Alex Capozzolo

By Alex Capozzolo

For better or worse, technology plays a huge role in our daily lives. It continues to disrupt industries and change the way we work. The same goes for real estate. Professionals in the business are leveraging the power of technology to help them sell properties.

In today’s world, putting your listing on the MLS and having the data aggregators place it around the internet is not enough sometimes. As an agent, with a snazzy smartphone in your pocket, it’s up to you to sell this house. Technology has your back. You just have to figure out how to use it to your advantage.

When preparing for your next listing, here are three ingenious ways to sell a house using technology.

QR Code Ads

Mobile devices continue to dominate when it comes to internet use. In 2021, 90% of the estimated 4.23 billion mobile users accessed the internet on their mobile devices. After the pandemic, QR codes went from random pixels you occasionally saw online or one random brochure to the standard for ordering food at a favorite spot. Restaurants, however, aren’t the only industry capitalizing on QR codes.

Real estate pros are finding that QR codes provide a unique and effective opportunity for them to sell a house online. The younger generations are more likely to snap a picture of a QR code than pick up a paper flyer of a listing, which is important since millennials now make up the largest number of buyers in the market.

Agents can use QR codes in creative ways to help advertise a home they are selling. For example, you can place a QR code on a business card and hand them out to potential buyers at real estate events. Or you can go big and place a QR code on a billboard next to the highway.

3-D Virtual Tours

How do people shop nowadays? Typically, they use their smartphone to browse the internet for what they need. One estimate finds that about 75% of people shop online at least once a month. People—and millennials especially—aren’t just shopping for groceries and clothing online, either. They’re shopping for homes online, and more than ever before. Do you have a listing coming up that you’re worried you won’t get offers on? Consider doing a 3-D virtual tour. Even if the property doesn’t have too many ‘highlights’ to showcase, a virtual tour is still worthwhile.

The goal is to draw eyeballs to your listing, and 3-D virtual does just that. Why is that important? Many millennial buyers look at these when they are first searching for a home to buy. They could be trying to find someone to sell their current house while they browse the internet for a new one. As a real estate professional, this traffic can turn into potential new listing opportunities. It might also help you find new buyers. Don’t sleep on virtual tours as an effective online marketing tool. You’ll be surprised how many buyers watch these and enjoy them! As buyers get more accustomed to these, it will feel incomplete for them to see a listing without one.

Collaborate with Online Influencers

Social media and other online influencers have a huge sway and effect on their audiences and industries. There are countless influencers, such as stars on HGTV, that draw massive amounts of eyeballs to their content. You might think it’s not possible—after all, collaborating with a celebrity isn’t the easiest thing—but working with an influencer on social can make a huge difference in how many people see your content. If you’re not comfortable going straight for the big name, start searching a few tiers down from that for influencers that are both in real estate and also in your general market. This could be a YouTuber that does fix and flips or an Instagram influencer that stages luxury homes. Give it a shot, because you have nothing to lose!

Try to reach out and build connections with these online influencers. See if they are open to collaborating in any way. This could be you getting a shoutout from them. Maybe they’ll be open to giving your listing a push on their account. The options are endless. It is up to you what you can come up with. The sky is the limit when it comes to the internet!

Go With What Works

As an agent, there is endless noise in our world. One thing is for certain: technology is here to stay. It will continue to disrupt the real estate industry in ways we can’t even conceive of at this point. Go with what works for you and what will work in your market. Leverage technology in creative ways to help your listing stand above the rest. Using technology to your advantage is more than simply placing a property on the MLS. Get creative and see what benefits unfold from marketing a property with these technology tips.