By time standards, we're just barely into the twenty-first century. Real estate, however, has moved "to infinity and beyond!" The MSN Real Estate site notes that the technology explosion of the past three years has totally changed how people buy and sell their homes in the DC Metro Area--and everywhere else.
One small-sized device that's made a huge impact is the smartphone. Many real estate sites like Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com now offer applications for smartphones and tablets to make a buyer's life almost care-free. For example, you can drive to a neighborhood you might like, run a search on your phone and see a map with homes for sale right in that area. Then just use your GPS function to start checking them out.
That's just the overview. If you spot a house you like in Bethesda, the Zillow app can tell you how long it's been on the market and how often the price has been reduced. You can also learn that another house nearby recently sold for $50,000 less, so your house of interest might be overpriced. The upshot is that you can choose to walk away and check out the next property with no time wasted.
On the Realtor.com app, you can draw a line with your finger around a particular section of a map and see any homes that are for sale in that area. This lets potential buyers "search" only the neighborhoods that fit their criteria and skip places with, say, more retirees than young families.
Smart Realtors® are catching onto this trend and are letting technology help their bottom line. Because many buyers search by school district, one agency now uses Twitter to feed out home listings by school district. There are also apps to let homebuyers rate and review their Realtor®, which other buyers can then read.
Sellers are also benefiting from these new electronic tools and ditching newspaper ads in favor of the newer web- or mobile-based technologies. Tech-savvy sellers know that the Gen X and Y buyers will use their phone or iPad when house hunting, not the classifieds.
The arrival of mobile apps, social media and GPS has shaken up real estate in a big way, and the change is sure to continue. In my next blog I'll share some additional technologies affecting today's real estate market.
Whether you're a smartphone fanatic or technologically challenged, I will walk with you through every step of the buying or selling process. Contact me, Mynor Herrera, today for expert help buying or selling in the DC, MD, & VA areas! I also specialize in Bethesda and Chevy Chase, as well as the sub-divisions of Rosemary Hills, Rock Creek Forest, East Bethesda & Whitehall Condominium.
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