The following contribution is from another author.
It’s undeniably the case that technology has powerfully enhanced our lives and our homes in so many ways, and it has solved many problems for us. But, can it help when it comes to one of the most stressful experiences in life – moving house? Changing your home can be a stressful, anxiety inducing thing, and there’s a reason it routinely tops lists of the most emotionally draining experiences after bereavement, redundancy or dealing with divorce. If there’s anything that can make a time like this easier, technology ought to have the answer.
Amongst the many applications possible, the right tech could reduce obstacles to purchase, cut down the time an average conveyancing transaction takes and help to ease some of the practical stresses of the move itself like finding the best moving company. In fact, some of this technology is already working to make our moves easier now…
Finding Your Information
Moving house involves an awful lot of research, at every stage of the process. Whether you’re just in the beginning stages of deciding which area to live in, if you want to start narrowing down the property available, or if you need to look at your financing options and secure the best mortgage borrowing rates available, then you will need to be doing some research. A virtual assistant such as Alexa or Google Home Hub can save you an awful lot of typing and querying. Based on your personal circumstances, savings, income and buying habits, they will be able to search through suitable financial products to find the best fit for you. This type of system can arm you with knowledge about what your maximum buying power is likely to be before you speak to the bank or mortgage broker.
Smarter Property Viewings
Once the financial element of a house move is sorted, technological applications can ease the process of actually tracking down that dream home. Instead of spending hours manually hunting through online real estate listings, smart alerts set up on a property portal and linked to your virtual assistant or push notifications can keep you one step ahead of other buyers. Virtual house viewings are becoming more common now, so you can take a 360 tour of a potential home before booking a physical viewing. This is a game changer, especially as there can be aspects of the house you may not realize or will be cleverly hidden in two dimensional photographs. If you aren’t currently located near to your new area, it can save a lot of wasted trips and will be especially useful if you’re planning to move overseas. Using a VR headset, you can do a virtual walk through of a house and then have a real-time conversation with the property agent. Use this tech to create a short list of potential homes, and have your virtual assistant then arrange for in-person viewings of the ones you like. This could save a huge amount of time and take a lot of the stress out of the process of attending viewings and open house events.
Starting Your Legal Transaction
Tech can also support you during the next stage of the process – the usually protracted process of legalities involved in your house purchase. Land registries are looking into the use of blockchain as a part of the process, and using AI for the task of processing documentation, verifying signatures and completing the simpler admin tasks will speed up what can often be an unnecessarily lengthy process.
