Adjusting to Change: Is Real Estate Getting Harder or Is It The Technology?

Real estate - an industry that enjoys a vast and varied history - but a history that has always been changing. With the advancement of technology, this change seems to occur very fast, and with every new change, real estate professionals are finding themselves adapting, or, well, you know the old saying…

But is technology making things harder? Or, is the hesitation when it comes to having to adapt more about having to change your own routine? We are creatures of habit, and for some people change is annoying, time consuming, or just downright painful.  In the past, this was often the case, but with the newest advancements, you are actually far better off to make a changes, than falling into the habit of your old ways.

What kind of change are we talking about? Well, firstly, the move towards paperless real estate is a huge one. Not only is this way better for the environment, it also means far more organized files and desks no longer littered with documents. This paperless craze has been most impacted by the ability to sign documents electronically. This has eliminated the need for all of the back and forth and endless meetings just to acquire a signature.

Not only has technology made our paper management easier, it has also made communication far more efficient. These days, the telephone no longer rules the roost, and now instant messaging, texting and video chatting has made meeting and conducting discussions with out of town clients much easier on all parties.

Research has also benefited greatly from the tech advancements impacting the real estate industry. Things like researching properties, generating comparables, obtaining property sales histories, and finding out neighbourhood demographics can now be done from an iPad anywhere that you receive a wireless signal. Generating reports is also quicker.

Increased collaboration is also made easy, thanks to apps that let you connect and network: share referrals, connect with others in the industry, build a strong, respectful relationship with other professionals.

50 years ago, every meet and greet needed to be in person and all documents kept in files. 10 years ago, everything electronic required a big bulky computer - one that didn’t necessarily make working on-the-go easy. Today, in 2015, the tech advances have given real estate professionals the ability to accomplish far more.

Still reluctant to take that big step? Start with baby steps. Get an iPad and start there, using a real estate app like ViMO, your virtual mobile office, and see just how easy it really is.  Master researching properties, and once you feel more comfortable, move on to signing forms electronically.

Sometimes change is overwhelming, but in this case, refusing to change will quickly leave you in the dust.

Competition is strong - take advantage of everything real estate technology has to offer. Call ViMO today for more information: 1 855 999 8466 (VIMO).

Visiting a House in the Winter is Like Online Dating – How You Can Avoid Surprises

In the age of selfies and online dating, the internet can be full of surprises! Have you ever met someone online and they did not look as they advertised, or maybe they did, but once you got to know them more deeply, you learned that there were things about them that you did not like that much. Where are we going with this? It’ll make sense in a minute.

Morphing into an analogy on real estate, when you take your clients to see properties during the winter, it can be difficult to see what is under the snow. Not just on the outside of the home but also in the neighbourhood. In fact, getting a sense for the neighbourhood is extremely difficult, especially north of the GTA where there is more snow during the winter.

The winter with the cold and snow is one major reason why many people wait to buy and/or sell their homes until the spring. Not good news for you because you need to still move properties – snow or no snow.

Showing properties in the snow

The beauty of mobile technology is that you can now do more when you are out with your client. If you are showing clients properties when there is a lot of snow on the ground, there is a lot you can do to overcome this challenge!

·         You can run a report on the property that includes past sales and you may be able to retrieve pre-winter imagery.

·         You can look at aerial imagery to look at the property from above and identify things that may be desirable or undesirable to a client but are otherwise covered by snow.

·         You can look at Street View imagery to see not only the home from the street but also the surrounding properties.

·         Crossing your fingers that that Google truck passed the property when it wasn’t covered in snow, you can actually drop yourself onto the street on Google Maps, right from your tablet and virtually walk around the neighbourhood.

Running an open house in the snow

When people attend your open house, they may be thinking that they can’t see much outside as a result of the snow, but may not bother to voice that it is the reason that they may make the decision to buy once the snow melts and they can see more.

·         Be prepared – ask your clients for family photos outside of the home in different seasons – also photos at local parks and around the neighbourhood. Have them loaded on your tablet to show the client more.

·         Tend to outside – ensure that your client has removed as much snow from the front of the property as possible. The front steps, patio, driveway, walkways and sidewalk if there is one. If there is a deck out back, shovel and salt it. If there is a walkway leading from the front of the house to the back, ensure that the client has shoveled it and salted it as well.

·         Use your tools – Leverage the same tools you would when showing a property to help the prospective buyer visualize the home and community, making them potentially more comfortable to make an offer.

Help your buyer avoid an online dating style disaster by letting them know everything there is to know about the property they are considering starting a long term relationship with.

For more tips or to leverage everything ViMO has to offer as far as making winter showings a breeze, please visit www.myvimo.ca today. 

What Should a Real Estate Sales Professional be Highlighting About a Neighbourhood?

It may seem like there is a simple answer to this question – everything is relevant of course – but the challenge is drilling down to learn what is relevant and your client won’t always be a huge help. Different things matter to different people about where they buy depending on why they are buying.

For example – someone purchasing a property as an investment and/or for income may want to confirm things like the number of owners vs. renters in a particular area, whereas someone who is starting a family and purchasing a first home may be interested in schools in the area and the number of young families.

Here is a short list of important neighbourhood demographics that your client may want to know about:

1.      Ages of people who live in a community

2.      Family types

3.      Marital statuses

4.      Averages ages of children

5.      Average incomes

6.      Religions and proportions of people in populations by religion

7.      Ethnicity and proportions of people by ethnicity

8.      Languages spoken

9.      Schools in the area

10.   Transit in the area

11.   Homeowners vs. renters

For some it may be easy to say that they would like to live in a community where there are young families, whereas it may be more personal to come out and say that they would like to live in a community that has a high population of other people from the same background as their own. As a real estate professional you may have to do a little digging.

