While beacons continue to make waves in various domains, there’s yet another vertical jumping on to the beacon bandwagon: real estate. The real estate business has taken note of iBeacon technology and we are seeing an increasing number of real estate giants using the technology for showcasing their properties, interacting with prospective buyers, automating the buying process and more.

Historically, the customer experience in real estate has been disjointed. This is because prospective buyers would have to search for tens of properties, shortlist them, and meet agents, all this by physically visiting each property! Despite recent improvements such as the ability to search for properties online, the experience from searching for, to buying a property can still be quite frustrating for a buyer. Enter beacons, and the process can see a major overhaul. As a real estate owner, you can use beacons to make the buying process for a buyer much smoother in a number of ways.

Let’s look at the possibilities:

Broadcast property information: An easy way to do this is to install beacons on ‘For Sale’ signs so that a passersby can get information about the property that he or she is in vicinity of. A bonus: you can enable this feature in a matter of minutes through a simple beacon campaign. This will help buyers make more informed decisions about the homes they wish to view or purchase, and will allow you to easily broadcast information about your properties to interested buyers.

Allow automated check-ins into your property: The beacon placed at the property’s entrance can detect your real estate app and thus prompt the respective visitor to register via the app. This benefits both sides of the buyer-seller interaction; as a seller you are now aware of all of the prospective buyers visiting your property; as a buyer, guests can have an enhanced experience via informational brochures and welcome messages sent during check-in. If you have specific agents for each property, they can be notified when there is a visitor on site and decide the next steps accordingly.

Guided property tours: One of the best potential use cases of beacons in real estate is a guided property tour. When an interested buyer is at the property location, you could give them access to a virtual tour around the property. This will help to highlight features that they may not have noticed otherwise. This way they can see the property at their own pace, without losing the useful information of a traditional property tour.

Other uses: Via your app, you could send requested documents such as relevant property papers that will help buyers to make a decision then and there. You could also ask visitors to share their feedback about the property in order to understand buyer tastes better.

These are the ways I think beacons can be used in real estate, though they are just the beginning. Are there more ways you can think of? Let me know in the comments below. If you are planning a beacon pilot, take a look at Beaconstac, that includes everything you need to get started. Using Beaconstac you can set up your own campaign, without a developer’s help!

Author Details Author Details Neha Mallik Enthusiastic about marketing technology and helping businesses achieve greater ROI.

This blog was originally published on September 3rd, 2015 at 12:59 pm