The residential real estate industry is not different from the rest of the corporate world. Homebuyers and sellers must communicate with agents through new means as opposed to face-to-face interactions. Further, home tours have turned virtual. These may become permanent fixtures even once the Coronavirus is no longer everyone’s first thought.

But it’s not only technology leaving a lasting impact on the real estate sector. Everyone has realized the importance of having living space — especially true as many of us must work and self-isolate at home. Homebuyers and sellers now have a more substantial interest in moving to the suburbs, where a larger home is still within their budget.

COVID-19 will have lasting impacts on the real estate market and the buying and sell process. This post discusses COVID-19’s potentially lasting effects on the operations of the real estate industry. This includes:

1. Buyers and sellers using social media to communicate with agents;
2. The increasing use of virtual home tours and remote home buying; and,
3. A greater demand for larger homes in the suburbs.

Meeting and Communicating with Agents via Social Media

How we find an agent to buy or sell our home has changed with technology. Speaking with friends and getting a referral to an agent is still common. But instead of a call, many opt to message an agent on social media.

A 2018 survey on realtors in the digital age found social media was the best source of generating high-quality leads among agents, even more so than Multiple Listing Service (MLS) websites. Now that it’s harder to meet with an agent face-to-face or through cocktail parties and other social gatherings, social media is even more critical for realtors.

The pandemic is likely pushing more real estate agents onto social media to replace the social gatherings where realtors once met new business leads. As more agents adopt this lead generation tactic, it’s likely to stay in their arsenal for the long term. And social media will become more prominent in how buyers/sellers communicate and meet realtors.

Virtual Home Tours and Remote Buying

We’ve used the internet to browse online home listings for the past two decades. There’s nothing new about it. But the ability to do so during COVID-19 has made it more important, and so, agents are putting more effort into their online listings.

Photography

We already understand that pre-COVID, homes that had high-quality photography sold faster. We can only imagine how much faster photos sell a home now that open houses and showings aren’t as frequent. Before we call an agent to book an in-person showing, we’re likely looking through the photos first to narrow down what properties we want to learn more about.

Videography

A real estate video can help a potential buyer feel like they’re walking through the home. Before COVID, 73% of homeowners said they’re more likely to list with an agent who uses video. Again, this number is likely even greater with COVID-19. As agents adopt more real estate videos into their marketing strategy, it may become a new norm for realtors after the pandemic.

Further, drone footage can provide potential buyers and sellers with an idea of how the surrounding community looks. People don’t only buy a home for the interior but also the neighbourhood.

3D Home Renderings

3D home renderings with technologies like Matterport are becoming more important. 3D digital home tours provide potential buyers with a better online experience that may stay in demand even when they can view an open house again.

Remote home buying

COVID-19 has shut borders, which means foreign home buyers likely can’t fly to Canada to view a property before purchase. Even purchasing a property in another province as a Canadian can be difficult.

As a result, remote home purchases have become more popular. 42% of Ontarians said they were “open” or “somewhat open” to purchasing a home they could only view digitally. Some brokerages combine digital 3D home tours with real-time calls with agents to provide an experience that replicates an in-person showing. Ultimately, COVID has made homebuyers more comfortable with remote home purchases, and this effect likely will last post-COVID-19.

A Push Towards Larger Homes in the Suburbs

Condo apartments [AZ1] in downtown city cores have become scary places for those avoiding COVID-19. Thousands of people living in the same building is not a good way to avoid the pandemic. When you combine this with the small spaces that condo owners must self-isolate in, many look to the suburbs as their next big move[AZ2] .

This desire to move to the suburbs isn’t temporary. Remote work has created a longing for home offices that aren’t possible in a condo. In a survey of Ontarian homebuyers, 28% mentioned that pandemic isolation had increased their desire for a bigger home, more space, and more amenities. 25% wanted more outdoor space, which is usually only possible in the suburbs (unless you can afford a high-end property in the city).

COVID-19 has changed society a lot. One of those changes is how we buy and sell a home, and some of these changes are here to stay. Even after the pandemic ends, we’ll likely see social media and online alternatives to home tours take an even larger role in selling homes and driving leads to agents. The demand for larger, suburban homes will also likely continue as we further embrace remote work.

The post How the COVID-19 Pandemic has Permanently Changed How We Buy and Sell Real Estate first appeared on RankMyAgent - Trusted resource about Buying, Selling and Renting.

