By Rizza Ypil

The emergence of technology has an adverse impact on the real estate industry, especially on real estate brokers. A lot of things have changed through the years and such changes both have positive and negative effects. Specifically, this is how technology and current trends are changing the playing field of brokers.

Changing Roles

Basically, the role of the real estate broker is to find buyers for sellers and vice versa. Their job is to assist sellers in marketing their property and help buyers find a property with the best price and terms. Significantly, the availability of data on the Internet has changed the role of real estate brokers. Brokers’ job today was more on negotiation and marketing.

Face-to-Face Meetings

Another thing that changed in the real estate industry is communication. With the presence ofthe Internet, mobile phones, laptops and other modern gadgets, communication between clients and brokers mostly happen online. The emerging technology makes clients disregard the importance of face-to-face communication.

Cost of Technology

While the use of technology has some disadvantages for real estate brokers, it also has lots of advantages. New technologies actually make the broker’s job easier since they no longer have to gather and collect data for their clients. Their job became paperless since almost everything can now be found on the Internet. However, some brokers see this as a problem due to the cost of new technologies.

Tough Competition

With the rise of technology, competition among real estate brokers also increases. The Internet is a powerful tool for visibility and exposure, but nowadays, most brokers are using the Internet to find clients so the competition only becomes fiercer. This is why real estate brokers should work double especially on generating leads and expanding their network. Technology makes the competition tougher, but it is also a tool to stay motivated and do their job better.