O Y TECH G O 2019 EMBRACING THE TECHNOLOGY LANDSCAPE
INSIDE: TECH VS. REALTORS® • BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS • SMART HOMES • WORK-LIFE BALANCE
TECH VS. REALTORS® Will technology make REALTORS® obsolete? By Myrna Traylor
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These days, a growing number of traditional businesses are looking over their shoulders, worried that their segment’s version of an Amazon or Expedia will not only disrupt their industry, but take it over entirely. REALTORS® have had some anxiety as internet-based real estate platforms and tech tools have edged into their markets. So far, however, most REALTORS® have made peace with technology, becoming adept at using the tools that work best for them and their clients, while keeping a wary eye out for the “killer app” that some mogul thinks will eliminate them. Debra Bellmaine, CRS, broker associate with Stonebridge Real Estate in Clearwater, Florida, has a unique perspective on this issue. She was a software developer before becoming a REALTOR® in 2004. “There is a great deal of fear being generated by the potential disruption of real estate by powerful tech platforms, and the iBuyer incursion in particular,” she says. “With the iBuyer platforms, the idea is that with the perfect tech, real estate transactions will be smooth, seamless, automated experiences for sellers and buyers, all conducted online. And if all real property was identical, all properties for sale occupying the same location, built the same year, with the same materials, in the same condition and so forth, it
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could easily be done that way. But that is not the reality with real property.” Bellmaine described an experience she had with Opendoor, whose CEO, Eric Wu, touts a vision of a “future where everyone uses Opendoor to buy and sell their home in a frictionless transaction that is eventually low-cost or free,” according to a March 2019 article on Inman. Bellmaine was working with a buyer on an Opendoor listing, but she could not get anyone
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to answer questions about whether the property might have defects that would disqualify it for the FHA financing the buyer had secured. “I was never able to reach an agent at all, and so my buyers won’t be considering that property,” says Bellmaine. “Eric Wu believes that his and other iBuyer platforms will turn agents into ‘advisers’ once the selling process is automated,” Bellmaine continues. “However, my one experience with Opendoor highlights the glaring issue: Individual and professional REALTORS® with a commission at stake will always strive to give superior and individual service to their sellers and buyers. Automation is only smooth as long as all the ball bearings are uniformly round