On November 8-11, one of the largest international real estate conferences, the 2019 REALTORS® Conference & Expo was held in San Francisco. The conference brought together more than 20 thousand realtors from more than 150 countries.

The conference helders carefully worked on the creation of the program, the choice of speakers, the EXPO organization. Everything was done to create an opportunity for realtors around the world to be at the epicenter of innovation, technology, opportunities and networking with colleagues.

The conference holders in close proximity to Silicon Valley, which is known to be a home to GOOGLE, FACEBOOK and other world's major technology companies whose products and innovations are changing the life and work of all of humanity. And the choice of a venue seems to be very symbolic, because most of the companies represented at 2019 REALTORS® Conference & Expo are engaged in the development and implementation of the latest solutions for more efficient operation of the global real estate market.

REALTING is a member of the High Technology Park in Belarus, which is analogue of the Silicon Valley in California. And for our team it was incredibly informative and effective to participate in this largest real estate market event. We spoke at the Global Networking Day and have presented a product, created in Belarus for many countries. We have also participated in the solemn ceremony of bringing the flag of our country onto the stage, together with another 85 representatives of different countries in the hall, where gathered 6,000 realtors fr om all around the world. A huge number of meetings and negotiations were held, many agreements were reached and ideas were fixed. And of course, we were extremely impressed with the scale and fullness of the conference and exhibition.

What have we noticed? Firstly, it's undeniable that today the real estate market is first and foremost technological. And technologies have so firmly entered all spheres of working with real estate that they will take the real estate business to a new level. The level wh ere everyone benefits - market professionals, buyers, sellers and agency employees.

        
 

Better service, greater speed and convenience of processes, more opportunities, completely unexpected digital solutions that are increasingly replacing the usual actions. In a word, today the future of real estate companies is impossible without the technological innovations introduction and it is important to consider this. Failure to innovate is a direct path to death for real estate agencies in the competition for the client. Since more and more dynamic players will keep up with the times.

We found out that about 900 MLS systems are presented in the USA at the moment. This is difficult to imagine, since in some countries there still are agencies that do not use MLS in their work. Systems continue to evolve, some absorb the others, unite, this work is ongoing endlessly to introduce new functions. But they remain the basis for optimizing and increasing the efficiency of real estate companies of the 21st century.

It was interesting to learn abot the systems which serve for the remote organization of displays of objects, so that realtors physical presence isn't necessary any more. The buyer comes to view, the program scans his ID at the input (previously, obviously, this client went through many identification steps) and opens the door for him. At the same time, the realtor is sitting in his office, and can totally accompany the display of an apartment or house by phone thanks to the numerous cameras.

Are you wondering about the security which might be compromised? It's solved simple - if a potential buyer tries to spoil the property or grab something, realtor just clicks one button and the system completely shuts down the exit from the building before the police arrival.

We were impressed by the fully digitized system of pre-sale package of documents signing. That means, nowadays in the United States the buyer may not even leave his home during the documents preparation process. You don’t have to travel from the one end of the city to another a thousand times to sign papers. Everything can be done through a reliable system. Client only has to be present on the final deal.

Innovations were presented not only in sales, but also in leasing, construction, banking, which serves to the real estate business, and even in advertising and marketing, such as interactive showcases for outdoor advertising of sale objects.

At one of the stands, a school of inspectors, wh ere they are trained to inspect real estate before buying, was presented. In the USA, this is an integral process of buying and selling, and private organizations are engaged in this. It is impossible to complete the transaction until there is a signed document from a special inspector who walked through each square meter of the property and noted any shortcomings. Usually, the preparation of such a document takes about a week together with the inspection of the premises. They do suggest to eliminate significant shortcomings, otherwise it will be impossible to complete the transaction process. As a rule, private companies are engaged in the inspection and their working process is quite clear and orginized.

In fact, all this is only a fraction of what we managed to see and hear at the conference. About one hundred seminars from famous speakers took place at the conference, and we will definitely share what we absorbed in the upcoming REALTING materials.

Autor: Alena Martynenko