What estate agents really seek from industry technologies

In the property industry, technology must work in a way that is right for agents, helping to free them up to do more of the things that add value to their business and clients.

At iamproperty, we’ve spent the last two years collaborating with our Partner Agents and industry leaders to really understand their aspirations, frustrations and preferences for technology.

The key takeaways and learnings:

1. Agents want technology to work in the background and give them more time, choice and control.
2. Consumer demand is changing and agents want technology to support the ‘emotional’ client journey and take away the admin burden.
3. Tech is frustrating and they want a single view of clients that doesn’t rely on multiple systems. 

What agents want – a single pane of glass

When asked about their biggest frustrations, nearing the top of the list is having to deal with fragmented solutions that only tackle part of the transaction process. Agents are finding themselves with multiple disconnected systems that fail to give them that single view of their clients and business that they are looking for, coupled with the complexity of managing lots of suppliers and the time burden of using more than one system to do a job.

Anything which automated manual tasks was valued, but ultimately, agents want technology to give them choice and control and to work in the background, not to replace their roles within the transaction. They want it to drive and deliver better communication (which their clients expect) through sophisticated automations and to give them a single view of their clients, their day and their business without having to log into multiple systems.

The timeline to completion, with duplicate information and systems not able to interact with one another, is another huge frustration. Agents want a seamless experience for themselves and their clients that matches the experiences consumers are accustomed to from other service providers.

Consumers – what’s changed?

Of course, agents want quicker transactions and more time to spend on the things that make a difference to their role and their business but most importantly they want to deliver a great service for their clients who have a whole new set of expectations. Agents noted that consumers are more ‘emotionally involved’ in the process than ever before and that they expect constant communication throughout the transaction, which is adding to the admin burden. Consumers place customer service and ease of experience high on their list of priorities with all brands, not just Estate Agents.

Agents also discussed increasing consumer frustrations around the process. This echoed the consumer research we carried out earlier in 2023 around timescales and technology solutions, where consumers voiced their growing frustration surrounding duplicate information, lack of communication and time to completion. They agreed that change was needed and that they would happily pay higher fees to speed up the process and to access a platform that would keep them updated at every stage of the transaction. Consumers and agents are ready for a quicker and more modern approach to buying and selling houses.

Looking to the future                                 

It’s this insight from our network that has led us to the next phase in our innovation journey and the launch of our ecosystem vision.

Our vision for the iamproperty ecosystem is to address the change needed to solve agent and consumer frustrations now, but also pave the way for continuous innovation that will create more opportunities and solve market challenges in the future.

The future is exciting and we will continue to work with Estate Agents to shape the solutions they require and how we as an industry embrace technology together.

Find more leading insights like this from property industry insiders, business leaders and sports people in iamproperty’s latest Tech of a Life, which is out now and focuses on ‘visionary thinking’.