Technology continues to be a catalyst for change in all areas of business and industry, and the real estate market is no exception. Today’s worker is more mobile and more connected than ever before, which means that businesses can operate anywhere. Especially in mature urban centres, the pushback against escalating real estate leasing and ownership costs is escalating.
It often seems as if every day there is a new app, a new technological feat, a new digital advancement being introduced into the global real estate market. It is often difficult to discern between the necessary and unnecessary. hours upon hours have been invested developing strategies in the tech space in the real estate market in certain aspects of the technological world. However, we find that balance is essential, the balance between yesterday, today and tomorrow – most importantly the balance between real human relationships and the digital universe. However difficult it may be.
While telecommuting may not be a viable option for all companies, or even all employees within a company, many organizations have utilized remote work models with great success. This is reducing the amount of office space needed to accommodate employees, and it is changing the dynamics of what constitutes an ideal – read expensive – location.
In this day and age, we are more connected than ever, connecting with clients, friends and family on social media and messaging platforms. What’s most exciting about this evolution is that clients and our agents can engage and receive feedback in a blink of an eye, undoubtedly increasing efficiency. On the flip side, technology is often seen as the enemy of human interaction, especially, considering the current COVID-19 pandemic and the need for human interaction being so high.
Ironically, in the end, it was technology that brought us all together. Without apps like WhatsApp allowing us to video call and hear voice notes of those closest to us, the isolation would have been much harder.
This has translated to the real estate market in a very interesting way. We are gaining insight into our own systems and team members who are innovating and it has been highly insightful. Our agents are navigating a reality whereby human relationships remain at the forefront of the way we do business and making use of these very technologies.
This has to be one of the most interesting things we have learned as a company during this period, that if your values are focused on continually bringing the priorities and needs of people into the fray, your company will gravitate towards that even when there are obstacles along the way.
Real estate has always been about people, even with automation and robotic inclusion, the human factor cannot be ignored and that is why we have continued to be successful in these uncertain times – we are perfecting the balance between people and technology.
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