Virtual Tours, CRM, and Beyond: What Modern Real Estate Platforms Can Do

The real estate sector is among the most significant segments of modern economies. It amounts to more than 600 trillion dollars as of today. In many ways, real estate, along with the research and development sector, is one of the main pillars of economic stability and activity in the modern world. For this reason, competition in the industry is very significant. There are many companies and even individual investors who want to capture a share of this massive market. Even a 0.1% stake in it amounts to $6 billion. In this light, only the companies that can offer something truly innovative to their customers are likely to attract large user bases. Virtual tours and CRMs are among the tools that are transforming the real estate sector today: learn about the most transformative innovations in this article.

Transformative Technology 1. Virtual Tours

Virtual reality technology has become accessible to the general public and non-specialized businesses in the mid-2010s. VR tools immerse their users in virtual worlds with realistic 3D graphics, and they are also capable of supporting 3D video and images, allowing users to explore unique cinematic experiences.

While VR tools are primarily popular in the entertainment sector these days, businesses in real estate and manufacturing are also starting to take notice of them. Although many reports indicate that the application of VR for office work is still in its early stages, various factories are already utilizing VR to run simulations and integrate so-called digital twins. Similarly, real estate companies are using virtual reality (as well as augmented reality) to enhance property viewings. 

According to the National Association of Realtors (USA), virtual and augmented reality tools enable users to review properties from the comfort of their own homes or realtors' offices. These reviews are typically very realistic, as they often utilize photos or high-quality 3D models. As a result, potential customers can quickly view dozens of properties without having to visit them personally. This approach saves customers a significant amount of time and enhances services by providing more comprehensive market overviews than previously available. Due to the potential for significantly improving customer satisfaction, many companies in the sector are now interested in real estate software development solutions targeting the virtual reality (VR) sector.

Transformative Technology 2. Customer Relationship Management Software

CRM, or Customer Relationship Management software, is also gaining popularity in the real estate sector. As we've mentioned before, the competition levels in the real estate sector are very high. Many companies need to differentiate themselves from the competition, and one of the most time-tested solutions for achieving this goal is to offer outstanding service to clients. This exceptional service can mean many things: some people prefer personalized communication with well-tailored, custom property recommendations; others may want their transport costs covered when they conduct property viewings. Every company has its solution for high-quality customer service. Sometimes, they can even be custom-made to ensure higher retention.

While customized, high-quality service is usually very effective at attracting customers; it faces one major obstacle: in fields with numerous clients, such as real estate, it isn't easy to track and implement those measures. For this reason, many companies in the pre-digital era primarily focused on a set of pre-made measures rather than something personalized. Custom Relationship Management software is bound to change this approach once and for all. CRM systems provide a high-quality information storage solution that enables users to store and recall information about hundreds or even thousands of clients, ensuring they never forget about them due to effective notification frameworks. In the past, personalized service required a lot of paperwork and was typically reserved for companies targeting the luxury sector. Today, digital tools allow even relatively small companies to offer their clients the level of attention once available only to the most elite companies.

Transformative Technology 3. Artificial Intelligence

One more technology that is bound to transform the real estate sector in the upcoming years is artificial intelligence. AI comes in many forms today. Some models target human languages, enabling them to produce coherent responses by analyzing large amounts of human texts. Others are capable of creating images based on their analysis of visual information produced by humans. Lastly, a significant part of those instruments is also capable of learning other patterns, such as math, by, again, observing vast amounts of data produced by humans. All of these AI types are highly useful for the real estate sector and can have a profoundly positive impact on its transformation.

Firstly, real estate companies can significantly benefit from using AI tools capable of producing texts, such as Claude or ChatGPT. They can be utilized to communicate with customers who need to clarify more general and common questions related to real estate. In this way, it will be possible to save time for human personnel, allowing experts to focus more on complex requests. Another potential use here is to generate custom descriptions of real estate properties. While they will require manual review by real estate experts, generative tools can still save a significant amount of time that would have been spent writing those descriptions otherwise.

Secondly, image-based tools are also great for the real estate sector. We can envision them being used by customers to generate visualizations of their dream homes, which can help realtors find optimal locations for their clients. Virtual Reality 3D tours will also benefit from this technology, as it will accelerate the creation of 3D house models and facilitate the development of seamless, photo-based 3D showcases. Lastly, other types of AI are essential for analytics. For instance, one can train an AI on a large amount of marketing data to make high-quality sales predictions. Today, AI tools are often very efficient at predicting economic trends. Therefore, it is not difficult to envision that this technology will be used to enhance analytics in the years to come.

Conclusion

To summarize, real estate companies now have a vast array of tools for enhancing all aspects of their services, from property viewings to customized services. This means that the real estate sector is currently engaged in a race to implement them all as fast as possible. Do you want to adopt technologies like VR, AI, or CRM in your business? In that case, the best option is to look for experienced companies, which have expertise in implementing all three types of solutions.