(Above) Vy Luu, moments after REW CEO Morgan Carey announced she’d be stepping up as general manager at the REW Summer 2019 Town Hall
From shopping to transportation, technology is a driving force of nearly every major industry. While the real estate industry was slower to adopt, it’s making up for lost time in a very big way.
Real estate technology leaders like Real Estate Webmasters (REW) are driving industry growth with expansive approaches—dismantling existing systems, reimagining new ones and finding more efficient ways for agents to do business.
We sat down with REW’s newly appointed general manager, Vy Luu, to talk about what is coming to real estate, and why we should be very excited.
Real Estate magazine: How is tech going to be critical for the future of real estate?
Vy Luu: Technology is already critical to real estate. Activities such as responding to leads, making recommendations and closing transactions can all be done much faster with technology than without. What will be critical for agents and brokers is the quick adoption of technology—it’s what will separate the wheat from the chaff. Buyers and customers are turning to agents who can deliver the information they seek quickly. From mobile-friendly listings to DocuSign, providing the latest in technical convenience to your real estate customers is a must today, and that isn’t going away in the future.
RE: What new initiatives are you most excited about?
VL: The process of standardizing global markets. Many of us take for granted the speed and ease of the buying and selling process in North America. In other countries, it isn’t so easy. In Europe, it can take an average of three years to sell a property due to the current antiquated practices. REW is going to change that. We’re bringing an international, multilingual MLS system to the world based on RESO standards that’s going to change the way real estate is done. This will open up data and facilitate competition, ultimately benefiting both sides of real estate transactions.
RE: What will have the biggest impact on real estate?
VL: The integration of big data and artificial intelligence in decision-making processes. Big data is going to change the way we shop for homes and how we can match the specific needs of a buyer with the best property available. For example, in Chinese culture, homes with red doors are considered a symbol of good luck. You couldn’t search for homes by features like this five years ago, but we’re always working on ways to remove barriers so we can deliver a more powerful home search experience to the world. For agents and brokers, imagine being able to ask which customer segment in your region is most likely to be interested in a new property listing based on past behaviors. That’s the power of big data.
RE: What piece of advice would you offer real estate professionals who are looking for real estate tech?
VL: Look for a partner with knowledge and experience in building real estate tech first, but also ask about where they want to go in the future. Learn about their big hairy audacious goal (BHAG). That tells you the ambition of the company you would be trusting your technology with. You want to know that your technology feature set will grow with the real estate industry and technology sector. REW’s BHAG is to bring data standards-powered real estate platforms to the world.
For more information, please visit rew.com.
Jameson Doris is RISMedia’s blog and social media editor. Email him your real estate blog ideas at jdoris@rismedia.com.
