In our modern age, technology has begun to streamline many processes, including the seemingly arduous one of home buying and selling. People are now gaining the ability to take tours and visualize furniture in their potential new homes without setting foot outside of their current ones. New technological advancements such as virtual reality and Smart-Tech have the potential to streamline a historically tedious process, and a recent survey by Coldwell Banker Real Estate showed a sharp uptick in demand for the integration of such technology in the real estate industry.
Smart-Tech Integration
The results of the survey showed immense interest in smart technology. 61% of Americans already own smart entertainment technology, and 15% of Americans plan on buying this technology in the next year, bringing the total up to 76% by the end of 2018. Other desirable forms of smart tech aside from entertainment are security, temperature, lighting, and safety. Most likely because integration in the area of smart technology is slow but steady, the survey revealed that consumers now expect “high-tech experiences before even stepping foot in a prospective listing.”
Virtual Reality and Home Buying
Beyond smart-technology, consumers hope that virtual reality will soon be standard technology in home buying and selling. To be precise, 84% of survey respondents want to see video footage before buying a home, and 77% want the ability to be able to take virtual reality house tours before actually visiting prospective homes. These desires are entirely reasonable, and technology is catching up; soon, consumers will be able to avoid the many hours often spent in vain traveling and surveying homes they are only moderately interested in.
Beyond surveying homes virtually, 68% of respondents would love the ability to use VR to see how their current furniture would fit in a prospective home. Companies like IKEA have already created augmented reality furniture-viewing apps, and with high demand, it most likely won’t be long until VR home-outfitting apps begin to populate the marketplace.
[mks_pullquote align=”right” width=”250″ size=”16″ bg_color=”#04303e” txt_color=”#ffffff”]84% of survey respondents want to see video footage before buying a home, and 77% want the ability to be able to take virtual reality house tours before actually visiting prospective homes.[/mks_pullquote]The results of Coldwell Banker’s Real Estate survey show the growing importance of smart technology and virtual reality in the home buying and selling process. Consumers are excited to use technology to streamline their home buying and selling processes, the survey results show that in the next few years, virtual reality showcases and home-outfitting sessions will likely be a new standard.
