My Perspective on Proptech By Allan Dalton There exists an undeclared war being waged between real estate high touch and real estate high tech, or proptech. To the investors who are pouring billions of dollars into proptech companies, high touch may very well become the casualty of this epic battle. To simply assert that there is not a battle, as high tech and high touch will and must, operate in concert to this author, is naive. The question isn’t whether these two phenomena, continue to mesh, but rather what will be the proportional significance of each to both consumers and real estate professionals. Behaviorists perpetually conjecture over the proportional importance surrounding both heredity and environment. Although the influence either heredity and environment are somewhat immutable, this may not be the case for how the ultimate balance is struck between high tech and high touch value. Especially within a specific real estate related context. I believe that real estate professionals would be well advised to carefully monitor the equilibrium being established between high tech and high touch, and its trajectory. Tipping the scales towards high tech, in my view, beyond the unprecedented investments being made into the proptech sector, are the unresolved challenges that our transaction-to-transaction real estate industry faces, for which the industry may not be prepared.
“The ultimate question is, what should be the proper balance, from a real estate perspective, between high tech and high touch?” The ultimate question is, what should be the proper balance, from a real estate perspective, between high tech
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and high touch? To answer that question, one must resolve how much do real estate consumers truly value the human skills, human engagement, and the prospect of their lifelong relationship with their real estate agent.
“The question isn’t whether these two phenomena, continue to mesh, but rather what will be the proportional significance of each to both consumers and real estate professionals.” Moreover, how resonant, and how valued are real estate trusted advisors, when juxtaposed with the allure of antiseptic, algorithmic and AI results. Those algorithms supported by artificial intelligence will further fuel information technology systems. Systems, that will propel proptech in the form of I Buyer programs, 3D virtual tours, community mapping, predictive data, drone utilization, deeper property historical data, recommended negotiating strategies, high tech appraisals, paperless transactions, and a host of other high informational technological innovations. Unquestionably, the ever-increasing range of examples where machine and deep learning-based AI becomes more popularized and consumer demanded, will only grow, especially in a postcovid hybrid lifestyle environment. I may not be right, but I am convinced, that one of the reasons that explains the industry’s lack of a greater strategic plan to influence the aforementioned balance between high tech and high touch, has to do with the definition of the
