Effective Real Estate Communication in 2024: More Than Finding the Right Words

With economic uncertainty and rising cost of living, the modern real estate market is going through tough times. September 2024 saw the lowest level of home sales in a decade, according to a recent report from the National Association of Realtors.

But while you can’t change the economic landscape or customer preferences, you can definitely improve your communication strategy. At Exoft, we serve a variety of industries, and we’re proud to be recognized as a real estate software development company. In this article, we share some insights on how to communicate effectively in real estate sales using the power of technology.

But first, let’s look at some agent-client communication challenges in real estate.

Communication in Real Estate: The Top Challenges

Promodo reveals that customer satisfaction and repeat business are closely linked to how effectively agents communicate.

At the same time, effective communication with real estate clients goes beyond just finding the right words to persuade customers to buy a home. In reality, the path to closing a deal can be filled with communication roadblocks.

Let’s take a look at some of the key real estate communication barriers typically encountered by today’s agents.

Multiple Stakeholders

Real estate transactions often bring together a mix of people, including buyers, sellers, agents, lenders, inspectors, and attorneys. With so many parties involved, keeping everyone on the same page is tricky. This can sometimes lead to misunderstandings or delays in the process.

Different Communication Channel Preferences

Every client has their own favorite way to communicate — some like phone calls and others prefer emails or texts. For instance, Millennials, who currently constitute the largest group of homebuyers, tend to favor texting when it comes to expressing interest in a property, setting up appointments, and asking questions. They usually reserve phone calls for more urgent matters.

This means that real estate professionals who stick mainly to traditional methods like phone calls might not be meeting the expectations of about 38% of homebuyers (the percentage of Millennials as of 2023).

Lack of Information

Buying a home is a huge step in a person’s life — often the biggest purchase people will ever make. It’s completely understandable that clients want to make sure they’re making an informed decision.

However, many real estate agencies fail to provide all the information buyers need about a property. According to 35% of real estate agents, the biggest hurdle they face in generating leads is that buyers often don’t fully understand the value of the offered property.

Manual Processes

Many agents feel swamped by compiling information and documents and coordinating appointments manually, and lack time to personalize client communications.

When they’re busy juggling paperwork, tracking leads from different sources, coordinating meetings, and managing invoices, it doesn’t leave much time for what really counts — building and maintaining those meaningful connections that are so important in real estate sales.

Real Estate Customer Engagement: Technology to the Rescue

Securing real estate clients can be challenging. But when you succeed, the rewards can be greater than in many other fields.

First, if a one-time client decides to make another real estate transaction in the future, they’re much more likely to come back to you. Second, even if they don’t, there’s a good chance they’ll recommend you to their friends and family. Research shows that about 90% of buyers said they would either definitely or probably choose their real estate agent again or refer them to others. Similarly, among sellers, 87% indicated they would likely reuse or recommend their agent.

But to turn those leads into actual buyers or sellers, it’s important to tackle the communication challenges we mentioned earlier. That’s where real estate tech trends can really make a difference. Here’s what you can do with the power of technology.

Present Your Properties Online

With 63% of Millennials finding their homes online, having a strong online presence is essential for today’s real estate businesses (that’s why our article on how to build a property listing portal is so popular with readers). This means you should be active on online marketplaces like Zillow and have a user-friendly website or app showcasing all your listings. And don’t forget about social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram: a significant number of realtors find social media to be their top source for quality leads.

Wherever you choose to promote your properties, make sure to include all the essential information buyers need. According to the National Association of Agents Survey of Home Buyers and Sellers, photos, property details, and floor plans are the top three things home buyers want to see.

Add Virtual Tours

Along with providing comprehensive information, professional photos, and detailed floor plans, 3D virtual tours can significantly boost your chances of closing deals and enhance the overall buyer experience.

Unlike traditional photos or videos, 3D tours offer a comprehensive view of a space, allowing viewers to explore it from different angles and perspectives — almost as if they were really there. These immersive presentations help potential buyers get a better feel for the property.

In fact, 60% of respondents in Zillow's survey expressed a desire to see more listings featuring virtual tours, making 3D tours a crucial element of an effective communication strategy for real estate agents.

Integrate Multichannel Real Estate Communication Technologies

While Millennials tend to prefer digital communication over phone calls, Baby Boomers — who make up the majority of home sellers — often have different communication preferences.

That’s why it’s important to not only showcase your properties and promote your services across various platforms but also to adopt a multichannel approach to interact with clients. Using an omnichannel CRM solution can really help with this. This real estate communication tool centralizes all your interactions from phone calls, emails, messaging apps, social media, and more in one convenient place, making communication with real estate clients much more effective.

Automate Your Processes

While automation might not seem directly related to client communications, it can significantly impact your success as a realtor. Automation streamlines all kinds of tasks so you can focus your time on meaningful interactions with prospective buyers, built on empathy and transparency.

A powerful CRM system is crucial in this regard. For instance, it can:

• Automatically gather leads from various sources and segment them based on criteria like location, budget, and preferences
• Send automated follow-up emails after initial contact and property showings
• Send reminders to both agents and clients for appointments and important deadlines
• Update property listings across multiple platforms from a single dashboard
• Notify clients when a property’s status changes
• Create and schedule email marketing campaigns to nurture leads and keep past clients updated on new listings and market trends
• Post listings on social media platforms automatically
• Automate data entry and document management
• Generate reports on sales performance, lead conversion rates, and other benchmarks

AI-powered chatbots can also automate some processes. For example, AppFolio's AI leasing assistant, Lisa, effectively captures every prospective renter. The chatbot takes care of answering common questions, entering data into your CRM, scheduling meetings, and other routine tasks. It’s a very effective technical solution for real estate communication. If you’re considering integrating a chatbot assistant into your CRM, you can review our in-app GPT implementation guide to start your journey to GenAI-powered automation for your real estate communications.

However, it's important to remember that while GenAI tools like Lisa are helpful, they can’t replace a real estate agent, who 50% of buyers say is the most valuable resource during their real estate transaction experience.

Conclusion

The real estate business has always depended on effective communication, and that hasn’t changed over time. What has changed is the market itself. Fortunately, technology is available to support you in overcoming the modern challenges of client communications in real estate businesses. New tools can help you navigate the real estate landscape and adapt to the evolving needs of your customers.

At Exoft, we want to help you harness the power of advanced technologies for your real estate business. Whether you want to build your online presence, automate repetitive tasks, stay accessible to your clients across various channels, offer virtual tours to give clients a better feel for your property listings, or use data to personalize the communication strategy of your real estate business, we’ve got you covered.

We’ll support you every step of the way on your digital transformation journey, including answering basic questions like which software development methodologies to choose or whether to choose native or cross-platform development. We’ll help bring your vision to life.