5 Disruptive Ways PropTech Is Changing Real Estate

  • Author: Devin Henry
  • Last Updated: February 8, 2021
Table of Contents

In today’s world, technology permeates almost every sector, from medical care to law enforcement. It should come as no surprise that proptech began to integrate with the real estate market in various waves since the 1980s. What is proptech and how does it impact real estate?

Proptech is an umbrella term that’s used for describing various technology tools that are innovative or provide new business models for real estate markets. Proptech contributes to real estate market on a daily basis. It has become one of the biggest assets, which contributes $3.5 trillion to the U.S. GDP. A case in point for real estate being a huge asset is in Alexandria, Virginia.

Sales prices on homes in 2019 were, on average, $493 thousand dollars. That’s just in one city, in one state. Proptech is changing the very core of the real estate market throughout the nation. Read on to discover in what ways proptech is doing this and how is it impacting the real estate market.

What is Proptech? 

You already know the umbrella term definition of proptech. But the umbrella term can be drilled down to its two core mandates. They are:

  1. Proptech is digitally transforming real estate through its innovative use in commercial, residential and industrial sectors. These changes are occurring in the ecosystem through its short-term benefits and the long run asset-building within the industry.
  2. Proptech requires you use it and it provides a different way of interconnecting today’s real estate market. This evolution and mentality change is needed. Real estate technology will most certainly continue to evolve past the tried and true traditional methods of the past.

Proptech provides digital transformation and innovation in almost every facet of the real estate market today. The real estate market sectors construction, architectural design, smart contracts, property management, and more. That’s because almost all real estate sectors are now using a form of IoT, virtual reality, drones, and more for tenants and buyers.

How Proptech is Changing the Real Estate Industry

Understanding the definition of proptech isn’t the same as comprehending all the ways proptech is changing the real estate market, whether you’re a buyer, seller or renter. All these changes can be aptly and effectively handled by a property management leasing, selling and investing company. The combination can lead to your best financial results.

The below-listed changes to real estate will explain why proptech is something you should know and understand:

  1. Virtual Reality
  2. Augmented Reality
  3. Internet of Things
  4. Drone Technology
  5. 3D Printing

#1 – Virtual Reality

Real estate now uses some form of virtual reality (VR) for many properties for sale or rent. The property viewing experience can be a nightmare to schedule due to the various time demands for both the interested party, seller and the real estate professional. VR also makes it easier for real estate investors to view and consider investments for certain properties.

It doesn’t matter where the buyer or investor is located. Virtual reality can bring them to your property and give them a bird’s eye view. This view can be on the exterior, interior, or both for each property under consideration.

Kid using proptech VR

#2 – Augmented Reality

Augmented reality is not quite the same as virtual reality, but they’re in the same family. There are a lot of various applications that let you load your furniture into a home you are considering to see if it all comes together well. Some paint companies have augmented reality applications that let you paint rooms in the property under consideration to see how you like certain color schemes.

There is no limit to the number of applications that add to your interactive and customization experience when viewing properties.

person using augmented reality on Ipad

#3 – Internet of Things

You’ve heard people talking about the internet of things (IoT) but haven’t been sure how it applies to the real estate market. Maybe without realizing it, you’ve used IoT without knowing you were participating in one of proptech new ways that impact the real estate industry. Every time you use your smartphone to send an email or vice versa you’re using a form of IoT communication.

IoT streamlines every process known in the real estate market from instant messages, videos, VR, etc. Each of these IoT tools and applications improves your real estate experience as a buyer, seller, renter or investor.

Image of IOT

#4 – Drone Technology

Most of us tend to think of drones as something hobbyists do or law enforcement and military use. But in real estate, drones are extremely popular and being used more and more on real estate property deals. A drone can give you imagery you used to have when you were at the property to see it.  

Drones can even give you 360-degree aerial shots of the property, which provides a visual map out the property under consideration. Drone technology is a proptech application that keeps growing and developing by adding benefits to all the real estate parties.

Woman with a drone

#5 – 3D Printing

3D printing has long been written about in the medical and military world. The application of 3D printing in the real estate business industry has an enormous value. It’s still a new technology for use in construction, but there have been successful 3D concrete homes printed, which helps provide more affordable housing for all. 

China currently uses 3D printing for house construction with each house costing less than $5,000.

Guy 3d printing

The Next Step for Proptech 

Proptech has nowhere to go but up. There is no all-inclusive definition of what is proptech because proptech keeps developing and expanding. Proptech advancements help keep the real estate industry viable and sustainable. 

Protech also continues to improve the real estate industry by growing the various applicational use of various forms of technology. It provides predictive maintenance, energy efficiency, affordability, and greater penetration into the real estate market than ever seen previously. There’s no end to the possibilities it can bring to all of us. 

Nomadic Real Estate provides proptech cutting edge impact in leasing, property management, sales, and investments for residential properties. The next time you want to learn more about proptech and how you can use it effectively for your real estate purposes, reach out to us. Let us show you how the Nomadic approach benefits you and your real estate future.

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Your portal includes a selection of extremely useful reports. Reports are available in the “Reports” section, and are distinct from the financial statements. Unlike financial statements which are static records, Reports are dynamic real-time records that will update with current data every time you view them. 

Scroll down to learn more about Reports:

Navigate to the "Reports" module in your portal:

Owner Portal Reports
  • Keep in mind, these reports are dynamic records. They will refresh to display current information every time you view them. 

