Operating in over 80 markets, Redfin is a technology-enabled brokerage firm that has redefined the real-estate business for the convenience of its growing customer base. Using easy-to-use digital tools, the company enables both home buyers and agents to simplify the process of home buying and selling.

The Redfin platform has digitalized real-estate transactions by offering:

• AI-enabled personalized property recommendations for potential buyers based on their preferences.
• Virtual home tours for potential buyers to visualize the entire property before visiting.
• Online booking for actual property visits.
• AI-powered algorithms to display the latest property prices.

In the real estate market, Zillow is a property listing and searching facility for prospective home buyers. Established in 2006, Zillow has developed a proprietary AI-enabled Zestimate tool to accurately estimate property value (with a median error rate of 2.4%).

With home valuations for over 104 million homes, Zestimate examines the following data points to arrive at the correct home valuation:

• Property-related factors like footage space and location.
• On-market information like listed prices, property descriptions, and nearby comparable home prices.
• Off-market information like previous home sales and public property records.
• Current market trends.

Founded in 2014, Opendoor simplifies the entire customer experience – including home buying and selling – through its online real estate marketplace. By leveraging AI technology, this digital platform provides real-time information about property prices to prospective buyers. It also recommends the best time to buy or sell properties.

Based in Boston, Buildium is among the largest cloud-powered property management platforms that offer a host of services, including:

• Property listing and management.
• Rental listings and collection.
• Tenant screening and lease management.
• Real estate accounting.

With its unified property management platform, Buildium makes it easier for property managers to grow their real estate operations.

With over 68 million property transactions and 30 million property owners, Reonomy is the leading name in the U.S. commercial real estate market. The digital platform has simplified commercial real estate (CRE) to discover new market opportunities and improve data-driven decisions.

CRE professionals can use this platform for a variety of functions including property prospecting and leasing.

With AI-powered predictive analytics, real estate companies can use complex algorithms to identify industry patterns and make accurate forecasts. These AI algorithms can analyze historical sales data along with demographic data and even social media data.

For example, the real estate brokerage firm, Compass, launched an AI-powered recommendation engine, “Likely to Sell”, that enables real estate agents to identify property sellers before they list them for sale.

Through accurate data analytics and predictive modeling, AI models are also accurately estimating property value based on data points like comparable sales in the same location, amenities, and prevailing market trends.

As an example, Zillow’s Zestimate tool provides real-time property valuations by analyzing property data from:

• Public records
• Recent sales transactions
• Property data submitted by users

By deploying AI-powered tools, real estate companies can provide insights into risk factors such as property market volatility and property-specific factors. This enables property developers and buyers to evaluate their risks before making their decision.

For example, Cushman & Wakefield has developed an AI-powered risk assessment model to assess the potential impact of an economic downturn on property valuation.

According to Goldman Sachs, the market for AR and VR technologies in real estate can potentially reach a value of $2.5 billion by 2025. This report states that around 1.4 million real estate agents are already using VR technology to showcase their properties to potential buyers.

Enabled by these immersive technologies, 3D virtual tours of listed properties can improve property sales in a quicker time. What’s truly innovative is that buyers can now “virtually” visit potential homes from any location and device.

With the growing use of IoT technology, the real estate industry is witnessing the emergence of smart homes, using connected amenities and devices. It’s no surprise that smart homes will cross the mark of 400 million in 2024. This is up from just 171 million in 2022.

In the commercial real estate sector, 52% of real estate companies believe AI and IoT are reshaping their tenants’ property preferences. Real estate developers are also using IoT to manage valuable resources like water and electricity. With smart utilities, real estate companies are able to keep their utility costs in check.

Blockchain technology is expected to save real estate companies around $60 billion due to property-related frauds by 2028. Additionally, in 2024, real estate assets valued at around $3.4 trillion will be tokenized.

Blockchain technology is transforming the real estate industry across multiple areas, including:

• Project financing
• Asset management
• Loan securitization
• Payment transactions

For instance, in loan securitization, blockchain-enabled smart contracts can include accurate data regarding ownership rights and previous loan repayments. Blockchain is also eliminating paper documentation and the involvement of third-party property arbitrators in real estate property transactions.

Traditional real estate management involves plenty of paperwork and regulatory compliance. With cloud-powered property management tools, real estate agents can automate their customer information and have real-time access to property agreements and rental units.

Besides, these cloud-powered tools enable real-time collaboration among various teams, and provide them access to a “single source of truth.” Additionally, with scalable cloud storage, real estate companies can now centrally manage data related to:

• Customer details
• Rental agreements
• Property listings
• Tenant screening
• Payments

Large-scale real estate projects involve a lot of stakeholders including property developers, investors, buyers, and contractors. Most of these stakeholders are often located across geographical locations or even time zones. Collaboration tools enable them to bring their skills and expertise to the same project.

Collaboration tools like Gantt-Pro and AirSend are designed for the real estate industry. For instance, AirSend allows property developers to communicate with buyers and send them the latest updates through email. These collaboration tools also enable stakeholders to review and approve electronic documents without any time-consuming face-to-face meetings.

Automation is also transforming real estate marketing by streamlining repetitive tasks such as email outreach, social media engagement, and prospective lead generation. With this technology, real estate agents can also personalize their marketing message and manage cross-channel marketing campaigns from a single unified platform.

Similarly, by automating email marketing, sales professionals can save both time and effort in manual communication with prospective buyers. Additionally, sales managers can now leverage automation platforms to monitor their team performance and optimize their strategies for better returns.