Not only are online reviews widely used, but they’re also important in how we make buying decisions. 57% of consumers in the same survey stated that they only patroned a business with an online review of four or more stars. 

But how accurate are these reviews? It’s not uncommon for business owners to either fake positive reviews for their own business or negative ones for their competitors. Reviews can also be biased due to influence from the business in the form of discounts and promotions. In this article, we review how to weed out fake reviews and see if a business is truly as bad or good as you hear. 

Can you actually trust an online review? 

Fake and bias reviews run rampant on every site. One survey found that 58% of businesses reported receiving a fake review. This is true on e-commerce, social media, and even dedicated review websites. Businesses also use promotions and refunds to entice consumers to leave good reviews or to remove bad ones. 

In e-commerce for example, aside from untrue reviews, businesses may provide refunds to anyone not satisfied with their product in exchange for the removal of their review.  As a result, the overall rating of the product is swayed towards five stars, as anything less than that has been removed. This can provide an improper picture of how the product actually is. 

Similar issues occur with social media websites like Facebook or Google (while Google Plus is gone, Google Review is alive and well!). Business owners commonly entice positive reviews with free products or discounts. It’s also not uncommon for their marketing team to create fake Facebook and Google users to leave reviews that push their rating closer to that perfect five stars. At the same time, these fake accounts can leave poor reviews on their competitor’s pages.

Then there are dedicated review websites such as Yelp, Angie’s list, and RankMyAgent. These websites value the trust of their audience and know that fake reviews would eliminate this trust. Dedicated review websites usually put more effort into monitoring posted reviews. Some review sites such as RankMyAgent go as far as to verify that all reviews first. Others like Yelp allow businesses to report what they believe to be a fake review, and their moderators scour through postings for suspiciously positive ones. These sites also watch out for businesses trying to solicit favourably bias reviews.  

If you really want to know if a review is trustworthy, it’s important to find out a site’s procedures in tackling fake and bias reviews. A site that is passive towards fake reviews is ultimately not as trustworthy as a site where reviews are heavily monitored or require verification. 

What to look out for when reading an online review 

No website is perfect in monitoring their reviews. So how can you figure out whether a business deserves the number of stars or positive/negative ratings it has? Furthermore, how can you get the best flavour of whether this product or service is really worth your money? 

Check the number of reviews: The number of reviews says a lot about a product. When the total number is low, a few bad or good reviews can easily slant the overall rating. This could incentivize someone to post fake reviews—whether positive or negative. However, if a product or service has hundreds or thousands of reviews, the rating is robust and a few good or bad ratings won’t make any substantial changes. It’s also very difficult to fake hundreds of reviews.  

Check the number of reviews: The number of reviews says a lot about a product. When the total number is low, a few bad or good reviews can easily slant the overall rating. This could incentivize someone to post fake reviews—whether positive or negative. However, if a product or service has hundreds or thousands of reviews, the rating is robust and a few good or bad ratings won’t make any substantial changes. It’s also very difficult to fake hundreds of reviews.  

Look for Patterns: Patterns are an indicator of what the business is good or bad at. For example, a particular item on their menu or a certain trait about their abilities as a realtor could be brought up multiple times in various reviews. But patterns go beyond this. Look for patterns in spelling and grammar, length of review, and the names of the reviewers. If coincidences are popping up, it could be a sign of a single person using multiple accounts to write fake reviews. 

Detect Bias: The people writing reviews are not professional reviewers in most cases and are likely not neutral. A reviewer who happens to be a friend or family member will likely give the business five stars. Although it’s hard to weed these bias reviews out, it’s important to look at both positive and negative reviews, even if the business has 4.5 stars. 

Read three-star reviews for the most balanced picture. Five-star reviews are commonly overly gushy about how great the business is while one-star reviews are often a spill of venom when someone is in a bad mood. Neither situations are helpful to you. Three-star reviews look at both the pros and cons of the business and are less extreme than its one- and five-star counterparts. 

While online reviews are a great resource for seeing if something is worth your money, it may not always be the most accurate portrayal of a business. Fake and bias reviews run rampant for any website with a review system. Look at how the website moderates its posts to see how trustworthy it really is. Designated reviews sites like RankMyAgent are sure to provide a more accurate portrayal than websites that don’t verify whether a posting is real or fake. 

The post How to Read an Online Review first appeared on RankMyAgent - Trusted resource about Buying, Selling and Renting.