Today, selling and listing properties is slowly transitioning to digital measures. Before, real estate agents found potential buyers through word-of-mouth, approaching people in public spaces, and posting printed listings to spread awareness. Gone are those days because today, they utilise the Internet to help them spread their listings and reach potential buyers easily.
Indeed, expanding the client base reach of real estate agents has become better, thanks to the help of social networking sites. Because of the Internet, real estate agents can easily reach out to potential buyers and introduce their listings conveniently. On top of that, real estate companies can also advertise and market their properties and achieve digital goals with the help of paid advertisements and other online strategies.
But despite all that, it has become more challenging for real estate agents to close deals and build a strong business relationship with their clients. In this post, let’s look at the challenges real estate agents experience today in this digital world.
1 – Difficulty identifying if a client is interested or not.
One of the challenges of managing an online property listing is identifying interested clients. Usually, real estate agents read and identify an interested client through body language. But since that is impossible when communicating with clients digitally, it has become challenging for them to identify potential buyers.
Real estate agents that market digitally have no choice but to continue pushing leads and communicating with every interested client until they get a clear yes or no. It could also take their time, especially if a client misleads them for a long time.
2 – Difficulty closing deals and securing meetings.
And since online communication prevents us from reading a person’s body language, hearing their tone, and identifying their interests, it is also challenging for real estate agents to close deals, secure meetings, and other activities that require agent-client interaction.
Unfortunately, most people today ignore messages they don’t feel replying to. Many disregard the importance of courtesy, such as acknowledging the receipt of a message or declining politely as a sign of respect for the other person’s time. Because of this, many agents find it hard to secure meetings where they can discuss more details about the property or close deals with clients they thought were interested.
3 – Longer lead time because of property “lurkers”
How an algorithm works can be beneficial or a downside to a business. Why? Because once a user unconsciously interacts with a post, advertisers that set up the ad will think the user is interested in their products or services. When that happens, they categorise those people as interested and then include them as their target audience.
Unfortunately, it could become a downside because it is where “lurkers” are born. Many online users are not interested in buying properties but only enjoy looking at them. As a result, real estate agents find it challenging to secure leads from clients interested in real estate. To avoid this, a real estate company must appropriately identify their interested audiences from those who accidentally visited their site or ad.
4 – Misunderstandings in communication via online messaging, emails, and the like.
One of the ultimate downsides of the Internet is misunderstandings in communication. Since we cannot hear the other person’s tone, we’re left to read their message in our interpretation. Another thing that contributes to miscommunication is the lack of appropriate usage of punctuation marks and the application of proper grammar.
Real estate agents encounter many misunderstandings with clients online because of those factors. It is common since agents can now communicate and reach clients from around the world who speak different languages.
5 – Difficulty setting yourself apart from the growing real estate community online.
Today, many real estate companies and brokers have adapted to digital strategies to expand their businesses. Indeed, going digital can help a business expand its reach, raise brand awareness, and market efficiently. However, the growing number of digital users also makes it challenging for agents to set themselves apart in the online real estate community.
Since the things you can do to set yourself apart digitally are restricted, agents must develop creative and fresh ideas to help them market themselves and appeal to their target audience. One way to do so is by creating a personality that is highly engaging, informative, and entertaining about real estate.
6 – Meeting their quotas.
Looking at the previous five challenges I shared, it’s easy to tell that it has become more challenging for real estate agents to meet their quotas. If they cannot get reliable leads because of lurkers, often having communication barriers with clients, and are getting nowhere with a client that won’t close a deal, they can’t meet their quotas.
In real life, this is an obstacle that real estate agents also go through. However, it could be more challenging if an agent only operates 100% digital and can’t secure meetings and progressions with their client base.
7 – More people are opting for rent than buying a property.
Many articles today inform us why renting could be better than buying a property. On top of that, many people in their 20s to 30s are now considering renting than buying a property because of its affordability. Because of that, the number of people looking into real estate online for rental properties is increasing.
It’s a challenge, especially if an agent’s listings are for property ownership. On top of that, the value of real estate properties today is spiking, making it more impossible for people to consider buying.
Slowly embracing online operations and navigating your way could help overcome these challenges.
Indeed, the digital world is challenging for the real estate market. But despite all that, it also provides them with many benefits to market and improve their business. If the market and the agents slowly embrace online operations and navigate their way, they will surely overcome this sweat-free.
Written by Bianca Banda
