Royal LePage, the largest real estate company in Canada, recently surveyed their buyers and sellers to uncover what matters most in terms of the service they receive from their real estate professional. The results have important implications for both domestic and international real estate practitioners.

Phil Soper, the CEO of Royal LePage, was one of the keynotes at the Banff Western Connection 2013 Conference. After sharing an overview of the current state of the Canadian market, he turned his attention to the next generation of Canadian real estate purchasers including how they differ as well as their expectations regarding the services they receive.

According to Soper, “Everything is new and nothing has changed.”

Eddie LePage actually did the first “virtual tours” with movies back in the 1920s. Today’s consumer expects not only virtual tours, they also expect a media-rich experience. Television is “too single stream” for them. Digital assistants (increasingly small devices loaded with ever-increasing functionality) will shape our real estate buying and selling experiences in ways we can’t even imagine.