The digital transformation of the real estate industry is pretty new. Before the pandemic, this industry was quite reluctant about the use of technology, and word-of-mouth and face-to-face management were the prevalent norms.
According to Forbes's news reports, the pandemic gave this industry a major push to quickly adapt to new PropTech trends. But this sudden adaptation came with its own challenges. As most real estate businesses are new to using technology and software, there has been a lot of struggle for property managers and real estate owners to find their balance within this sudden change.
Are you a real estate property manager or owner who is struggling to keep up with the digitalization of the real estate industry and do not know how to steer through the problem? In this article, we have done a deep dive into the major everyday challenges of real estate digitalization. Read on to learn all about these challenges and what you can do to make this transformation easier and seamless to impact your real estate business positively.
Technology and real estate: What are the Challenges?
Real estate technology, PropTech or ReTech, has many diverse techs under its more extensive umbrella. From property management software like Yardi or MRI to PropTech like autonomous drones, RPA chatbots, or IoT devices, the possibilities of real estate tech are endless. The US real estate property tech market is leading the way in all ups and downs. Investors and making a positive shift towards focusing on PropTech. Market research found out that in 2019 alone, the PropTech deals have increased leaps and bounds, from $10.9 million in 2018 and reaching $17.4 million within a year.
Here is a list of the biggest challenges faced in the digital transformation of the real estate industry. Check them out to understand them better and stay on top of them. Learn about them and plan ahead to mitigate them before they curveball into a major business issue and hamper your growth.
Having no long-term vision
Having the right selection of technology might seem like a rising trend in the real estate industry. But make sure you have a vision for what your goals are from the technology implementation. Without the right long-term vision, technology can become a redundant investment and lead to a lot of monetary and time loss. You need to read useful customer reviews about the software you choose, make sure that the tech features are customizable according to your business needs, and then start integration.
Employees not adapting to the technology
Making all employees and stakeholders agree to the new technology selection and training them properly to use the tech is an essential part of the integration. As a real estate property manager, do you see your staff is reluctant to adapt to new tech and is not motivated enough to make the shift? This is a common problem among real estate businesses, and you need to plan your strategy and leadership in a way that you make your staff understand the need for the tech. You also need to take reviews from your staff about their every need in work process automation and the hurdles they face. This will help put all the stakeholders on the same page and streamline the automation process.
No proper budget for tech investments
Tech investments need a lot of planning, but it also needs a proper budget for you to understand which investment works best for you. It can be a major challenge if you do not understand your technology selection positively impacts your business ROI. Budgeting and forecasting beforehand is the best way forward in such a scenario.
Not understanding which tech works best
You need a technology consultant to advise you on which software works best for your particular business. Your tech implementation partner must provide customized solutions to your needs to complete the integration. Why? Statistics published by Harvard Business Review says that more than 55% of technology selection like CRM software fail to produce the accurate results they were implemented for.
Not integrating data and workflow systems
Integrating a project management software without data integration and automating workflow systems is a major pitfall. The right technology selection in project management can streamline your whole data management and back office work to ease your business management plans. A tech like Yardi or MRI software can easily integrate your data and automate your back office work, including accounting and repetitive and tedious project management tasks. You need to make sure your software solution provides this pre-integration.
Concern about data security of new tech
The biggest challenge during new tech integration is the data security issues is cyber security during data migration. Without proper integration, a lot of data can be lost in the process and create a lot of problems for your business. But most cloud services are secure; you need to make sure your software provider is doing good integration work to ensure no data is breached.
Client interaction is changing
Due to technology implementation, the pattern of client interaction is also changing. Face-to-face interactions are decreasing. A significant part of the real estate business was about direct client interaction, but with the right technology selection, you can make client interaction a constant thing. With things like RPA chatbots and CRM software, you can constantly be in touch with your customers and never lose track of your clients.
Teamwork might suffer without the right tech
If the software you select does not support teamwork and internal coordination, then that can be a major challenge. You need software that makes a centralized data and management system that any of your team members can access from any remote location to speed up your daily
Make Real Estate Challenges Simpler to Solve with Assetsoft
You need to partner up with a software integration provider and advisor with much experience handling real estate technology to avoid such challenges during digitization. At Assetsoft, our team has more than a decade of experience in working with real estate companies in integrating and customizing the correct software for their business needs.
Talk to us soon to learn more about our work and software integration processes.