Now, your dream house is just a few taps away!
You probably would have a long queue of empty spaces when asked to name a product that has not been touched by technology. Everything around us seems to be a result of modernisation. Even the device you’re using to read this blog post is an outcome of technology. It’s not a bad thing, though. Technology, in the greater sense, makes life easier, faster, and better.
No doubts, even the real estate industry is not an exception.
Gone are the days of long hours and piled up paper works to process one’s application to secure a home. Your new home can now lie solely in your fingertips. With the new softwares and tools that you can use, your property acquisition can be done anytime, anywhere.
In a podcast episode of The Property Pod, Patrick Berry, Director of 4one4 Property Co., shared the common problem encountered in the field of real estate. “It’s difficult because we’re engaged by the vendor, so we’ve got to get the best possible price for them, but you know when we can’t tell one buyer the other buyer’s offer–it’s a gray zone.”
Since the Australian marketplace is quite busy at the moment and many people are tumbling over top of one another to secure a home, these three (3) new platforms discussed in the same podcast episode would benefit buyers and agents who can now effortlessly meet halfway with accuracy and transparency.
RESO – Real Estate Sales Online
This is a simple platform and an efficient online tool that supports agents to manage sales seamlessly through capturing all the details of buyers including their offers and conditions, from the first contact down through the completion of contract.
Based on the information available on its official website, “the aim of RESO is to give the buyers confidence in making offers whilst providing a more transparent process, ensuring every buyer feels they have had every opportunity to secure the property they are interested in buying.”
This platform is essential for those properties where there are multiple offers and the agent wants to use the ranking process to generate competition between the buyers. Here’s how it works: the agent will send out the offer form digitally to those who are interested, and potential buyers will fill out the necessary details including their offer and price, which they’ll send back to the agent. The agent now has the ability to rank the buyers based on their offers, wherein buyers will be notified and will see their standing. They may either do nothing or improve their position to secure the property they want–everyone is given equal opportunity.
Kate Chalk, CEO of RESO, highlighted that instant, transparent, and simple property transactions from the beginning to end are among the expectations of vendors and purchasers, which this tool answers. “With technology that empowers both buyers and agents to experience and deliver new levels of transparency and efficiency across the property purchasing process, RESO provides a seamless and personalised customer journey.”
One of the most common Frequently-Asked Questions for this is “How do buyers know that other buyers are genuine?” For everyone’s information, “RESO is not an open and searchable platform, so the only people who can participate in a RESO sale are those who have been invited to register for that property by the agent.” All buyers also agree to the Terms and Conditions in using the tool, which in turn, they also provide their names, mobile numbers, and email addresses for verification. All processes are also recorded by the platform and buyers can only submit their offers in RESO if they are tagged as qualified by the real estate agents.
“The innovations in the RESO platform digitise the often time consuming and complicated property purchasing administration process and provide streamlined and open communication between purchasers and agents,” explained Kate.
Openn Negotiation
Another platform that promotes transparency is Openn Negotiation. This is an online bidding platform and a transparent sales method managed by real estate agents which helps buyers and sellers find the true market price for a specific property.
Peter Gibbons, Co-Founder of Openn Negotiation, said that the application was developed “to deliver great results by making the process of buying and selling fair for all.”
With the advantage of knowing how many people are eyeing for the property you want to secure, buyers can participate in the virtual auction which usually lasts for about one (1) to four (4) weeks through entering their preferred starting price and have their terms and conditions such as, but not limited to, settlement date, level of deposit, and finance conditions, signed by the seller. Once the buyers’ terms are accepted, they won’t miss out on a chance to purchase a property. When the final bidding stage is reached, the countdown clock feature resets with every new bid, which means more chances and time for buyers to improve their bid.
It’s a “win-win-win” situation for the sellers, buyers, and agents. As the platform advertises, “sellers don’t need to wonder if they’re getting the best price possible for their home; buyers don’t need to wonder if they should’ve offered more for a home they love; and agents don’t need to wonder if they are selling properties for the right price, in the right amount of time.”
Market Buy
Even if you’re in the comforts of your own home or technically, wherever you are, you can safely get a chance to purchase the property you like. Market Buy is an online offer management system that allows buyers to securely purchase real estate from any mobile device (or even through a laptop or a desktop).
This works similarly with a virtual auction, but a more secured version. Only pre-qualified people will be given a secure login to participate. Once you login, you will see a history of offers and you may place your own anytime that you’re ready. Your identity is completely anonymous to other buyers, but the agent and the seller know everyone in the platform. Notifications will also be sent to a buyer’s account for any updates. Everytime an offer is made, the seller will be immediately notified via email or text, so you may expect a quick successful process.
With Market Buy, the agent can save more time for other listings or for personal things; the seller, on the other hand, can openly see all offers and this transparent environment encourages more buyers to place their offers where they’re aware of their position and the number of other interested parties.
As most people would know, the Australian marketplace is quite busy at the moment and most people are sort of fighting each other to secure a home. With these modern tools presented, life can be so much easier for everyone: seller, buyer, and agent.
As an early adopted of many technologies, Patrick did say that he is kind of doubtful if such can be adapted in the Hobart Market because it may lack the volume of people, he still thinks that among the three (3) mentioned platforms above, RESO has the potential to work relatively well. “Out of the three that we’re going to talk about today, this is the one where I think would fit our marketplace the best at the moment,” he said.
If you have any questions, or if you know other modern real estate platforms which can be used, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’ll love to learn more about them and most importantly, we don’t bite! (haha).
