Traditional Business Practices becoming Obsolete as Technology Takes Over

It is commonly observed that when a country develops its technology, the traditional skills, conventional business practices and ways of life die out. Nowadays, technological advances and their rapid and wide applications are having a significant impact on all the above mentioned pointers and the impact is so significant that it would make all the traditional skills obsolete. Digital trends paved the ways into various economic sectors have also disrupted conventional business practices in Pakistan.

This phenomenon has also been observed in the real estate sector despite the low level of digitalization till now but it has already cost several brokers their jobs and business as well. Real estate is considered an attractive and lucrative sector for many prosperous as well as middle and lower-income groups.

Over the years, the sector has observed cash inflow from a variety of investors both local and overseas – and has resulted in the mushroom growth of real estate agencies. It has also seen a number of people turning towards this business due to low skills required for brokering and sales. For years or let' s say decades, newspaper advertisements have been the major source of contact between both the property buyers and sellers, with real estate agents being central connecting point between both parties.

And now the only advancement, the sector has undergone is that people have started posting their properties for sale and rent on online portals such as HomesPakistan.

After newspaper advertisement, when the digital technology paved the ways into the country, tech savvy entrepreneurs launched online property portals in Pakistan and realtors were their first customers, who showed utmost interest and purchased packages to post their properties online. Their roles remained that of a middleman and are also becoming unneeded because several portals are out there offering free-of-cost property postings.

Internet and online property portals have made the information flow easier both for property buyers and sellers and posting and fetching real estate data from these online portals has also become necessity for a majority of people on both sides before deciding where to invest and at what price.

Things have been changed now as clients that used to contact real estate agents for the transactions, now feel convenient in posting their demands online and getting the results. There is an equal ratio of successful and unsuccessful transactions as no one knows who is listing the properties on web, but yes that has affected the lives of real estate agents.