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Technology Rising in Real Estate Marketing

Almost every aspect of our lives involves technology in one form or another and new products are entering the market to serve us almost daily. There are some areas in business which have been quick to embrace these new high tech ways to deliver their products and services to their customers, and others such as real estate which has been lagging behind.

Nevertheless, innovations are taking place in this field which has remained largely traditional for longer than in most fields. Realtors, agencies, marketers and buyers are all taking advantage of new technologies which are being offered. Since real estate is a highly competitive business, realtors are finding newer and better ways to interact with their clients and technology providers are quickly realizing that this has long been an under-served market. New ways of helping clients buy and sell real estate are not only making real estate more accessible to new players, but are streamlining the process and opening access to information.

Technology Rising in Real Estate Marketing

Interactive content in real estate is a very powerful tool for realtors, agencies and marketers because it provides a very attractive product for buyers and sellers. Not only does it help differentiate the real estate professional but gives the buyer a tool to explore homes, condos, lofts, neighborhoods from the comfort of their computers or mobile devices.

This helps real estate professionals in making sales and greatly decreasing their workloads.

The Latest Interactive Real Estate Trends

Digital Signage: We’ve all walked past a brokerage window plastered with a grid of for sale photo listings, so have our parents, and our grandparents. It’s an old and quite ineffective method compared with today’s available alternatives such as digital signage. It’s an attention catching sales tool, interactive and delivers more walk-in traffic generating more potential sales.

Virtual tours: An older but constantly evolving technology that can put the client inside the home and with 3D imaging it can make the client feel like they are really touring the property in person. It offers the closest thing to a firsthand experience which can be perfect for out of town clients. 3D virtual tours allow you to stroll around the property at will and get close to the details and elements that you want to explore the most.

Interactive Maps: Buying real estate is an emotional experience and many buyers want to go out and see a property as soon as they find out about it. In many cases this isn’t possible so interactive maps give the buyer a chance to explore the immediate area, see the house from the outside, take a stroll around the neighborhood and assess its curb appeal. This yields the potential buyer the chance to evaluate whether or not this property has potential for them or not, saving the realtor setting up needless viewings, saving them time and money.

Making all media interactive: Every device can be used with interactive technology and content as the software is designed to work with different screen sizes and with different platforms.

 

Incorporating interactive content is very relevant considering these fast-paced technological times. In fact, you should integrate Application Programming Interfaces (API) into the displays to spice up the user experience. The APIs do a great deal bringing housing data to the displays from variable sources, giving the customers an opportunity to effortlessly toggle through the available products to make informed choices of their preferable houses.

With the introduction of IntuiFace Explorer, wheeled out in IntuiFace Version 6.0 earlier this May, the real estate agents can tap into the technological advancement to integrate the real-time housing data within the highly engaging interactive content. The information varies from sales presentations to digital signage and information kiosks-to furnish the clients with up-to-date information.

As time goes by, Interactive Technology is slowly spreading its roots deep into the future of real estate. As it gives buyers an opportunity to personally explore homes and neighborhoods without interference, they’re more likely able to make good decisions after gleaning meaningful information regarding the houses. Additionally, the fact that they personally go about the entire process gives them more control in matters buying the houses.

Interactive technology is certainly useful for agencies, marketers, and realtors. Also, there are available resources to transform selling tools into interactive tools, bettering both the buyer’s and seller’s experiences in the long run. Putting into practice these nuggets will push your real estate business up a notch and overtime, to indescribable success heights.

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The Future is Multi-Touch

When Apple launched the first iPhone in 2007, it was named the invention of the year. Among other things, one of its features included the ability to pinch and zoom into pictures using two fingers. And though not the first in the field, this can be termed one of the more popular ways in which multi-touch surfaces were introduced to the common masses. If some of you haven’t realized, the track pad on your laptop is multi-touch. By using your thumb and index finger, you can zoom in and zoom out of most applications.

While this is perhaps the most basic use of this technology, it has come further ahead over the years, and while smartphones and tablets remain restricted to the two-finger touch, there are other surfaces that can be converted to multi-touch surfaces and be used for an array of purposes. From music and video-gaming, to advertising, shopping and conducting vast discussions, from planning and executing, to educating and learning, multi-touch devices are devices of the future, and are soon likely to replace traditional input devices such as the keyboard and mouse.

Multi-touch is intuitive. Not much training is needed to learn how to use this technology, because it functions intuitively. So its use is applicable to a much wider audience that will use this technology more efficiently. Swiping through documents and images, editing information via digital input interfaces such as digital keyboards, and being able to scroll through vast amounts of data are all possible via multi-touch interfaces. These movements are natural, not forced—much like the limiting keyboard and mouse combination. However, going back to this natural method of using digital devices will take some amount of unlearning the use of traditional input devices. Some multi-touch surfaces and even import data from devices (such as smartphones) kept on them by using Wi-Fi.

Why do we need multi-touch? Why is it being touted as the leading technology of the future? One of the most important benefits of this technology will be quicker learning, better implementation of ideas, and the ability to multitask by a larger group of people, thereby speeding up the entire process of innovation and creation. Of course, for this effect to truly show, large multi-user screens/surfaces will have to be introduced at a more accessible level. Also, as the amount of data processing increases and each process must only be sophisticated and refined as we progress in time, multi-touch offers this sophistication with incredible ease of use.

Anything can be a multi-touch screen—from table tops to window shop screens, from small tablets to massive screens that enable usage by almost 8-10 people at a shot. What’s more, advanced technology allows the use of independent applications on these devices by multiple users. Which means each user use the screen independently, provided it can facilitate those many numbers.

This is just the beginning of what multi-touch can offer. To call the future of this technology merely bright would be as much an injustice as an understatement. The impact of multi-touch devices/screens/interfaces in our daily lives will have far-reaching implications, and positive ones at that. So whether you are a coffee shop, a retail store, an educational learning centre, a music school, or an advertising agency, you can hugely benefit from what this technology offers.

At PearlQuest, we introduce multi-touch to you and engineer intuitive and user-friendly interfaces using advanced software architecture for your organization and clientele. Think of one process that can be performed by one person in your organization. Now multiply that by about 4 other pairs of hands working on the same process together so that data processing and implementation of plans and ideas is swifter. Imagine the tremendous increase in efficiency in your business. Like we said, this is just the beginning. To know what multi-touch can do for you and your business, and how it can be tailored exactly to your requirements, give us a call.