Far from being a threat, technology is an asset for the real estate industry. Specific services and applications can enable agents to better serve their clients, be they landlords, tenants, employers or employees. That ability, thanks to the resources agents can leverage, can ease an otherwise stressful process; a process that has too much uncertainty and too little reliability, in which the effects are too often inaccurate and far from inexpensive.
I refer to traditional methods of listing space for rent, as well as the way people search for roommates. Agents can be very helpful on both fronts, provided they have access to a site that eliminates the guesswork of renting or sharing space with someone. Agents can offer their expertise regarding a potential match between two prospective roommates, in addition to doing something similar for corporate clients.
In this situation, technology makes a real estate agent more relevant than obsolete. Take, for example, a site like WeRommies, which emphasizes transparency and encourages a sense of community. (I cite this site, so to speak, because it solves a major problem: It gives users the information they need — the information they want — about a person’s background and interests; allowing them to share their social media profiles, chat individually, join online groups or create their own, in addition to rating and reviewing members who may be future tenants or roommates.)
How, then, can real estate agents add value to this process?
In a word, experience; meaning they can screen these candidates for an individual or a company, where an extra set of eyes can focus with greater intensity on nuances others might miss or not know to review in the first place.
According to Steven Yos, Founder of WeRoomies:
“Real estate agents are important advisors, ones we should not overlook when using a tool that matches users based on similar interests and compatibility in general. Agents respect a commodity such as transparency — they seek to ensure people can learn more about one another before entering into a rental agreement — because that advantage is indispensable to improving quality of life. It is crucial to empowering individuals to live well without living expensively.”
“By offering a social network of this kind, in which users may chat on a one-to-one basis or join a group chat (or create their own), accuracy becomes the priority it must be. Accuracy of outcome, where roommates are more than people who share the same physical space, is critical to establishing ‘domestic tranquility.'”
I agree with that sentiment, and I second those remarks, because technology is a tool. It is a tool that experts can use with an intensity all their own; applying their knowledge to something that they alone can analyze for the good of a site or a community of individuals.
We need to welcome technology, lest we ignore its benefits or fail to benefit the needs of the very people real estate agents serve.
The solution Yos speaks of, which is free to use and easy to navigate, promises to revolutionize a multitude of industries.
Real estate professionals can lead this movement.
Lewis Fein is a writer and commentator about the real estate industry. Based in Los Angeles, you may contact him at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
