immo!nvest – Die Plattform für Standorte und Immobilien

Tag: Makler

  • Brokers of the future

    Brokers of the future

    The real estate world is facing an epochal upheaval. While traditional estate agents were once the undisputed mediators between supply and demand, the balance of power has shifted radically in recent years. Digital marketplaces dominate the initial contact, control visibility and are increasingly beginning to intervene in the transaction process itself.

    This is particularly evident in the example of large platforms such as SMG. With price increases, an aggressive data policy and the integration of their own tools, they are transforming themselves from a pure listing platform into an all-encompassing transaction platform. Brokers, who previously acted as independent consultants and market experts, are thus being forced into the role of pure suppliers, becoming dependent, restricted and interchangeable.

    The problem goes deeper than just rising costs or reduced margins. It is a system change, platforms are hoarding data, prioritizing content according to their own rules and shifting the customer relationship away from the broker and towards themselves. This threatens to turn the real estate industry into an “Uber model”. Agents are becoming service providers without direct access to customers, while platforms skim off the added value.

    Does this mean that the estate agent profession has had its day? No, but it does need to reinvent itself. The future of the estate agent no longer lies solely in access to buyers and sellers, but in building trust, advisory expertise and individual support. Particularly in an increasingly complex market, characterized by regulatory changes, tax issues and high investment volumes, clients are looking for personal expertise, reliability and discreet support.

    However, the sector must take active steps to avoid being marginalized. This includes:

    • Maintaining independence: Diversifying insertion strategies, promoting alternative platforms and not relying exclusively on monopolists.
    • Use technology instead of fearing it: Build your own digital tools, strengthen customer proximity instead of handing it over to third parties.
    • Networks and cooperation: Industry initiatives and collective action can reduce dependence on platforms.
    • Customer centricity: Clearly communicate the added value of personal advice – from valuation to emotional support in buying and selling processes.

    The broker of the future is not superfluous, but more necessary than ever as they evolve from pure intermediary to strategic advisor, data interpreter and trusted partner. Those who do not seize this opportunity run the risk of becoming irrelevant in the digital world.

    The decision lies with the industry itself, resignation or redesign.

  • No more cold calling: search less, sell more

    No more cold calling: search less, sell more

    In direct contact with their clients, estate agents are undisputed professionals, from the presentation of the property to the closing of the sale. The challenge, especially in a market with drastic excess demand, lies in making these contacts in the first place. How do you find out who will soon want to sell their detached house or condominium? And how to stand out among the numerous real estate professionals in your own region?

    There must be a better solution than cold calling and flyers. And there is! Thanks to SMG Real Estate’s “Seller Leads” option, estate agents can quickly and easily gain direct access to a steady stream of new sales mandates. Each individual lead is personally checked and qualified by the SMG Real Estate team. This means that these are leads from owners with a genuine intention to sell and a willingness to become an estate agent. And that’s not all: the leads are also specifically assigned to a zip code.

    This careful pre-qualification guarantees contacts with a high probability of closing, which minimizes wastage and increases the chances of a mandate. Or to put it simply: Search less, sell more. Thanks to this established system, real estate professionals benefit not only at minimum risk, but also with maximum efficiency. This is because the offer goes beyond traditional lead portals by dealing with personally verified sales intentions instead of unqualified online inquiries. The focus is therefore clearly on quality rather than quantity thanks to leads that are exclusively allocated regionally.

    What’s more, the conditions are completely transparent: no minimum term or minimum purchase as well as predictable costs per lead and participation only if the mandate is successfully completed. All this guarantees flexible, success-based cooperation in the lead business. Once the contract has been concluded, the leads are activated directly in the Business Manager without the need for other systems. At the same time, each lead allocation to the respective real estate professional is clearly traceable and a refund is provided in the event of unfulfilled quality guidelines.

    In combination, seller leads from SMG Real Estate not only provide an unbeatable offer, but can also be ideally scaled as a sales channel. Not only can brokers grow through systematic mandate acquisition, they can also decide individually whether and how many qualified leads they would like to obtain based on their current resources. And this can be planned, because the sustainable pipeline secures future mandates and thus reduces idle phases. This creates the best possible relief and flexibility in day-to-day business.

    Find out more.

  • Optimism among Swiss estate agents for 2025

    Optimism among Swiss estate agents for 2025

    The abrupt end to the low interest rate phase of recent years and stricter lending regulations have had a lasting effect on market dynamics. While buyers have become more cautious as a result of higher financing costs, many sellers are still holding on to their inflated asking prices. This discrepancy makes property marketing considerably more difficult and often leads to misunderstandings between the parties. SMK members see this as one of the biggest challenges for the coming year.

