Evolving consumer expectations are disrupting every industry, and therefore the land industry is not any stranger to the present phenomenon. I lead the knowledge technology department at John L. Scott, a brokerage company with a footprint across Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and northern California. In my time working within the land industry, we've seen significant changes to the normal brokerage model. As an example, the subsequent generation of homebuyers has access to a mess of data at their fingertips, which may challenge the established order of buying and engagement preferences across every industry. Digital transformation and AI have made purchasing, brand interactions, and sophisticated transactions easier for consumers; from grocery delivery services to buy a vehicle online. Consumers want the purchasing process to be hassle-free, expecting certainty and value. they're increasingly willing to buy services that provide convenience and depend less on human interaction to accomplish their goals.

These evolving consumer habits and expectations, including technology digital transformations will continually drive drastic change and add new competitors across all industries. What differentiates the important estate market from other industries is consumers don't purchase a home frequently – a mean buyer stays in their home over 10 years. Home purchases are often the most important investment a consumer makes in their lifetime. As a result, the whole land industry won't drastically change overnight, but changes are in motion which will still impact the method of shopping for or selling a home.

The technology landscape for the important estate industry is extremely unique and sophisticated compared to other industries. The industry is shifting with changing business models, technology innovations, and growing competition from publicly-traded companies. These disruptions have resulted during a striking influx of latest products and corporations moving to aggressively address consumer trends. Innovation is happening through optimization of land transactions and consumer-direct home purchases. While market share remains marginal today for direct purchasing of homes, only time will tell how this segment will evolve.

Another unique facet of the important estate industry is that the brokerage and agent relationship. While most companies provide standard-essential technologies and set policies and processes to be used across various roles within a corporation, land agents have significantly more freedom to leverage any technology products needed to further their business.

Our technology strategy is to provide a reliable, scalable, and secure plug-and-play platform to improve productivity and provide a seamless user experience for our agents 

As agents are independent contractors, they're considered a business owner in their title. Agents have unique branding that must differentiate themselves from other agents to win clients and grow their business. As new startups and products continuously enter the market, protecting agents from ineffective products and fraud is difficult. the significant estate industry needs a fragile balance to allow flexibility for agents with technology while embedding controls to guard company assets and consumer data.

The FBI recently reported the important estate industry is one of the highest targets for cybercrime. Compared to other industries I even have worked in, cybersecurity has been a big focus for us as wire fraud is that the fastest-growing cybercrime in the land. Leading a technology department for the important estate industry requires a big investment to strengthen account and security management practices to stop cybercrime. I also spend a substantial amount of your time evaluating cybersecurity threats across the enterprise and have introduced changes in policies and products to guard our agents and clients.

There is a spread of reasons the important estate industry is targeted for cybercrime over other industries. The transaction process to shop for or sell a home has several parties involved, which leaves significant vulnerabilities to wire fraud. The transactions are for giant dollar amounts making them attractive to cybercriminals. one more reason security threats arise is new products and niche vendors market on to agents – and a few might not have necessary security measures in situ. Additionally, thanks to the fast-paced nature of the industry and increased sophistication of cybercrime, some agents might not recognize threats immediately.

While most industries leverage technology departments to meticulously evaluate products for security, usability, and value before implementing to its users, agents won't always leverage a company-preferred product. This presents unique security challenges for technology departments within the land industry. Imagine if you worked within the financial industry and niche vendors directly marketed products to your financial analysts without technology department involvement. Many technology departments within the land industry don't have a holistic understanding of their enterprise data and applications and potential security threats compared to other industries.

Agents use technology during a sort of way to manage relationships with clients. Since joining John L. Scott, I even have spent a substantial amount of your time modernizing every aspect of the technology landscape, from a big infrastructure upgrade to the cloud to an entire overhaul of our mobile platform. Our technology strategy is to supply a reliable, scalable, and secure plug-and-play platform to enhance productivity and supply a seamless user experience for our agents. Our platform includes John L. Scott branded websites, a JLS-branded mobile app, Exchange Online, customized customer-relationship management tool with impressive marketing campaigns and Housing Updates, and other innovative products to assist agents to win listings and improve our consumer experience. 

While technology may be a massive enabler for the important estate industry, relationships are a key ingredient to a successful business model. a true estate broker/agent provides invaluable expertise to buyers and sellers that can’t be completely replaced with automation. Agents help their clients navigate complex transactions, share tailored market and neighborhood knowledge, and are highly skilled in pricing and negotiation techniques. While technology innovations will still drive automation in the land, consumers for the foreseeable future will depend upon agents as they create one among the foremost important decisions in their lifetime.