You’re about to spend the rest of your life…

July 12, 2016

In the FUTURE

I think it’s safe to say that the use of technology is shaping our future whether we want it to or not.

So, here’s a little mind bender to think about as we dive into this post:

How you view the future today… determines how you act in the present, and how the present will shape your future.

I call this “future view”, which we’ll touch on it again later in the post.

In the meantime, are you ready for…

Interactive holographic displays for larger real estate developments?

We’re mostly seeing these types of displays pop up in retail environments here in the States. Nike is using them in a lot of their stores. Best Buy is using them to sell products in their stores. However, based on usage trends I see forming in other countries, I’m sure this will be making it’s way into larger developments, condo projects, and possibly even large scale city planning.

Holographic “cards” for individual residential properties?

These are almost like modern day property trading cards! While they may be seen as more of a novelty to most … for certain properties, like large estates, condo developments, etc. they are a pretty cool way to display multiple layers which is useful for floor plans. They could also make a really unique closing gift for clients who purchase properties that warrant such an expense (roughly $200 per 12×12 card here).

Augmented Reality to become mainstream?

Builders of residential communities have been using Augmented Reality for years, but like the examples above… it’s mostly been in other countries. With the recent launch of Pokemon Go here in the states, I know A LOT of developers are seeing AR with a renewed view of how it can be used in our industry.

Voice recognition to change the game?

By now we’ve all heard of Amazon Echo, Siri, and several other similar companies offering their version of voice recognition and various connected apps to control smart home devices.

But what about voice search in real estate? Companies like Leova are set to change the game with their conversational UI and cross language interpretation capabilities. When I saw a live demo of the capabilities this platform had, my mind almost exploded just thinking of the use cases in real estate, let alone how it can change the game on the internet and all of our connected smart devices.

A day made of glass?

When I watch that video, I instantly go on a journey of how this technology can be used at the brokerage level. I’ve seen early examples displaying listings on external facing windows in high foot traffic areas, complete with personalized search and lead capture capability and at night and it was like watching bugs fly into a bug zapper (hey, I was easily entertained as a kid!).

Fully immersive 3D environments?

In an earlier post I discussed my moderate disdain for Snapchat as a viable method of marketing for most in our industry. I also give a little peek at my take on how their recent acquisition of a 3D imaging company called “Seen” could potentially play into the real estate industry. We’ve seen (see what I did there?) some early examples of this with virtual staging platforms that allow users to insert and arrange furniture, paintings, etc into a vacant listing. I’m betting we’ll see a lot more of these springing up soon with the ability to fully immerse yourself into the environment with some of the virtual reality.

The future is NOW

Everything I just showed you above is available TODAY. That’s kind of scary, yet exciting at the same time (for some of us). The way consumers are interacting with technology and data has changed. Hell, it’s changing on an almost daily basis, as we’ve seen a glaring example of that just this last week with the launch of the Pokemon Go craze, and I personally think there’s an even bigger groundswell building, not necessarily IN our industry… but in industries that WILL affect ours.

So, going back to my notion that how you view the future determines how you act in the present, and ultimately how the present will shape your future… I’m excited to see what’s next!

I have one request from anyone reading this though, and that is that as we expect more and more from technology… don’t expect less from each other.

That’s MY future view. What’s YOURS?