The Upward Trend of Tech and Real Estate

by Homepie | Published Nov 13, 2020

When was the last time you sold something with your smart phone?

Modern tech is changing the way people are buying and selling homes. Learn why tech is pushing more people to selling their homes online and why you should too.

Buyers Begin Online

With over 1.8 billion people worldwide purchasing goods online, selling online is a no-brainer. According to Think with Google, around 63% of shopping occasions begin online, and 84% of Americans are shopping online in any given 48-hour period. That’s more than 275 million people!

With the process of buying everything from low-cost items such as household items and bikes to more expensive things like cars and real estate being driven by modern tech, it only feels natural to turn to the world wide web for all your real estate selling and purchasing ventures.

In 2019, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that 98% of millennials are searching online to get information about real estate and home buying. Millennials are twice as likely to use their mobile devices as baby boomers in their search for a new home. Incredibly, around 80% of those millennials find the home they want to buy on their smartphones or tablets.

And even more impressively, a total of 76% of all buyers find the homes they want to buy on mobile devices.

This trend of using tech to buy, sell and communicate real estate has permanently changed the way people are selling and buying homes. It is now the new norm.

With stats like these, it only makes sense to skip the real estate agent and sell your home yourself or purchase a home that is for sale by owner (FSBO) online.

Homepie solves many of the challenges FSBO’s face. As a seller, Homepie lets you list your home in minutes, chat instantly with potential buyers, negotiate offers, and have total access to live support. Buyers can tour properties virtually or in-person and make and negotiate offers directly with the owners. Our built-in e-sign purchase agreement and automatic contract creation tool makes the selling and buying process hassle-free.

Benefits of Selling Your Home Online Yourself

One of the biggest benefits of selling a home for sale by owner is the cost savings. You can save around 6% on commission fees by skipping the real estate agent.

By selling your home yourself, you have complete control over the sale of the house. You get to talk directly to potential buyers, which can move things along much faster.

Some real estate agents can be rather pushy and will likely have many clients at one time. You don’t, which means you could potentially devote more time to selling your house than a real estate agent could. Selling your home yourself also creates a more personable and intimate experience for the buyer. It can also offer more savings and flexibility for you and the buyer.

When you list your home online, you gain a nation-wide audience making your listing available to the entire country, increasing your chances of making a quick sale. Gone are the days of paying to list your property in the newspaper or forking out ridiculous commission rates to real estate agents. You worked for the equity in your home; you should keep that profit in its entirety.

Benefits of Buying Without an Agent

Buying real estate that is for sale by owner eliminates the middleman, i.e., real estate agent, and allows you to communicate directly with the homeowner. This gives you more room to negotiate. You can also get more detailed information about the home. No one knows more about the house than the owner. They can also offer you valuable insights into the neighborhood and local hotspots.

When you work with a homeowner directly, you can forge a relationship that will make both of you more flexible in making a deal.

Is the MLS Necessary?

There was a time when you couldn’t really sell your home without an agent because you needed it listed in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Before the advent of the internet, everything on home sales was under lock and key. Information on new listings was found in MLS books and large catalogs that only real estate agents had access to.

Today, MLS is an online private database that only licensed real estate brokers with paid memberships can access and list homes on—meaning anyone trying to list their home as “for sale by owner” won’t be given access. However, this database is syndicated to all the popular real estate websites, like Zillow and Trulia. Most homebuyers nowadays are searching online using these very platforms without the use of an agent.

Anyone can list their home by owner on Zillow, bypassing the MLS, so it not absolutely necessary. On the other hand, if one desires to gain optimal exposure and doesn’t mind offering some kind of commission to a buyer’s agent, listing on the MLS can still be beneficial.

That’s why, for only $59, Homepie provides the option to list your home on the MLS and over one hundred websites for those who prefer to go this route.

Should I Consider an iBuyer Model Instead?

An iBuyer is a real estate investor, not an agent, that uses an automated valuation model and other technology to buy homes directly from customers. Companies like Zillow (Zillow Offers), Offerpad, and Opendoor make cash offers in order to buy your home outright, often sight unseen.

While you get instant offers and don’t have to deal with buyers, you fork over a hefty sum of money for the convenience, and the offer is typically non-negotiable. After all, these are investors looking to turn the property for profit. This could be a good option for someone who needs to relocate quickly or those who don’t care about saving money. But for the majority, it results in substantial loss and is the least viable option.

The Smart Way to Sell Your Home

It’s easy to list your home online. The challenge comes with selling it successfully. There’s a reason why 36% of homeowners initially attempt to sell their home themselves, and ultimately only 11% make it to the finish line. It’s not without challenges. Many people expect a race without hurdles. This expectation is just unrealistic. Hurdles do exist. When they realize, for example, that they need to locate the right legal forms and learn how to navigate them, many just give up and turn the process over to a real estate agent.

But what if you were to utilize tech to help solve these challenges so that you could effectively sell your home, saving the equity that you have worked so hard to build?

That’s the reason Homepie was started. To help people just like you successfully sell their home without an agent. That purchase agreement you thought you needed a real estate attorney to create is provided digitally on the online marketplace platform. It makes everything so much easier.

You are still selling your home at the end of the day, and it takes effort. Should you just snap some photos with your iPhone instead of paying the couple hundred dollars for a photographer? No. Put in the effort and get professional photos taken. You’re not selling your daughter’s bike. Get a yard sign. Don’t cut corners.

When you put in the effort and have access to a powerful online marketplace like homepie at your disposal, you have all the tools you need to reach the finish line.