2020: Better tech, faster deals

Flick image by kun0me.

Editor's note: Inman News is exploring what the next decade may hold for real estate professionals in "2020 Re-Envision: The Future of Real Estate Brokerage." Readers are invited to submit guest essays detailing their vision of the future for the real estate brokerage industry. Send your guest essay to future@inman.com by March 12. The author of the top essay will receive a $200 Amazon.com gift card.

What will a typical day be like for a Realtor in 2020? Obviously, there will be amazing new technologies as well as plenty of agents hanging on to what they were doing back in 2010.

Our fictional Realtor is named Ava. She was born in 1990 and is a college graduate. Ava started helping her boomer grandmother Linda with her real estate business back in 2010 as a way to earn some extra money during summer break. Unable to find a job after graduating, and lacking the $500,000 it would take to complete grad school, Ava decided to follow in Linda's footsteps.

Now with almost eight years of full-time experience, Ava owns the "under 40" market in her area.

Ava awakens about 10 minutes before her alarm. As soon as she sits up, the monitor across the room scrolls through the weather, headline news stories, stock market activity, current interest rates, new listings, expired listings and her appointments for the day. Hot coffee is already brewed and awaiting her in the kitchen.

After she finishes dressing, Ava opens her Nokia Morph (watch video here), takes a picture of her outfit, and the computer keyboard/phone morphs into a bracelet that perfectly matches what she's wearing. How great to have all of your computer and phone functions in a stylish fashion accessory! Sure beats lugging around a computer and phone like she used to do.

After breakfast, she pops into her home office for a Skype conference with her Parisian clients, who are purchasing a second home.

"Computer, bring up 346 Sky Lane, 125 Canyon View and 556 Park Heights 3-D Virtual Tours."

Ava opens the French translation feature. Based upon the bedroom-bath count, location and the 57 lifestyle features her clients selected in their initial buyer interview, there is an 83.5 percent chance that they will purchase one of these three houses. Since 3-D walkthroughs haven't shown up yet in France, she's sure her clients will appreciate being able to review the houses from Paris.

Better yet, because her French is pretty rusty, "Pierre" (her computer's French avatar) will translate during the showings. He will also be able to "walk them" to the neighborhood park, to the nearby Parisian bakery, and to any of the local shopping areas using the Google 3-D maps feature. School and community information scrolls across the bottom of the screen during the virtual walkthrough.

She has a few minutes before her clients ring her on Skype.

"Referral database. Seller probabilities: Summit Heights," she dictates to her computer. Three new names come up in the "above 40 percent probability" to sell their home in the next 90 days.

"Computer, issue invitations to Sandy Brown, Ron Davis and Tom Johnson for lunch meeting within the next two weeks. Confirm calendar dates, time and location."

Ava loves this new artificial intelligence feature. Not only does it identify who is likely to buy or sell, it tells her which restaurants are the best choices based upon the lifestyle features her clients identified when she was representing them on their last listing or sale.

"Referral database. Buyer probabilities: all areas." Two of her best investor clients appear at "above 40 percent probability" to purchase within the next 90 days.

"Computer, match best investment buys using current holdings and cash flow for Don Jensen and Sam Ellis. Send top five matches to client." ...CONTINUED

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