A new survey by the National Association of Realtors says one of the many tech upgrades real estate agents embraced during the pandemic has outstripped all others in its long-term usefulness: electronic documents.
The association’s “Adopt to Adapt” report says 44 percent of NAR members singled out e-documents, among the pandemic-era tools they still use, that has had the greatest impact on their business.
That compares to:
- 16 percent who cited online schedulers for showings
- 15 percent who named now-ubiquitous videoconferencing technology
- 6 percent who picked virtual showing products
- 6 percent who named masks and sanitizing
- 4 percent who selected much-hyped virtual tour technology
- 2 percent who indicated e-notary services
- 1 percent who cited virtual staging software
To get a sense of the scale of tech tools’ impact, NAR also asked its members if how they adjusted their marketing methods and strategies during the pandemic. The largest share by far, 39 percent, said they adopted new tech tools.
But as real estate markets around the country have tightened, some brokers and agents have been tempted to lay tech tools by the wayside to save money, particularly those brokers added to compete with tech-forward players like Compass and Redfin.
