Ravi Chandran
The future of real estate is driven by big data analytics says ERA in updating its iERA app
RA Realty Network (ERA) is driving its entire sales force towards becoming more efficient data-driven property advisers by capitalising on big data analytics. Latest updates on the agency’s in-house mobile application (iERA) will enable salespersons to view real-time market trends reports, enabling them with the most accurate of property information and well-informed advisory services for their clients.
A walkthrough of the new features on the app was done during ERA Q4’19 Career Advancement Day on 12 November 2019. Held every quarter by the best real estate agency in Singapore, as awarded by International Property Awards, the event was attended by over 1,000 real estate top leaders and achievers.
“As technology advances, so must we. It is imperative for us to be at the top of our game, which is why we continually enhance the iERA app for our teammates to leverage for their business. In turn, this benefits clients as they will be able to make better decisions with our data-driven advisory services. It’s a win-win situation,” says Mr Jack Chua, Chief Executive Officer, ERA.
Pulling statistics from multiple data points such as Urban Redevelopment Authority and Housing and Development Board, the enhanced iERA app is capable of producing market trend reports in data-driven charts based on Property Category, Year From, Property Type, Project Names, Districts, Street Name, Region and Tenure; with additional comparison function based on Average PSF or Volumes, in real-time. There are also other advanced options available for deeper analyses and agents can easily share such reports with their clients.
The app now also features a new function called the “Tower View”, which provides the transaction data for an entire project. Salespersons can now easily view the latest Transaction Prices and Price Per Square Foot of any tower of interest, no matter Private Residential or Commercial/Industrial.
New homes prospecting gone digital with Project Webs
The latest personalised ‘Project Webs’ function is the most revolutionary tool to be ever released in the iERA app at zero cost to ERA salespersons, thus saving precious time and money to focus on providing professional real estate advisory to clients.
In line with the agency’s move to harness the power of digital, one of its newest app features provides access to a library of developer-grade high converting websites, allowing agents to publish their own new launch project websites, simply by the click of a few buttons.
Agents are also able to customise lists of projects suited to the clients’ needs, personalising their services and further positioning them as ‘trusted advisers’.
Showcasing professionalism on Personal Web
Questions on ethical standards about the industry have surfaced recently, following a case on unprofessional services by a salesperson from another agency. There are a total of 15 salespersons who have received disciplinary action and suspension this year. While 11 of them come from the two largest listed agencies in Singapore, only 1 suspended salesperson is from ERA. “The number of complaints we have received is less than 0.1% on average. Taking into account the volume of transactions we do in a year, the percentage is considered very small,” says Chua.
To ensure that ERA agents always maintain the highest standards of ethics and professionalism, every salesperson showcases their professional credentials on the Personal Web, a customised website reflecting their Profile, Transaction Statistics, Customer Reviews, Award Received, Training Attended, Project Listings and Existing Listings.
The latest Personal Web update also boasts the integration of the Events/Seminars feature, allowing ERA agents to personally invite their customers and external salespersons to such events, and manage follow-up action.
Empowering future real estate advisers with iERA analytics
Released in August this year, the data-crunching app is capable of producing comprehensive reports of where potential sellers are, based on strategic targeting of certain projects or areas such as:
- Temporary Occupation Period of Condos by District (announced in Q3)
- Minimum Occupation Period (MOP) of Executive Condos by District
- MOP of Built-To-Order projects by Estate
- Potential Resale Sellers by Profitable Transactions
- Profitable Resales by Gross Profit Percent
- Resale Condo units sitting on profit
- Transaction Data of Private Residential or Commercial/Industrial projects by Block
“We want to enable a more seamless and efficient real estate experience for both our agents and clients,” says Chua. “In the next year, the iERA app will continue to evolve alongside digital advancements, to serve them to the best of our abilities,” he adds.
The iERA app is a lead generation tool that would enable its salespersons to cut through the clutter and gain valuable information on potential sellers. It will be pulling statistics from multiple data points such as Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and Housing and Development Board (HDB); generating big data into strategic reports that are useful and tangible for its salespersons.
Accessed via the agency’s internal iERA mobile application, currently in its seventh version, ERA salespersons can generate lists of past profitable transactions by filtering data, based on set criteria such as dates, districts, types of development, profitable transaction count and minimum profit percentage etc, anytime anywhere.
In its first phase, the lead generation tool, iERA, is able to generate business leads for these key target groups of sellers:
- Resale condominium owners, who are sitting on profit
- Owners of Built-to-order (BTO) projects nearing Minimum Occupation Period (MOP)
- Owners of Executive Condominiums (EC) nearing Minimum Occupation Period (MOP)
- Owners of condominiums that have hit Temporary Occupation Period (TOP)
- Profitable Resales
