This is the first installment of a new series covering the technology offerings of real estate franchisors.
Real estate agents at brokerages affiliated with Windermere Real Estate typically pay $68 a month for a company-wide “social” customer relationship management system (CRM), CMA (comparative market analysis) tools, agent website and intranet access.
Windermere is based in Seattle and has around 6,000 agents that work out of nearly 300 affiliated offices spread across the Western United States.
Windermere’s technology provider, Moxi Works, was spun out of Windermere into a separate company, reflecting the firm’s long-time focus on technology.
Most popular tool:
CMA tool (“TouchCMA”)
Websites: Windermere.com and withwre.com (the domain that hosts Windermere agent websites)
Technology fee for agents: Typically $68 a month (franchisees typically pass the monthly $68 per-agent tech fee they pay Windermere on to their agents)
Agent offerings
CRM (customer relationship management system)
Moxi Engage: Social CRM geared toward “sphere of influence” marketing and selling.
- Cost: Included with tech fee
- Vendor: Moxi Works
Features:
- Segments contacts based on criteria like lead source and client type (buyer or seller)
- Prompts contact outreach and produces email campaigns, such as market reports
- Matches social network profiles with contact email addresses
- Tracks transactions, financial and activity goals and provides coaching
- Integrates with Windermere tech tools and some third-party tools, including lead sources like Zillow and realtor.com and Xpressdocs.
Screen shot showing Moxi Engage’s ‘overview’ section
Leads
Every Windermere affiliate feeds online leads generated by non-Windermere listings to a designated “e-team” of one to four agents.
E-team agents pay referral fees when those leads convert into transactions. Leads generated by Windermere listings go to listing agents free of charge.
Referral fee: 25 percent
E-team agents pay a 25-percent referral fee on the gross commission generated by a transaction side closed with a lead provided by Windermere, on top of the normal commission split they pay out of that gross commission to their broker.
Lead scrubbing? Yes
Windermere uses a third-party call center to qualify leads by asking a series of questions. Leads who are deemed qualified are transferred live to e-team agents.
Distribution: Franchisor to agent (not franchisor to brokerage to agent).
Broker-owners decide which agents will be on a local e-team, but e-team agents receive leads directly from franchisor, not their brokerage. Agents who respond slowly to leads or don’t adequately report their engagement with leads are notified or replaced.
Acquisition: Contact forms that appear on non-Windermere listings on windermere.com.
CMA tools
TouchCMA: Generates rich CMAs and other types of customizable real estate presentations that can be displayed as PDFs, online or on an iPad app.
- Cost: Included with tech fee
- Vendor: Moxi Works
Trendgraphix: Market data provider with built-in sharing tools including embeddable widget for websites
- Cost: Monthly subscription or “per-drink” fee, such as one fee per mailer
- Vendor: TrendGraphix
Screen shot showing TouchCMA dashboard
Transaction management/e-signature software
None. (However, Windermere is working on “integration partnerships” with multiple transaction management providers.)
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Agent websites
WordPress-based, mobile-optimized agent websites with IDX (internet data exchange) listing search, blog and page featuring an agent’s listings and sold properties
- Cost: Included with tech fee
- Vendor: Moxi Works
Features:
- Search-by-commute-time tool
- Pages featuring an agent’s listings, sold properties or “custom property lists based on specialties”
- Page with neighborhood and market news automatically updated with content by Windermere
- Users can register contact information for ability to save listings and searches
Marketing platform
Xpressdocs: Web-to-print and direct marketing services for materials like postcards, brochures, flyers and magnets, social media and reputation management service and email marketing.
- Cost: Monthly subscription or “per-drink” fee, such as one fee per mailer
- Vendor: Xpressdocs
Intranet
Brokerage document storage and search, education and training resources and easy access to both Windermere’s tech tools and some software from third-party vendors, like TrendGraphix and Xpressdocs.
- Cost: Included with tech fee
- Vendor: Moxi Works
Brokerage website
Listing search for Windermere-covered markets, office and agent rosters and blog.
Windermere listings direct buyers to listing agents, while non-Windermere listings can direct leads to agents at local Windermere brokerages in exchange for referral fees if those leads convert into transactions.
- Cost: Included with tech fee
- Vendor: Moxi Works
Screen shots of Windermere’s desktop and mobile brokerage websites
Video service
None.
Mobile app for consumers
None.
Brokerage offerings
CRM
Moxi Engage (explained in more detail above): Company-wide CRM that provides managers with insight into how agents are using the tool, how that activity correlates with their productivity and how, based on those insights, they can coach agents to step things up.
Intranet
Explained in more detail above.
Brokerage website
Windermere affiliate websites (described in more detail above) use the same platform as the agent websites that the firm offers.
Tech help
Training
Training provided online and in person for both company-offered products and other technology skills, such as social media marketing.
Support
Free phone and email tech support to agents and brokers covering all franchisor-provided products, email and hardware configuration. No support provided for non-franchisor-provided products.
Set-up or maintenance (for example, importing contacts into a CRM, creating marketing campaigns, customizing a website):
Not at this time.
Tech roster:
Moxi Works handles technology development, support and training for Windermere. Shawn Prutsman, vice president of program management for Windermere, collaborates with Moxi Works “on identifying and prioritizing our tech offerings.”
