One month into year 2K17 reveals a significant opportunity for the CRE market to take advantage of new tools, applications, and innovations in what history may record as a monumental shift in the political, social, and economic landscapes of this world. Profit and sustainability lie in the balance for managers, investors, brokers, and other CRE professionals willing to catch the wave of technology. Better than merely watching, try to integrate some of the following tech trends expected to revolutionize the CRE market this year.

     1. Drones

The technology industry has witnessed a significant increase in the use of drones ranging from government programs, personal exploration, and retail delivery. Bisnow expects drones to be utilized more this year than ever before, ever increasing in innovation ranging from sensing gas to observing traffic. With videos getting 60% more leads on property listings, drones would enhance video footage available to real estate prospects.

     2. Big Data

Brokers will be wise in 2017 to turn to quality CRMs for accessing and integrating timely data into useful reports that uncover for them new opportunities. Rethink.com identifies the use of data and OmniChannel technology to be a major trend in 2017.

     3. Virtual Reality

One of the most logical applications of virtual reality in industry is real estate. VR can connect buyers with sellers, tenants with managers, and brokers with agents from across the street or across the world. Making virtual reality more palatable to the CRE professional is the ease of use applications being developed at rapid pace. IrisVR and Google offer VR headsets coupled with CRE-specific software. Meanwhile augmented reality continues to drive construction projects as well, another trend expected to impact CRE in 2017.

     4. Mobile Apps

Putting smartphones to work for CRE professionals is imperative and the trend is for this to only continue. Multi-tasking, working while you wait, easy access to real-time data are only a few of the applications designed to improve the efficiency, productivity, and profitability of the CRE professional. If you don’t have an app for that, the trend asks the question: is what you’re doing the best use of your time?

     5. The Cloud

Sharing, collaboration, and ease of access are invaluable to the CRE professional. Trending in 2017 is leveraging the Cloud for real-time updates of photos, managing transactions online, and collaborating on a master document. Cloud technology is not new to the “What’s trending?” lists, but with customer expectations of real-time information and service, along with financial institutions needing documents “yesterday,” it seems unthinkable for CRE professionals not to take advantage of this fairly simple, yet highly efficient, technology.

Success only comes by change, especially in the commercial real estate market, where properties take on a life of their own and buyers and sellers often enter into a transaction equipped with more information than has ever been accessible within a short amount of time or effort. Gone are the days of yellow legal paper and Bic pens. Technology is poised to usher the CRE industry into the next generation of clients and operations. Don’t miss the boat.