Imagine a world with autonomous vehicles (AVs) on our roads.
By: Kristen Bond
Tags: Real Estate Investments, Development, Futurist, Autonomous Vehicles, Real Estate

It’s easy — just picture looking out your car window, and instead of a Pizza Hut delivery car passing you, it’s an AV. These vehicles will have lots of uses in the next 10 years and already regularly operate freight.

But if we put these vehicles to use in real estate— interesting and profitable business relationships (and jobs) can exist.

A home is the biggest purchase some will ever make, and many of my clients spend years educating themselves about location, schools, commute to work, nearby restaurants, proximity to family or even to open space. They save thousands of dollars to make the biggest purchase of their life— they also want to be educated on where exactly they are moving and the surrounding area. Your Home Investment Matters (that’s now my Realtor® tagline, by the way). Because where you live… your lifestyle and voice exist — oh and your tax dollars.

A bigger house or better space, for a lower price and still wake up in a beautiful, fun and entertaining suburb? These are all lifestyle upgrades you can take advantage of with an autonomous future. Right now, Tesla owners are promised and prepared for a less frustrating commute, what other force could allow people to cruise 35+ minutes outside major metropolitan areas? Working from home? ✔️

If Realtors® used AVs for their day-to-day business activities and used them to help people find a neighborhood to live in/home to buy, then home buying experience is an upgrade for all parties involved. For example, if I could spend more time educating my client about the Save Main lawn signs (see image above!), dining downtown, and the Historical Society’s Spooky Glen Ellyn Tour while driving them to their showing… I hope I would get a 5-star rating for client service. If I could also catch that incoming lead or answer a question while on the fly, that’s an upgrade in my business.

What is more, I believe AVs are going to be absolutely paramount to our success if my Realtor® colleagues want to survive the technology-driven real estate world we’ve only begun to experience. From Inman last month:

With Zillow and Opendoor building a totally tech-driven transaction at the expense of real estate agents, agents must figure out how they can come out on top. Those agents who find this scary and those that find it exciting will likely predict who survives and thrives, and who become extinct.

New companies in the real estate space are trying to cut out the traditional customer service work (door locks for self-touring and digital everything) — at the cost of sidestepping Realtors® and discounting the commissions. Yet, an irreplaceable step in a real estate transaction is the mile-by-mile trip to viewing a home and exploring an area — and this cannot be digitized. (Sorry and plus, VR goggles are never smelling the place. Period.) For that reason, agents should focus some attention on making a home buying ride more personal, more educational and more enjoyable overall. The websites Greatschools.org, Niche.com and Wikipedia only provide a limited scope of any given community — personal knowledge & geographical expertise is something that today’s buyers want and need in an agent to help them make the most informed decision about one of the biggest purchases of their lives.

One day in the next 10 years, I see traditional real estate brokerages purchasing an autonomous vehicle (yes, purchase…or partner), wrap it in their logo (because of course), and make it available to their agents and clients. If we don’t speak up and encourage the conversation between the public and municipalities about the businesses side of autonomous transportation (hello, college buses are a no-brainer), then agents will miss a massive opportunity to work with this technology. While this might seem like a specialized business for an AV, many other new businesses will get their slice of the autonomy pie too and it will be an upgrade. I repeat: College buses are a no-brainer and I’m looking at you, BuffBus!

Imagine a world with autonomous vehicles (AVs) on our roads. The red RE/Max vehicle passes by you — it’s specifically mapped and programed for people to explore neighborhoods & suburbs. It’s job would be to drive an agent and their clients seamlessly through the communities and to their showings. What’s irreplaceable in this scenario is an agent’s personal narrative and geographical expertise of the area they are visiting, which will be more poised and uninterrupted without having to be this vehicle’s operator. It doesn’t even matter if the agent is in the same car, but we won’t go there now.

The RE/Max agent would spend more time on educating their clients about the nuances of the suburbs, schools and possibly historical neighborhoods and work with the other real estate tech companies for the additional steps of the transaction. This is to total upgrade to my business, the residential real estate business…and I hope my clients would agree.