Author: Anne Ewasko

3 social media apps made for real estate that luxury brokers love

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Agents now have apps specific to the real estate industry that mimic social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. Luxury brokers have already jumped on this wagon, and you should, too.

Building and managing relationships is a crucial component of success in our business. These real estate-specific apps skillfully combine social media and property searches while building relationships with current and new customers. It’s another way to get your listings seen and for you to be seen as the go-to agent for your area.

REAL Messenger, 1060 and Ri.la are the trending real estate apps to keep your eyes on in 2023.

REAL Messenger

The REAL Messenger app is one of the hottest developments in real estate technology, and luxury agents are salivating. The platform offers a private community where buyers, sellers and agents can connect over exclusive pocket listings.

Users of the REAL app spend an average of 41 minutes perusing properties. The app feeds high-end properties based on location, and users can examine properties anywhere in the world. This allows luxury brokers to showcase their properties to a broader audience, which increases their clientele and sells their listings faster.

Pros:

• Free
• Self-branding
• Available on iOS and Android
• Search for specific amenities (for example, only kitchen pics)
• Includes a variety of listing ratings: value for money, quality of the home, and quality of location.

Cons:

• Can use only one filter at a time
• A limited number of locations
• Not user-friendly (no tutorial or user instructions)
• Search returns sometimes with unrelated results (ex., select bathroom pics and get a few plus unrelated pics).

1060

The 1060 app is just getting started and is one to keep an eye on. The app lets you view an infinite stream of properties in short-form video content. By resembling the video-sharing website TikTok, 1060 advances the concept of the high-end mobile listing beyond Real Messenger. The 1060 videos are brief like those on TikTok, under 60 seconds — just enough to provide a private preview of an exciting new property.

Real estate agents wanting to appeal to a younger, more active audience will find this platform helpful and exciting. The app enables agents to be more effective by providing a dynamic algorithm and system for generating leads through interactions with uploaded content. The app also is intended for zero-effort content, with agents able to capture videos on the spot, add music and post.

Pros:

• Free
• Includes property search
• User-friendly, with a TikTok-like interface
• Multiple search filters, such as number of rooms and price
• Available for Android and iOS devices

Cons:

• Does not have a website version

Ri.la

Ri.la makes promoting a property and finding a property as simple as browsing Instagram. The platform is user-friendly, informative, engaging and a great lead-generating tool. It encourages interaction, networking and lifestyle matching, while providing a range of crowdsourced on-market and off-market listings.

Verified agents can post their properties on Ri.la in minutes by uploading pictures, sharing content and establishing free connections between buyers, sellers and renters.

Pros:

• Free
• Realtors are verified for added security
• User-friendly, with an Instagram-like interface
• Crowdsourced content
• Browse for homes by neighborhood

Cons:

• Available only on iOS

How are luxury brokers maximizing these tools?

These real estate apps serve as private clubs where luxury brokers and agents showcase exclusive pocket listings to their high-paying clients and reach new customers. Agents can easily create captivating and effortless content showcasing their properties, share upcoming events and open-house dates, and generate leads from curated posts on these platforms.

Bottom line

Using real estate-specific social media apps can boost your business by expanding your market reach to sell more properties and engage new customers. Building these relationships via a social media platform can turn these new customers into lifelong clients. More sales and more clients means a better bottom line. Check them out and see how far you can take it. The sky’s the limit with these apps.

Anne Ewasko is a veteran Realtor in the Chicago area and a longtime techie. Visit her at anne.luxhomechicago.com.

Capture a broader audience by using computer vision on your images

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A picture can say a thousand words, but did you know that your property images can do even more by using computer vision (CV) technology? The ability to use artificial intelligence to identify a room and its features shown in an image opens up a world of possibilities. Let your images do the talking (and the capturing) to generate new leads for your properties by implementing CV technology for your listings.

What is computer vision?

Computer vision is artificial intelligence software that can analyze and comprehend images and videos by learning from large quantities of picture data sets. It can identify interior and exterior photographs from MLS listings and other sources, classify them as a kitchen, living room, primary suite bathroom, etc., and score them using criteria like contemporary, out-of-date, average and more.

How can CV benefit brokers and their clients?

Imagine how useful this is for those clients who are looking for very specific criteria, such as updated kitchens and baths (or ones that need to be fixed up). This technology will do the sorting for you! Think of the time saved without having to scroll through piles of properties and their myriad images to hone in on the right ones. This technology does it for you.

In addition, computer vision search results include qualitative information. The software can identify the number of homes in a neighborhood with updated bathrooms, kitchens with comparable features, even the placement of windows that have park views versus city views — and the list goes on. It makes prepping CMAs and understanding the values of these homes so much easier.

From a listing standpoint, your images will be quickly identified by the consumer’s specific search parameters and can match that perfect buyer to your listing in a much more expedient way.

In response to the current demand for properties to improve productivity and the customer experience, many large brokerages have turned to CV companies such as Restb.ai, Google Cloud Vision AI, Co-libry, Ximilar and Imagga, to name a few. Individual agents can now do the same.

A CV tool that you can use — Restb.ai

Restb.ai is an affordable and effective CV for individual brokers. Your property images can be categorized into more than 30 scene groups and attributes. Restb.ai’s image recognition system identifies, tags and characterizes properties with amazing accuracy.

The technology has a high degree of property-related context and is geared toward the real estate industry. The tool provides precise and focused results so buyers can see picture tags such as “beamed ceiling,” “fireplace,” “hardwood floor” and “natural light.”
Pros and cons of Restb.ai

Pros

· Free development bundle and trial period.
· Affordable standard plan at $19/month.
· Premium plans start at $79/month for more features.
· Not difficult to learn, even for the non-technical.
· Supports picture tagging.
· Incorporates search and filters.
· Easy to organize and classify images.
· Includes automated descriptions and watermark detection.

Cons

· Does not support bar code recognition.
· Mobile app is only available for Android.

Gain a competitive edge with computer vision

Photos do say a thousand words, but now let CV do the talking for you. It’s just one way that you will have an advantage in capturing the right buyer for your properties and more leads to grow your business. And think about your listing appointments: You can amaze the homeowners when you explain to them how you use the images to capture buyers — they will undoubtedly favor you to list their home. The results will surpass your competitors who aren’t using CV technology. Take advantage of this easy-to-implement technology, and bring your business to the next level.

Anne Ewasko is a veteran Realtor in the Chicago area and a longtime techie. Visit her at anne.luxhomechicago.com.