In today’s post, we’ll answer the question, “How is the next industrial revolution going to affect real estate in 2019?”
What is this new industrial revolution? You might think that we’ve been in the digital and technology age for some time, so what could possibly be revolutionized?
The truth about any industrial revolution, if you look at the data and the economy, is that when the substance or thing (whatever innovation is going to change the industry) undergoes a revolution, it doesn’t do anything to change the GDP or anyone’s wealth—at first. Once it catches the right person or business’ eye, it can then dramatically change the wealth of a few people. For example, the wealth differential was very great in the oil revolution for a few people. The same is true for when Henry Ford learned to use the assembly line; wealth was aggregated by select people.
This can also be said of the digital and technological world. You can probably think of a few people yourself who have accrued dramatic enhancements to their wealth due to the tech revolution. Over time, that substance, concept, or thing percolates throughout the rest of the economy and affects everyone else at a very rapid rate, creating extensive growth in wealth, GDP, and the economy at large.
So what is the substance that triggered the most current industrial revolution? Well, we’re entering into a time when data aggregators have gathered data and information about all of us—our lives, our purchasing habits, etc.—and they’ve built ‘refineries’ to process that data to provide insights and information that will save consumers and businesses a lot of time and money. Data is the new crude substance to be refined into something more valuable and the fuel for this next industrial revolution.
The entities or organizations that are building the best ‘refineries’ to accumulate, monitor, and process that data are the ones that are accruing the largest savings of money and time. These entities are growing at a rapid rate, and the ones who can’t keep up are losing the battle. For example, think of what happened to Blockbuster Video after the advent of Netflix.
So how does this affect real estate? Well, there are many facts that point to industries being taken over by data aggregators who are using data for insights and then creating cost savings in their operations so they can capitalize on it.
This hasn’t happened in real estate yet, but we might begin to see it in 2019. There are a number of companies using artificial intelligence (AI) to collect data and provide insights to save consumers and real estate agents time and money.
What does this mean for us? For me, it means finding the right technology to align myself with so I can use those insights to save myself and my clients time and money, and partnering with those tech companies to use their services to help me capitalize so I can serve our clients at an even deeper level—on a human level. Technology never totally took over the human element in this industrial revolution, it just enhanced it. It’s a very exciting opportunity to use something that we haven’t had before.
Refining my business using technology might involve looking at entire real estate transactions to analyze how much time we spend doing things that aren’t really productive in the big picture, things that could be automated. If we work a 40-hour week, and 10 of those hours are spent doing things that AI could do faster and more efficiently, it means we can take those 10 hours and serve our customers on a more personal level.
If you have any questions about this or would like to chat or share information about it, please reach out to me. If you do, I can also provide you with information on how to RSVP to our monthly business-building workshop, where we’ll talk about this topic with the area’s top-producing agents. I’d love to speak with you.
