5 Lead Questions for Every Real Estate Investor
This article is written by Brian Malika, a Contributor Author at Etohum.
First of all, before considering to employ new digital technology in your real estate business, you must understand the small details that your tenants experience while being accommodated in your houses and then provoke the discussion on how digital technologies can be employed in to make such experiences better.
On that note, you must have an open mind and be willing to try out as many upcoming digital technologies that better the experience of your tenants as possible until you note customer satisfaction and also stay ahead of the game. Therefore it would be important to reason around the following five questions and how they offer an overview of the possibility of digitizing the real estate sector.
# Question 1: Where Should I buy?
Note that many real estate customers have migrated to online platforms where they do most of their trade operations including the search for real estate offers that suit their needs.
However, not so many real estate developers have invested meaningfully in software applications that anticipate real estate customer needs. Therefore, any smart real estate investor should be sourcing for tech-start-ups that would automatically connect with target customers and initiate the enticing for a trading deal ahead of time.
The digital era is not a time to wait for customers to come to your office and ask where they should buy a house that fits their budget and preference but rather its a golden opportunity for real estate developers to embrace digital innovations that pro-actively anticipate the housing needs of the target customers and offer them options even before they ask.
# Question 2: Where should I start? :
Trust me most people are potential house owners but they just don’t know where to start due to the public notion that owning a decent house is for a select few.
However, with proper financial planning ahead of time, a committed customer can easily own a house within a stipulated time frame. And this is where the digital wave can step in.
It's up to real estate investors to push their sales by enabling heir target customers to realize that it is possible to own their dream house with proper planning. One way would be for real estate investors to partner with emerging tech-start-ups that offer innovative digital solutions that make it easier for target customers to easily plan, save and pay for their house in collaboration with financial institutions.
Such a digital platform should be personalized so as to answer every targeted customer where they can easily and efficiently start the process of owning their dream home.
#Question 3: Cash or mortgage? :
For many young professionals especially in emerging markets there is that push and pull on whether to save and pay cash or take a mortgage and pay over a specified period of time for their dream house .
Such young professionals have to make phone calls or pay a visit to real estate agents for advice which sometimes is frustrating to these professionals who are used to harvesting any data from the internet. Therefore, there is a special opportunity for real estate companies to encrypt digital platforms that offer one on one services at an instant with potential young customers who are not sure whether to go for a mortgage or pay cash in their quest to own a house .
Note : This digital platform should not be a general platform to offer information but rather it should offer a personalized scenario for each potential customer to calculate what works best in their situation.
# Question 4: Should I wait?
The real estate market fluctuates from time to time. Sometimes there is a time where only a few houses are erected and thus it becomes expensive for customers to buy a house while in other instances the industry floods with new houses and hence making it easier and affordable for potential customers to get a house .
Most potential house customers for that matter are not sure when the housing sector will flood with new investments and such keep their money in banks and wait to hope for the best . This whole scenario provides a perfect opportunity for real estate developers to ideate on digital platforms that project market flows and offers one to one recommendations right to the potential customers on the right time to start buying houses.
Equally, this platform will offer a guide on how many people within a society are willing to buy a house but waiting for prices to drop hence informing real estate developers on the right time to come on board when the market is in good numbers to buy houses.
# Question 5: What type of housing consultant do I need?
Actually, most challenges facing potential real estate customers are based on just a single issue . Fo instance, some potential customers might only be needing advice the best mode of financing their dream house, while others might need to better understand the type of houses on sale in the market and so on.
Therefore , in order to better the customer experience in the real estate sphere , it would be important for real estate developers to explore the possibility of coming up with software applications that make it easier and faster for a potential customer to get the needed consultancy services without going through a tedious process of so much unnecessary information .
Customer Journey should be at the core of innovation
Finally, in any scenario that real estate developers would want to embed new technologies, bettering the customer journey should be the driving force of such innovations.
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