Buying a home nowadays looks very different than when your grandparents bought their first house. You probably start your search online and get pre-approved online. You might even view the home and close online. The COVID-19 pandemic has aided the real estate industry's adoption of technology. Here are seven ways technology has impacted home real estate and how it might help shape it in the future. 1. Data Figuring out how much a home is worth can be hard. Really hard. That's why in the past it was left to appraisers and real estate agents to decide. Sites like Zillow and Redfin eliminate some of the guesswork and use data to give a rough estimate on the value of a home. Here, Zillow outlines their price valuation, or Zestimate. Zillow uses various data including number of bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, zip code, market trends and many other factors to spit out an estimate. It even accounts for seasonal influences to home value. Real estate agents may sometimes be wary of the word Zestimate. They'll cite tales of clients with unrealistic expectations and shattered dreams. However, Zillow aggregates all of this data to form an incredibly accurate estimate. Zillow claims a median error rate for on-market homes of 1.9%.