As a lot of you would know at the end of last month, I attended Inman Connect in Las Vegas with our Property Manager Abbey. It was a fly in fly out affair going halfway around the world for five intense days of conferencing at one of Americas largest real estate conferences.

Now being back at work for a week and reflecting on what I have learnt, it’s safe to say there was a lot to take in. One interesting fact was that in the USA, there are over 82 Million Millennials, of which 72% would love to buy a home, and over 52% of them believe that homeownership equals success. Even though the numbers are a lot larger in the USA, I would be surprised if the percentages did not represent a similar feeling here in Australia.

Another crazy takeaway is that Voice is the new mobile, what do I mean by that? Voice activation has increased by 25% this year alone, with over 12.2 Million google homes and amazon Alex’s being shipped in the past twelve months. With such a significant uptake, it’s easy to understand where the trends are emerging and how the future of technology will potentially look.

iBuyers is another term I learnt for the first time while in Vegas and is something I had no idea about untill attending Inman for the first time.
What the iBuyer trend breaks down to is where websites like zillow.com (the USA version of realestate.com.au) make a cash offer to buy your home directly from you within 48 hours. This form of valuation is now taken up by over 40% of Americans looking to sell their home; however, less than 3% of homeowners accept the offer made by this vast website.

Even though the take up of purchases have been low, It’s interesting as to how consumer behaviours are heading. From the outside looking in, it seems that people want information now, not next week, not in a few days but straight away and this is being lead directly by Millennials.

So what needs to change with agents here in Australia? To stay relevant, three things come to mind for me “Trust, Rapport and Transparency”. Any agent that can provide these three crucial aspects in conjunction with exceptional marketing and technology will win the following of the consumer moving forward in 2020 and beyond.

At 4one4, we have always been firm believers in innovation. One area we have been focused on is voice activation which is why we launched 4one4 help. Tenants can now use google home to ask a question directly about their rental property like where is my rent paid to? or when is my next inspection.

After attending Inman, we now understand that voice activation is a key focus point for consumers, with this in mind we will continue to expand on our offerings in this space to help ensure our clients receive a seamless experience when buying, renting or selling property through our agency.

Over the coming weeks, I will be unpacking more of what I learnt while at Inman Connect via our weekly podcast “The Property Pod”, so be sure to listen on your favourite podcasting app’s.

Patrick Berry
Director, 4one4 Real Estate.