The real estate industry is not the same anymore, at least not after millennials’ inclusion in the industry.
Things are more digital now, especially after the Codiv-19 pandemic, which forcefully added digitalization in almost every business sector.
Today, real estate firms, property managers, investors, and real estate agents prefer digital platforms like virtual data rooms to manage their affairs. In the text to follow, you will learn:
- What is a real estate deal room?
- What are the benefits of electronic or virtual data room software in real estate?
- Best data room providers in the real estate sector
What is a real estate data room?
A real estate data room (a type of electronic data room software) is a digital document storage platform for realtors, investors, asset managers, and real estate companies.
Virtual data room software is not just a simple document repository. It is a multi-facet business solution that facilitates real estate projects and online communication.
Online data room software provides basic tools for data sharing, organization, editing, viewing, and comparing. AI-backed data room services also help you evaluate data and convert it into actionable information for future use. For instance, it can process past five years’ trends in a specific real estate market and use that data to make future projections.
Communication tools like meeting manager, HD audio and video conferencing, Q&A modules, chat messengers, etc., assist in one-to-one and group communications. Companies also use data rooms to conduct webinars and mass-scale meetings.
Some of the best virtual data room providers in real estate include iDeals, Digify, SecureDocs, Merrill Datasite, and IntraLinks.
The role of virtual data room technology in real estate
1. Easy management of corporate data
Partnerships and joint operations are common in modern-day realtors and real estate firms. A lot of firms even operate in multiple states and even different countries.
Virtual data rooms help such firms keep and manage their corporate documents in one place. A centralized, remotely accessible document repository makes sure every branch or office has full-time access to business records. Moreover, any changes or updates in any document are incorporated immediately to ensure the latest data is available to everyone.
2. Faster and more secure data sharing
Sharing or distributing files via virtual data rooms is much easier. Real estate companies with extended operations can use digital data rooms for their routine data sharing.
One of the best things about VDR is that you don’t have to send data out of the platform. That said, you can create accounts for your employees and add them to your VDR. They will have access to everything they need, and they can share data with each other within the platform.
Second, data rooms don’t have any maximum data sharing limits, like in email or free data storage platforms. You can easily send big files, even up to 50GB using data rooms. Also, a user can share one file with hundreds of other users in one go.
It is not just data sharing — an electronic data room also gives you maximum control over your documents. Realtors or firms can decide what level of data access they want to give to others.
3. More efficient project management
Firms or realtors engage in multiple projects simultaneously; it can become challenging to manage the data of multiple projects — besides, the possibility of communication mistakes increases.
When realtors use VDRs, they can create multiple data rooms for every project and deal with each client separately. Also, collaborators in one data room won’t be able to see other data rooms or communicate with them.
Most importantly, documents or updates on different projects won’t mix. Realtors can open and check each data room, see the updates, answer questions from clients or collaborators, share documents, and whatnot.
4. Virtual property tours for clients
Just as mentioned above, millennials prefer online channels to shop. Besides, busy work schedules make it impossible for clients to visit every property one by one physically. Virtual data room providers nowadays either give built-in video calling tools or allow third-party app integration.
Even if the client doesn’t want a physical tour of the property, realtors can use video conferencing tools in the VDRs to give live tours. Clients can easily have a better look and communicate with the realtor in real-time.
5. Due diligence and contract signing
Real estate data room software helps realtors manage the due diligence phase efficiently. They can add sellers in the VDR and get every document in digital form.
During due diligence, they can easily communicate with concerned parties, share documents, and keep buyers updated simultaneously.
Once objections settle and both parties come to an agreement, realtors can get contracts signed within the VDR (through an electronic signature feature). In simple words, a transaction can be initiated and completed within a VDR.
Final words
Real estate data room makes real estate deals faster and boosts chances of successful closure by ensuring fast communication between realtors and other parties, and speeding up the due diligence process with the help of faster and safer data sharing.
Data rooms are certainly beneficial in real estate. However, because they represent a very saturated market, it is important to conduct your own data room review and comparison to make an optimal choice for real estate.
