crucial documents. With all of these automated services in place, the agent may concentrate on his high-value-added responsibilities, such as engaging in in-depth discussions with buyers or negotiating the selling price of an asset.
Agents who build digital services are mostly recruited over the internet, which allows them to reach a wider number of people more rapidly. This may be a valuable tool in the quest for commodities, especially if the approach is well-crafted and well-received by the targeted.
The explosion in the number of real estate agents
They were 10,000 in 2015 and now number over 40,000. Their yearly revenue is roughly one billion euros, giving them a 20% market share. The commission rate is considerably lower than that of conventional agencies, hovering around 4 percent.
Despite the fact that they are frequently the result of professional retraining, since the Alur Law of 2014, real estate agents have had the same training obligation as real estate agents, ensuring a level of competence consistent with the activity and the integration of ethical rules specific to the profession.
These professionals, who manage to operate independently while benefitting from participation in a network that provides them with support worthy of a huge group, enabling them to access services and resources that would otherwise be unavailable to them, are undoubtedly the future of real estate.
The pooling of resources is their secret. A network is established that delivers all of a company’s support services, as well as additional services, in exchange for a sometimes very little fee on the transactions carried out. To begin, the agent must first subscribe to the status of micro-entrepreneur, which he may subsequently alter depending on his success.
Various networks provide their services, each with its own set of variations but with one thing in common: ongoing training in the practice of real estate agent, legal assistance, and cutting-edge IT tools as needed. Management, prospecting, and communication are all examples of activities of management. The degree of commission varies as well, with the top networks paying a new agent roughly 60% of the commission invoiced to the customer, a figure that rises with the amount of business done and length of time in the network, occasionally reaching 99%!
The transformation of the profession through tools
It is important to recognize that the real estate agent profession evolves throughout time. Previously, an agent would spend the majority of his time expanding the number of prospecting processes, making as many visits as possible, and relaunching all of his connections to fit demands. It’s almost as though he’s betting on his chances of success.
Two innovations have altered this method: instruments have made it simpler to communicate and advertise at a distance. The clients, who have become less reliant on specialists in the industry as a result of the growth of online ad sites, now demands more thoughtfulness and extended assistance from the real estate agent, which may also be enhanced via the use of technologies.
Three sorts of tools will be briefly discussed in order to assist you to adjust to the new context:
• Those that allow prospective buyers to better appreciate houses and, as a result, arrange fewer but more relevant visits. These include high-resolution photography, movies, and virtual tours.
• Those who optimize and automate management, particularly prospecting: e-mailings, sophisticated classification of prospects in order to immediately discover a probable match with a property placed into a mandate, and automation of document editing that used to take a long time.
• Finally, those who provide a chance to learn more about consumers and display outstanding recollection (via reminders of course). Knowing a customer’s birthday, their child’s first name, or the anniversary date of their previous purchase cannot be faked, but it helps you to acquire an advantage over your competition. A well-informed computer tool with automated reminders makes it feasible to keep consumers who might otherwise forget about an agent without too much effort.
Let us also mention that the time saved by these technologies allows us to focus on our relationships with prospects, particularly potential purchasers, in order to better target homes that will really fit their needs. The objective is for fewer visits to result in more sales.
If real estate is a field that interests you and where you want to focus your professional career, or even if you are currently a successful agent servicing customers, don’t forget to evaluate your methods on a frequent basis. There are some fantastic ideas that can be implemented without having to invest in pricey instruments. If you are self-employed and lack the requisite equipment, joining a network of agents will guarantee that you have them. Excellent sales!