The end of the year is traditionally when real estate agents start reviewing the professional successes they’ve had over the past year and determe how they could have even more success in the year ahead.
Fortunately, there are many excellent apps and tools for helping people in the real estate industry thrive in their career paths. Such tools save time, help with organization and are typically very easy to use. Below, we’ll review eight that are particularly helpful for real estate professionals.
Leadpages
Landing pages are significant components of successful advertising campaigns and informative websites. Marketers often build landing pages for blog posts and social media strategies.
Leadpages features drag-and-drop simplicity that lets busy real estate agents — and anyone else — make landing pages in minutes. Users can choose backgrounds, add relevant text and even insert videos.
Platform: PC and Mac
Pricing: Starting at $25/month, with free trial available
Microsoft OneNote
From client details to specifications about residences, real estate agents take lots of notes.
Microsoft OneNote saves them in the cloud, which lets professionals avoid using paper-based notes they might lose.
Besides text-based content, it’s compatible with drawings and even voice recordings. There are also unconventional uses for the app, such as making a calendar template with it.
Platform: PC, Mac, iOS and Android
Pricing: Free
Electronic Voice Services
All agents have to be able to close sales to maintain their livelihood and profit. Even though the internet helps generate leads, many real estate agents still conduct a good portion of their business over the phone.
Automated solutions such as Electronic Voice Services can help agents contact potential clients more efficiently, while maintaining high-quality standards.
This software offers automatic phone dialing that caters to agents’ needs. Realtors can double their call volume and move through call lists faster with this simple software program.
Platform: Your existing phone system and computer setup
Pricing: Automatic dialers from Electronic Voice Services, starting at $59/agent monthly, with free trial available
Google Forms
Surveys help real estate agents get feedback from potential buyers after showings. An informative questionnaire lets professionals in the real estate industry discover pitfalls, as well as what they’re doing right.
Although there are many fee-based survey creators, Google Forms works well, too, and it doesn’t cost a penny.
Users can upload photos or business logos and let the system automatically pick matching color schemes. It’s also possible to add images and videos that could shed more light on frequently asked questions.
Google Forms collects survey data automatically, and people can get even more details about an analysis by importing it into Google Sheets.
Platform: PC, Mac, iOS and Android
Pricing: Free
Hemingway
Real estate agents don’t work with words as often as professional writers do, but they still need to ensure the content they compose conveys the main points as strongly as possible. That’s especially true when writing website copy or home advertisements.
Hemingway lets a person paste or type text into the app and then get feedback about passive voice and adverb usage, words with simpler alternatives and sentences that are too hard to read.
Because people who work in the housing market often reach out to large target audiences at once — such as all the people in a community who are in the market for a two-bedroom, two-story home — they need to be sure the copy they create isn’t unnecessary complex.
The color-coded grading system in Hemingway could help busy agents make fast and effective changes.
Platform: PC and Mac — browser-based only
Pricing: Free
Chatbots
Many real estate agents probably assume chatbots are most important for large companies. Although it’s true gigantic establishments can use them successfully, chatbots are also worthwhile for small operations to consider.
The benefits chatbots could offer include streamlining communications by answering routine questions before real estate agents talk to customers, giving customers an option besides picking up the phone to get information and setting expectations about when agents can meet with clients or return phone calls.
Apartment Ocean is an example of a real estate-centric chatbot that could work well for people curious about how these automated tools could boost their bottom lines.
Platform: Varies depending on service used. Apartment Ocean uses Facebook Messenger.
Pricing: Cost differs by the provider. Apartment Ocean starts at $49/month, and some free chatbot builders exist.
Augmented reality platforms
Augmented reality (AR) uses technology that mingles with real-world environments. That concept works particularly well for the real estate realm.
Some prospective buyers might have difficulty envisioning what a room would look like if it were repainted and furnished.
Real estate agents who primarily deal with bare plots of land, rather than homes, could also depend on AR to help clients envision the appearance of finished projects that haven’t even begun.
AR also works well for supplementing or replacing housing brochures. A tool called ZapWorks is one example.
Instead of looking at static pictures on a page and using their imaginations or other research tools to fill in the gaps, house shoppers could try AR platforms and zoom in on parts of the abode, remove the roof and look at things from above or explore amenities in the surrounding area.
Platform: Depends on chosen product and intended usage. Many AR tools work on mobile devices to offer better portability.
Pricing: Varies by the service provider and project scope. ZapWorks’ pricing tier for business users begins at $42/month paid annually.
SaneBox
Many people use email as their first method of contact for a real estate agent. Failing to keep an inbox clean and well-organized could result in lost leads, irate clients and spending too much time filtering through junk mail.
Fortunately, a tool called SaneBox uses algorithm-driven smart filters to highlight the most important messages. It also allows users to set up commands that direct emails from certain senders straight to the trash or use a snooze function to deal with emails at chosen times.
The program separates sent emails that haven’t received replies, triggering agents to follow up as needed, too.
Platform: PC, Mac, iOS and Android
Pricing: Starts at $14/month for two emails, with free trial available
These eight possibilities could become workplace wonders for perpetually swamped real estate agents or just those who are ready to make meaningful improvements.
Now is a great time to explore these tools and see which ones could help make 2018 more productive and profitable than ever.
Kayla Matthews covers smart technology and future trends for websites like VentureBeat, Curbed and Motherboard. You can read more posts by Kayla on her personal tech blog: Productivity Bytes.
