I mean this with no intentions to offend anyone at all, but the truth is that the real estate industry is one of those old establishments by way of how business models operate, so naturally it’s filled with more senior members than younger ones. Those of us who are a little younger are made to fill more junior positions and assume more peripheral roles, well except for those of us who’ve taken the independent route, of course.

So anyway, where I’m going with this is that there is a visible resistance to change, particularly with regards to the implementation of technological advancements throughout the industry at large. One could quite rightly argue that yes, even the most traditional of estate agents has learned how to list properties on property classifieds sites and they probably also know how to use the various software solutions which form part of their workplace infrastructure, however the resistance is to the radical change which is imminent.

It isn’t only the senior personnel within the real estate industry who are dismissive of the coming changes though. Some of my colleagues and counterparts who are around the same age as me and even younger laugh at me when I tell them that in about 20 years max there won’t be any real estate agents as we know them today. The need for us is already waning, which is precisely why there aren’t as many active real estate agents as there previously were.

There’s going to come a time when you won’t be looking to get in touch with an estate agent when you come across a property you might be interested in purchasing. In the coming future (I reckon I’m being very conservative with my 20-year estimation) buyers and sellers of property will be doing business directly, cutting out any need for the middleman type figures known as real estate agents.

Once again it’s the tech space which is coming into the fold to seriously disrupt the industry, but the future of the real estate industry looks a lot more interesting than real estate agents learning how to conduct online searches and list properties through websites.

Blockchain technology is going to permeate the industry to take over two facets of it, namely the payment method along with its susceptibility to high service fees (banking fees, agents’ fees, commissions, legal fees, etc.), as well as the legal process behind the real estate industry. Many would rightfully say the real estate industry is in actual fact a conduit of the legal industry because really what slows the process down and to a certain extent complicates it and makes it as expensive as it is, is indeed the set of legal regulations governing it.

Blockchain technology is beyond the scope of this post by way of its technical details, but all you need to know is that what is essentially a public ledger system for storing records (including financial transactions) would totally eliminate the need for a centralized bank to be involved, the need for legal personnel and the need for a real estate agent.

Add virtual reality to the equation and now a potential buyer can view a property and see it for what it truly is by just putting on a pair of goggles.