    Trust and expertise as the key to success
    Property marketing is and remains a “people business”. Successful estate agents rely on experience, trust and advice based on sound market knowledge. A strong awareness of quality and a high-profile positioning create the necessary trust among buyers and sellers. With their certified expertise, SMK members offer comprehensive, individually tailored advice and guarantee the best possible sales price.

    Focus on sustainability and shortage of skilled labour
    In addition to the price issue, topics such as sustainability and ESG requirements are increasingly coming to the fore. The shortage of skilled labour is also an increasing challenge, as the demands on estate agents are constantly rising. Residential construction activity is also falling short of expectations, which is further exacerbating the supply deficit. Other important topics for 2025 include new forms of housing, the use of artificial intelligence and demographic trends.

    Further information can be found at www.maklerkammer.ch

  • Who is a PropTech?

    Who is a PropTech?

    Who is a PropTech? Levent Künzi and I don’t see eye to eye. Whereas Levent is promoting his company everywhere as a PropTech, I reject this classification. Properti is a broker who uses digital tools. I am probably the only one in the scene who sees it that way. But sometimes you have to swim against the tide.

    The word from inside Properti is that they have another, larger capital requirement. At one point, the core business, the sale of real estate, is said to be far from great. I went to the Properti, Betterhomes and RE/MAX websites to try and find out the number of properties advertised. Properti is way behind in sales with 452 properties (Betterhomes = 1,186, RE/MAX = 1,586). Properti is also behind Betterhomes with 571 properties to rent (RE/MAX = 126).

    According to its own information, Properti employs 160 experts. If they were to earn, say, 4,000 francs a month, Properti would need over 600,000 francs for wages alone. And this per month. Would the commissions from the sales be enough? More than 70 % of the properties advertised are between 0 and 1,000,000. Properti is also sporty about commission, which according to his own website is 2 % (although this is supposed to include extras).

    Properti is just as aggressive when it comes to management. It is also reported from an internal source that Properti has struck especially with condominium owners. However, the necessary staff is lacking to be able to handle all mandates professionally. It seems that Properti is in a difficult spiral.

    Properti has a top-class board of directors and well-known names on its advisory board. So the broker does not seem to lack know-how. Looking at the board of directors, Christoph Tonini stands out. He is CEO of the Swiss Marketplace Group SMG. The real estate industry is already dissatisfied with SMG. This personal connection does not make things any better. As a precaution, the portrait does not mention Tonini’s current job. One doesn’t want to be too transparent.

  • Crisis of the brokers

    Crisis of the brokers

    According to the latest data from RealTrends, the top 20 brokerages by number of transactions in 2022 were led by eXp Realty, Anywhere, HomeServices of America, Compass and Howard Hanna. Winners by number of transactions are eXp Realty, The Real Brokerage and Fathom Holdings, losers are Anywhere Advisers, HomeServices of America and Keller Williams. As is well known, this American heavyweight also wants to come to Switzerland, as they themselves announced in October last year. But in their home market, Keller Williams is struggling, they did over 190,000 fewer transactions in 2022 than in 2021.

    Brokers in Switzerland do not know crisis. The market is attractive. For example, in addition to the already mentioned Keller Williams, the German broker allmyhomes.de has announced that it is now expanding into Switzerland after Spain. Noah Schiller, formerly with ConReal, is responsible for the set-up. allmyhomes.de will not make it onto the PropTech Map Switzerland. Like Properti, I see this new player as a broker that uses digital tools. Just like more and more brokers are doing. Broker crisis: not in my backyard!

    Events
    Together with Switzerland Global Enterprise, we are organising a lunchtime event on 10 May 2023 for PropTechs. This workshop will give an overview of the German and Austrian markets and provide an opportunity to make valuable contacts with SBU experts. So anyone looking at expanding into the DACH region should not miss this event.

    The first “digital kommunal” conference took place in The Valley. The location in the buildings of the former Maggi factory offers countless possibilities for successful events. “digital kommunal” was primarily aimed at municipalities, cities and cantons. Those responsible for structural engineering and civil engineering/works were informed by the two organisers and PropTechs immoledo.ch and laixo.ch about the possibilities of digitalising buildings and infrastructure. Information was also provided on the requirements for the digital Werkhof. Elvira Bieri presented SSREI, although the municipalities probably feel that this chalice is passing them by. Anyone who followed the explanations on the digitalisation projects of the city of Zurich could become quite envious. Money does not seem to be a problem in the largest Swiss city. in 2024, “digital kommunal” will continue.

    PropTech Map Switzerland
    Who still remembers the winners of the Real Estate Awards 2022? Wasn’t homedeal24.ch the winner in the marketing category? Back then I wrote critically about the development of the awards. Now I have visited the website of homedeal24.ch again. And what do I find (still): Coming soon.