Get to know your client! Taking the time and having a genuine interest in really getting to know your client will build trust and enable you to learn more about them and probe them for more information that will help you find them the perfect home.

A checklist/survey about a neighbourhood and who lives there is also a great tool for learning what your client is looking for in a community. You can leverage tools like Survey Monkey to create a brief questionnaire asking clients to indicate to you whether or not different information about a neighbourhood’s demographics are important to them. Leveraging technology to gather this information is better for you and more accessible for your client. After a client signs the agreement for you to represent them and you have gathered their basic information to get started, you can send them a link to gather more vital information about demographics that are important to your client.

A checklist or survey about your client is also useful when looking at demographics in neighbourhoods that you may present to your client. Do they have a mature family? How old are their kids? What type of professionals are they? Do they commute to work? What is the household income and number of people in the house? These are all important questions that can help you determine exactly what your client is looking for.

Once you know your client and what they are looking for, inside and out, leverage tools like GeoWarehouse (on desktop) and/or ViMO (on your tablet) to access and present vital neighbourhood demographics information to a client. The beauty of ViMO is that this can occur when on the road with a client so questions can be answered immediately.

Make sure that you are getting as much information from your client as possible, and using it to find them exactly what they want. ViMO can help you achieve this. Visit www.myvimo.ca.

Top Things People Want to Know About a Neighbourhood – Even if They Don’t Come Out and Tell You

When serving a client who wants to buy a home, the more details you gather such as where and in what type of property they want to live, the faster you can match them with their dream home. As much as the right property, for the right price matters, a neighbourhood can make or break a deal. 

The obvious things people want to know about a neighbourhood:

 

·           What schools are located in the area and in what proximity to the property?

·           What transit is available, where are the closest highways, trains, buses, etc.?

·           What is in close proximity to the property – is it near something unsightly?

·           Where are parks and amenities like grocery stores and shopping?

What about the other things people want to know about a neighbourhood that rank in the top deciding factors when buying home? Who lives in the area? Certain characteristics can be vital to those searching for a particular neighbourhood. For example: 

·           What is the age of families in the area?

·           What is the average income of families in the area?

·           What is the proportion of renters vs. homeowners?

Many people want to live amongst people who are like them, at the same stage in life and family.

 

HGTV put out a really great list of things you can ask your client in an interview to suss out the bottom line:

·      Does your client have children or plan to soon? This will make information about schools, parks and community centres very important to your client.

·      How far is your client willing to commute? Do they have a vehicle or do they want to be able to walk or take transit to amenities?

·      What ‘feel’ of community do they like – more historic structures (aged neighbourhoods) or newer homes?

·      What is missing in their current community?

We thought we would add to the list: 

·      What does your client do for a living?

·      What activities does your client enjoy?

·      What were the characteristics of the community your client was raised in and do they want the same in their community?

·         What is your client’s planned long term use of the property? Do they plan to rent it in the future?

·         The goods, the bads and the uglys: what are your client’s pet peeves (noise, traffic, neighbours in close proximity, etc…)?

Once you think you know as much as possible you will be in a position to generate a demographics report to review different neighbourhoods with them that you have researched and are suitable based on their needs.

 

Getting to really know your client will help you find them the right home, for the right price, in the right neighbourhood.

For more information about how to generate and present neighbourhood demographics information to your clients on-the-go please visit www.myvimo.ca.

Getting Started in ViMO

As you likely already know, ViMO is here!! If you are like many other real estate sales professionals who have subscribed you may be wondering, what comes next?

When logging into ViMO you will see a dynamic dashboard. The ViMO Dashboard consists of 6 primary sections: Engagements/Clients, Activities, Forms, Scheduled Events, Research and About Me. When getting set up on ViMO the first components of the dashboard that you will be spending time in is About Me and Engagements/Clients. 

Below is a description of each of the 6 sections in the ViMO Dashboard which should help you better understand where you are if you tap on one of these sections, leaving the dashboard.

1.      Engagements/Clients – In this section you can upload and maintain your client databases (Clients) and Listing and Purchase transaction information (Engagements).

2.      Activities – You can review all activities and access reports that you can share with clients, prospects and colleagues like other real estate sales professionals.

3.      Forms – Here you can create, sign and transmit (send/receive) electronic forms.

4.      Scheduled Events – You will be able to maintain post-transaction contact with customers by delivering current market information.

5.      Research – You will be able to demonstrate your expertise by showing your client vital information about a property they are interested in, other properties in the area, neighbourhood demographics and more. You can generate reports on the go that you can instantly email to the other party.

6.      About Me – Customize your ViMO profile with your own profile and branding, set preferences and more… 

Now that you have familiarized yourself with the ViMO dashboard, next you will want to perform some basic steps to get set-up. Here are your first steps to get started on ViMO:

·       Step One – Customize ViMO withyour branding and information. This will be important because once set-up you will want to start sharing information you obtain in ViMO and it will be much more professional with your personalized branding. You can do this through the About Me module on the ViMO Dashboard.

·       Step Two – Set-up Your Client Database. It’s a good idea to do this right away. Importing your contacts (colleagues, suppliers, clients and prospects) now will make life easier when you are on the go and quickly need to access a resource.

·       Step Three – Engagements. It’s also a good idea to add any purchase transactions or listings that you are working on. This can be done through the Engagements/Clients module on the ViMO Dashboard.

Still need more help? If you have subscribed to ViMO and are eager to get started you can also download our Getting Started Guide http://myvimo.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/ViMO-Getting-Started-Guide.pdf  or visit our online support section at http://myvimo.ca/getting-started/