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Any real estate professional will tell you that relationships are the key to building a fruitful real estate business. So, the more we can automate our processes using tech tools and apps, the more time we’ll have to spend with our clients.
Here, you’ll find the top 11 real estate tech tools that can help streamline our day-to-day work — and speed up the process of getting people to know, like, and trust us.
1. Slydial
Ever wonder about those voicemails you receive without hearing your phone ring? Slydial is a ringless voicemail that allows us to reach a large number of people with a single voicemail without ever “calling” the user’s phone. The best news is that we can personalize the message so that it doesn’t sound like a robocall, and we can use it in several different ways.
The process involves uploading the phone numbers of people we would like to reach with our message to Slydial via an Excel spreadsheet. Once uploaded, we record a voicemail message and schedule the time for it to “drop” in the recipients’ voicemail.
It costs around 10 cents per voicemail drop, meaning we can reach 100 people for around $10. Here are a few ways I’ve used Slydial in my business.
New listings
Anytime we get a new listing in a neighborhood, we can notify the surrounding owners with a quick personalized voicemail. Here’s an example:
Hey, this is Sally Agent with ABC Realty. We just listed the house at 123 Oak St. so we wanted to let all of the owners know so they’ll have the opportunity to choose their next neighbor before the house hits the open market in the next few days. Please give me a call or text me at … for more details.
This message provides valuable information for the owners in the neighborhood and shows them we are actively involved in their neighborhood.
Missing out on a multiple-offer listing
If your buyer missed out on a house that had multiple offers, this is a great opportunity to show your value to your buyer and uncover listing opportunities.
Let your buyer know that you completely understand that they are disappointed, and you are going to call all the homeowners in the neighborhood or area where the house they did not get is located to see if you can find them an off-market home.
Record a message like this to send to the neighborhood:
This is agent Joe with ABC Realty. Not sure if you are aware, but your neighbor at 123 Oak St. put their house on the market two days ago, and it just went under contract after receiving multiple offers. I was the agent for a great family that did not win in the multiple-offer negotiations.
They really want to be in your great neighborhood, and I am doing my best to see if I can find them a home. If you’ve heard of any of your neighbors that have considered selling or if you have considered selling, I would greatly appreciate you giving me a call back at (your number) to learn more about this great family.
Because they missed out on the other house, they are possibly willing to pay a premium if the house they find fits them. Thanks in advance for any help and I look forward to speaking with you soon.
Staying in touch
Phone conversations give us a great opportunity to stay connected with our clients. However, it can be difficult to limit the length of those calls, and that can occupy a lot of precious time, especially as our business grows.
Instead, record a personalized voicemail that provides activity information about their home, and invite them to call with any questions they might have. Here’s what you could say:
Hey, just wanted to give you an update about the activity on your place over the last week. (Share any relevant information here.) If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to give me a call.
This process helps us stay connected to the people who need to hear from us regularly without sacrificing more of our time than is necessary to get it done.
2. Crystal Knows
Although social media helps us learn more about people before we even meet them, Crystal Knows takes that ability to the next level. It helps us tailor our communication with our clients by providing characteristics about people from their online profiles. In other words, the platform can help us learn about our clients and prospects beyond data information and other basic insights.
Once you’ve downloaded the app, you can visit a specific LinkedIn profile, and Crystal will provide details about that person’s personality that can help you present information in a way that he or she will receive best.
CrystalKnows can help develop a personalized playbook for each transaction, so we can build deeper relationships and close deals faster.
3. Forewarn
Forewarn has multiple uses, but the main use is to help us know people before we meet them for the first time. It can be risky to meet a stranger at a vacant house, so Forewarn allows users to conduct a background check using details like name, address and phone number, to name a few.
Forewarn also helps us acquire phone numbers for people we’d like to connect with through a highly accurate database. We use this in many cases when searching for phone numbers in conjunction with Slydial (mentioned above).
Another great benefit of Forewarn is the property records section that shows details on properties owned by the person we search for. This is a great way to see if that online buyer lead you just received might have a home to sell.
