How the Right Real Estate Software Can Help Agents Make Money

dotloop

August 01, 2016 | comments

Whether it’s ensuring proper paperwork for a new listing or managing leads as they evolve into relationships and sales, top-shelf organizational skills are essential to successful real estate. The good news is that, unlike agents of generations past, you have a vast array of software at your disposal to get the job done—so many options, in fact, that it almost requires an app just to keep track of all the choices.

As with any business, the question to ask when considering an investment of time or dollars in a tool like real estate software, is:

“Is this going to help me make more money?”

It’s easy to get caught up in all the bells and whistles—especially if you are already a bit of a techie—but if a software app isn’t making you more efficient and freeing up more time for face-to-face contacts, it has no place in your business, no matter how slick its dashboard.

Real estate software is a business investment, not a cost

Real estate software should save you hours of precious time managing customer information and transaction paperwork. It should help to ensure follow up with prospects, build your brand, safeguard precious data and enable you to nourish customer relationships.

Your first step in considering software for your real estate business should be to prioritize your needs. Once you have defined your objectives for investing in new software or apps, you can direct your resources into one or more programs most likely to offer the best returns.

While there are probably a dozen categories of business software applicable to real estate, there are two categories that are top-of-mind when it comes to offering return on your investment in real estate: customer relationship management (CRM) and real estate transaction.

Customer relationship management (CRM)

What it should do
As its name implies, this category of software allows you to manage all of your leads, customers and clients. Look for software customized for the real estate industry that allows you to input relevant data, track activity, form task lists, group your contacts and create effective marketing campaigns. Many CRMs integrate with a website to allow you to seamlessly capture new contacts through your online marketing, while also integrating tools to allow you to set up drip marketing campaigns from the same platform.

How you can make money
The more data you are able to collect and input for each prospect, the greater the chance you will turn those leads into relationships and those relationships into sales.
A quality CRM system will save you money by avoiding the erosion of prospects due to lack of follow up, a troubling risk with less sophisticated methods of managing customer data.

Faithful use of a quality CRM system pays off by improving your chances of moving those prospects from leads to successful closing to post-sale referrals and repeat business. Seek out software that allows you to collect data and preferences from your leads, implement targeted marketing campaigns and manage all your communications.

Real estate transaction software

What it should do
Real estate transaction management software enables you to digitize your paperwork, saving time while giving your business a competitive edge over agents who do not offer digital transactions. Look for real estate transaction software that allows you to integrate your own customized documents or link directly to specialized documents available through your market’s association or your brokerage.

How you can make money
By being more efficient, staying more organized and allowing access by all parties and stakeholders of a transaction, you build a competitive edge over real estate agents who are still shuffling papers around. Not only will you better serve your existing clients, but you are freeing up time to devote to generating new business. By using real estate transaction software, you have ready access to your files from your smartphone, tablet or laptop. Improving efficiency will help you grow your business.

You should find you spend about 20 percent less time on each transaction, allowing you to focus on lead generation and closing more properties each year.

Fit software to your needs and return on investment will follow
The above categories are far from all-inclusive when it comes to real estate software available for your business. Depending on your needs, you may find your greatest return on investment comes from incorporating accounting software into your business or investing in a program that allows you to better manage your properties.

Regardless of the void you are hoping to fill or the task you are trying to optimize, the payoff should come in greater efficiency of business operations and enhancement of your brand, freeing up time for you to present yourself in the best possible way through in-person contacts that move you closer to the closing table.