    Artificial intelligence
    Helvetia Versicherungen uses ChatGPT for its new customer service. According to its own information, Helvetia is the first listed insurance company in the world to offer a direct customer contact service based on OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology. This is intended to answer customer questions about insurance and pensions.

    OpenAI has pointed out that its ChatGPT chatbot is intended for people aged 18 and over. Only if parental permission is given, the service is also to be usable by young people aged 13 and over. OpenAI also wants to look into a verification option. So far, an email address and a mobile phone number have been sufficient. The company is reacting to reports about the use of chatbots in schools, where minors also access ChatGPT.

    news aktuell and PER surveyed PR professionals in Switzerland and Germany. The most important finding: 41% do not use artificial intelligence to date. However, the majority of respondents see AI as an opportunity, especially in copywriting, topic and trend identification and media monitoring.

  • Real estate: maximize sales proceeds with the right broker

    Real estate: maximize sales proceeds with the right broker

    The home ownership platform Liiva supports homeowners in a simple and transparent way in recognizing risks and making the right decisions – from the acquisition to the maintenance to the sale of the apartment or house. When maintaining a property, you can use the modernization assistant (MoA), for example, to find out what measures you need to take to maintain the value of your property – and what needs to be done to increase it.

    The innovative MoA determines the current market value of a property and creates an object analysis as well as a concrete renovation plan. In addition, Liiva indicates the energy consumption of the property, provides general information on energy-related renovation and determines the specific potential of the property for energy improvement.

    Selling price is more important than brokerage fee
    The sale of a property also has far-reaching financial consequences and must therefore be well prepared. For the sale of residential property, Liiva complements its digital services with physical presence and the know-how of experienced brokers. Agents normally charge 2 to 3 percent of the sales price achieved, which is around 30,000 to 45,000 francs for a property with a market value of 1.5 million francs. Agents not only help to find a buyer through their network, optimize the sale price, draft contracts and complete the sale, but also offer other valuable local know-how.

    But what criteria do I use to select a suitable broker? The brokerage fee should only have a secondary influence on the decision. When selling a property, the aim is usually to maximize the sales proceeds – and because the sales price can vary by 100,000 to 200,000 francs and more, optimizing the proceeds is more important than the brokerage fee, which is 10,000 to 20,000 francs lower or can be higher. The involvement of an experienced broker is therefore of the utmost importance.

    Choose the best broker
    A professional broker selection is independent and based on transparent criteria. That means, for example, are there currently numerous similar properties in the brokerage firm's sales portfolio, were such properties recently sold, how quickly were they sold, and at what price? In addition, the selection should be made from a sufficiently broad pool of brokers.

    Thanks to Liiva's partnership with the independent real estate platform Bestag, which specializes in finding the most suitable brokers, several competent local brokers can be suggested to customers throughout Switzerland; the final choice is made by the sellers. There is no exclusivity and no special placements for selected brokers – and the quality of the broker's sales work is constantly checked. Liiva personally accompanies the seller through all steps of the sales process.

    Transparent incentive system
    Specifically, three local brokers are suggested to the customers, from whom they each receive a market value estimate of their property. In addition, Liiva provides two neutral hedonic estimates that give customers a good idea of where the current fair price is. The remuneration of the selected brokers is based on a bonus-malus system that ensures that the broker makes the best possible effort with the sale: If the broker exceeds the target price, he or she earns a higher percentage.

    For the sellers there are no additional costs for this brokerage, since the expenses incurred by Liiva are covered by a small part of the brokerage commission. These commissions vary depending on the location, but are always shown transparently. The customer can thus decide for himself in advance whether he agrees with the broker's suggestions and the corresponding conditions, and there are no unpleasant surprises.

    The mix of digital and physical services when selling real estate enables the best result to be achieved.

  • Betterhomes Switzerland has over 22,000 referrals

    Betterhomes Switzerland has over 22,000 referrals

    In the first ten years of its existence until 2016, Betterhomes Switzerland brokered 10,000 properties. Now the brokerage company from Zurich, which is active in Switzerland, Germany and Austria, has cracked the 22,000 mark in Switzerland, informed Betterhomes in a message. This means that the number of referrals has more than doubled within five years.

    The company attributes this success to its hybrid business model. “When it comes to real estate brokerage, we at Betterhomes have been a pioneer in combining state-of-the-art technology and local expertise,” CEO Cyrill Lanz is quoted in the press release. Specifically, the company uses self-developed software and an interest database as well as access to all relevant real estate portals. This is supplemented by a network of local brokerage firms.

    In addition, Betterhomes does not charge a fixed price, but a success commission. Fixed-price models often contain hidden costs, explains Lanz. “Often, for example, visits are not included in these fixed prices and have to be paid for separately.” In addition, the company boss points out the function of technology as a supporting element. The focus of real estate brokerage by Betterhomes would continue to be “the human factor or sales competence”.