AgentRelay has integrated Google Maps and Street View into its virtual viewings platform.
The move is designed to further enhance its virtual viewings platform by allowing agents and their guests to co-explore neighbourhood areas with Google Maps and Street View virtual tours.
AgentRelay, like many PropTech firms, has developed technology that facilitates agent-led, virtual property viewings for clients, but is hoping to stand out from the crowd by allowing users to co-browse maps content and co-explore external street level virtual tours with their viewing guests.
Dan Cattermole, AgentRelay CEO, commented “We are delighted to extend the capability of AgentRelay and offer the most comprehensive and user-friendly virtual property viewings tool on the market today.
“Agents can now “show and tell” much more effectively in describing the selling points of specific locations or neighbourhoods, as well as easily demonstrating the proximity of local amenities to the property being viewed, by exploring those external spaces as a shared, agent-led virtual experience.”
Advertisement for a company? This isn’t new, others have been doing it for years.
The damage these ideas can have is not being thought through? Selling the plus side of IT is taking the market down a street it may wish it hadn’t as it could turn into a motorway, great for them but not so good for the end users? Just like national web portals was a good idea! The industry needs to wake up and only use these ideas as and when suitable, not the norm.
Too much information for the naïve is counter productive. ‘Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should’. These are good ideas but the implementation is worrying trend. If only they had sales experience, particularly selling a property they would understand more about the pro’s and con’s and the list is very long, their isn’t a piece of paper long enough. They are slowly taking the salesperson out of the loop and some of the IT is counter productive to the point it hinders agency work and created a trend of ‘little to no service’ in favour of bucket cost savings killing business’s and jobs.
Agents who take control and wise to what they do with marketing, coupled with their service, will outshine those that lost control or take the cheap option (many have and are going bust because of it).
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Hi woodentop. I’m the founder at AgentRelay. I think you’ve misunderstand our mission. We are seeking to give agents the appropriate tools to be successful in the increasingly digital age, definitely not to replace them. Our growth depends 100% on those agents and we believe their expertise will always be critical to the buying and selling process, but this needs to be blended with modern ways of viewing property. We’ve built our whole business on this premise.
So technologies like ours allow agents to remain central and relevant to the buyer journey whilst also making the process as convenient and efficient as possible. We do this by allowing all parties to join an agent-led virtual viewing with a single click on any device they choose to connect on. This never replaces the in-person viewing for qualified buyers but cuts out so much inefficiency for all parties in the buying/selling process.
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I hadn’t misunderstood your mission. My point is that new IT (not just your system) often looks great and if used correctly is certainly an advantage. However the other side of the story is far too many, be it IT companies which appear on EYE just about every week, agents or consumer not looking ahead to see where this can all lead if left ‘out of control’. We now live in a digital age that, example is killing the retail high street market and jobs or sitting at home with low overheads but reduced access to customers is death by a thousand cuts. Why? Because I am concerned that some are disruptors are offering one thing that looks and sounds great but the end user then finds the service they thought was still there, isn’t.
The top performers in estate agency dangle sufficient a carrot in the marketing, in front of the consumer to make contact and not reject out of hand something that they failed to evaluate correctly from first impression. Now there’s an old saying that seems to have been forgotten, as well as paying for quality and service! Far, far too much information from IT is upfront and sometimes is overloading the consumer into a negative result, often with no hope of a rescue. The continued advance of the IT is actually creating the consumer to expect it.
IT should be used as a string to an agents bow, but is slowly turning into cutting the agent out. That is the path of no return and as many an agent will say 75% of agency is not advertising. Those that have tried it with 25% have all failed with some big players and meggar bank balances lost.
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These solutions offer consumers and customers a choice and are not designed to replace a sales person; they compliment an agents skills providing a secure, simple and efficient way for consumers to view properties and qualify them before traveling to visit in person. The same applies for the sales agent who can qualify a sales lead effectivly. Saves time, money and is kind to the planet too. Consumers will likely drive adoption in the various markets and those agents that embrace this will attract customers who want convenience and chocie during the selling and buying process.
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…… providing a secure, simple and efficient way for consumers to view properties and qualify them before traveling to visit in person.
That is my point the qualification is for who to decide? You have taken the salesperson out and left it to the consumer who often will reject and then discover their mistake from wrong interpretation (actually many don’t but only if they knew). So much IT dosen’t allow access to the consumer. Agents will know all about hot box’s and waiting lists, which may not necessarily convert to a purchase but often to a sale later or another property opportunity. Many agents who can get to the consumer at an early stage are far better positioned to help if they are wasting their time (you will never erradicate that) and to offer alternatives or overcome objections. That is the service agents provide, is good for their business, good for their vendors and good for their customers ….. its estate agency and we are moving away from that service.
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An increasing number of agents are publishing 360/3D property tours online for anyone to access with limited knowledge of who is viewing this expansive view compared to traditional photographs. This technology provides an alternative to moderate the access to the 3D view putting the agent in control and gaining sales leads. This is certainly not removing the agent from the process; it is the opposite and brings significant benefits in time, cost and safety for agents and consumers. Providing time and safety sensitive customers and consumers a choice is a good thing, embracing new technology solutions that provides this will drive an increase in sales. This won’t suit every market, agent or consumer however there are many who are and will continue to leverage this for their business and customers.
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