Enhanced Rent Roll Report:

Enhanced Rent Roll Report
  • The Enhanced Rent Roll Report will show the rent amount, last payment date, move-in date, lease expiration date, and security deposit amount for each of your tenants. 
  • It will also show a portfolio summary with occupancy percentage, vacancy loss, and more!

Unit Comparison Report:

Unit Comparison Report
  • If you own multiple units (or buildings) with Nomadic, you’ll get access to the Unit Comparison Report. 
  • This report enables you to quickly compare financial performance between your units at a glance without toggling between individual reports. 

Income Statement Month-Over-Month:

Income Statement by Month Report
  • The Income Statement Detail – Monthly Report serves as a month-over-month record of portfolio performance. You’ll see itemized income and expense categories and can track monthly. This report will update with fresh data every time you view it. 

Financial Statements

Financial statements will be published to your portal on a monthly basis. The statements are found in your Documents library, and provide a historical record of all financial performance. The statements serve as a snapshot of financial performance over a given period, and are static documents (unlike Reports, the statements do not update/change in real-time). 

Scroll down for more info about the Financial Statements in your Documents library:

The Documents area contains monthly financial statements:

Owner Portal Documents
  • The statements in the Documents are are static documents. They are posted to the portal once a month to serve as a historical record of financial performance. 

Download a statement to see month and YTD financials:

Owner Portal Property Statement

You'll also find a month-over-month operating statement:

Month over Month Statement

Portal Communication Tool

You can use your owner portal to communicate with our team. Any messages you send through the portal will go straight to your Account Manager. When we reply, you’ll get an email notification and you’ll also see the message in your portal next time you log in. 

Here’s an overview of using the communication platform:

Click "Communications" and navigate to "Conversations":

Commincation Dashboard Screenshot
  • The communications module will contain a record of all messages that you create through the portal. 

Click the "New Message" button and send your message:

Owner Portal New Message Screenshot

Responses will show up in the conversation ticket:

Portal Conversation Response Screenshot
  • You’ll get an email notification whenever you get a response, and you’ll also see the message in your portal next time you log in. 

You can reply in-line using the comment box:

Owner Portal Comment

Each conversation will be logged in its entirety:

Portal Conversation Snapshot

Understanding the Ledger

Your portal includes a ledger with all transactions. The ledger is populated with data in real-time as transactions flow through our accounting software. Much of this information is also available in the Reports area, as well as the Statements in your Documents library, but the ledger is the most comprehensive resource for diving into the details. 

Please scroll through the sections below to get a better understanding of how to interpret the ledger. 

By default, transactions are sorted chronologically:

Owner Ledger Dates
  • The date reflected in the lefthand column is the actual transaction date, not the “bill date”. This is the date the transaction was actually processed. 

If you have multiple properties with Nomadic, you'll see the address for each transaction in the "Location" column:

Ledger Property Column
  • You can filter the ledger to look at just one property, all properties, or specific sets of properties. 
  • If you only have one property with us, you’ll just see the ledger for that property. 

The Description column displays the transaction type:

Owner Ledger Description Column
  • BILL: this is an expense transaction, such as for repair costs or management fees.
  • CHARGE: this is a transaction  billed to the tenant, most typically a rent payment. 
  • NACHA EXPORT: this is a credit we processed to your distribution account. This type of transaction is how you get paid! 

The Amount column shows the dollar value of each transaction:

Owner Ledger Amount Column
  • Positive Amounts: if an amount is positive, it reflects a transaction that is payable to you. Typically, this will be a rent payment that we collected from your tenants. On occasion, a positive number could also signify a journal entry or credit adjustment. 
  • Negative Amounts:  if an amount is negative, this is a transaction that is either payable to Nomadic or is an amount that has already been paid to you. Typically this will be for repair costs or management/leasing fees. Owner draws (net distributions into your checking/savings account) also reflect as negative amounts, since they have already been paid to you. 

The Account Balance column shows a sum of positive/negative transactions at a given point in time:

Owner Ledger Account Balance Column
  • Account Balance should always equal zero after a net distribution has been processed. When the balance is zero, this means that all expenses have been paid and you’ve received the remainder as net operating income, leaving a balance of zero (meaning: no one is due any money, as all funds have been distributed appropriately). 

Navigating the Propertyware Owner Portal

Your portal includes some extremely useful features that help you understand your property’s financial performance at a new level, with real-time transparency into every transaction.

Scroll through the snapshots below for an overview of portal navigation! If you need more help or have specific questions about using the portal, you can reach out to your Account Manager any time for a screen share. 

You can filter all info by date range or property:

PW Portal Filters

View a snapshot of income and expenses on your dashboard:

PW Owner Dashboard View

See every transaction in real-time on your ledger:

Owner Portal Ledger View

Statements and forms will be posted to your documents library:

Owner Portal Document Library

View a suite of real-time financial reports:

Portal Reports View

See a running list of all bills, and drill down for more detail:

Owner Portal Bills View

Under Bill Details, you'll find dates/descriptions/amounts and more:

Portal Bill Details

You can also communicate with your Account Manager through the portal:

Owner Portal Communication Tools

How do net distributions work?

Net distributions keep your accounting clean and simple. Each month we’ll collect rent from the tenants, deduct any repair expenses for the previous month and any management/leasing fees for the current month, and credit the remaining net operating income to your account. 

Net Distribution

You’ll receive a statement via email each time a net distribution is processed, and can view all transaction details in your Propertyware owner portal.