4. BombBomb
BombBomb is an email tool that allows you to record a video message, and then embed a GIF of that message into an email. That way, when users open the message, they’ll see a GIF of the personalized message you’ve sent them.
It’s a unique way to personalize your communication and improve your clickthrough rates at the same time. Here are a few different ways you can use BombBomb.
Follow-up
After meeting someone for the first time, send a video email that says something like:
It was great meeting you today, and I’m looking forward to spending more time with you at our next meeting on [insert date]. Take care, and I’ll talk to you soon.
Screen-recording
BombBomb includes our image at the bottom of the screen any time we record our screen, so we can review contracts with people or show them aerial maps of an area or a house they’re interested in. It creates the sense that we’re sitting with the person while we review the information.
I’ve personally used this tool to create unsolicited video CMAs for owners who had mentioned they might sell their homes within the next couple of years.
In the fourth quarter of 2018, I sent 72 unsolicited video CMAs that updated homeowners about the current value of their homes, and I directly listed $11.2 million in property directly from this effort. Of those listings, I sold $9.1 million.
BombBomb is one of my favorite apps to help agents grow their business by differentiating themselves in a crowded market.
5. Testimonial Tree
Online recommendations are the lifeblood of our business because the first thing any prospective client will do before engaging with us is search for online reviews. To make that presence more attractive, we should make sure our past clients are sharing online reviews and recommendations.
Testimonial Tree automates the review process by inviting customers to provide testimonials and then automatically uploading them to selected platforms (as long as the review meets a standard previously determined by the account owner). It’s a great tool agents can use to keep their online presence consistently updated.
6. BoxBrownie
Having photos that grab viewers’ attention is so important — especially to the way we do business now. BoxBrownie is a nifty platform that helps agents enhance their photos and make them more appealing.
What’s more, BoxBrownie can also digitally stage a property (if you have images of empty rooms), and it can remove debris and clutter from photos and make things like a kitchen counter look more presentable.
Another great thing about BoxBrownie is that it can liven up your existing photos by, for example, making the sky brighter or even adding a stunning sunset that makes your photos pop when people see it online. BoxBrownie is a great tool that comes at a very affordable price, considering the impact it can make.
7. TubeBuddy
People are scouring YouTube to find information about neighborhoods and communities — now more than ever before. That’s why it’s a great time to add video to your content plan.
TubeBuddy provides information on search numbers and details on videos we should shoot about our communities and farming neighborhoods. It provides assistance in choosing the best title for organic search traffic, proper tagging and SEO optimization on YouTube — which can be the difference between success and failure.
If you want to take your video marketing to the next level, TubeBuddy is definitely a must-have.
8. TurboScan
In our existing market of low inventory and multiple offers, time is of the essence for agents. Sometimes, we need to send documents to a buyer or seller even if we aren’t at the office.
If situations like that, TurboScan can let you use your phone as a scanner and turn your multi-page documents into PDFs or JPEGs that you can then send to your customers quickly — right from your device. Speed is so important in today’s market, and TurboScan helps you keep up with the fast pace necessary for success.
9. SendOutCards
This tool allows us to send out electronically generated handwritten cards (in our handwriting) — making the process of personalized communication efficient and streamlined.
You start the process by sending in a template of every letter of the alphabet written in cursive in your handwriting. Once they have that information on file, you submit the messages you’d like to send, and SendOutCards sends a card with your handwritten message to the recipients.
You can also personalize the photo on the front of the card so that it’s a photo of your clients’ house, an acknowledgment of an award they’ve received or any other visual that’s personal to them.
I especially like the ability to preset birthday and anniversary cards that will automatically go out to my clients once I set them up. This helps organize communication with past clients — with a more personalized touch.
10. Linq
Business cards are mostly a thing of the past. They usually end up in a pile on our desks, and as time passes, we tend to forget all details about the person who gave us the card.
Linq is an electronic business card that allows the people you meet to pull contact information directly into their phones using a tap or a QR code — even if they don’t have the app themselves. A profile in the Linq app could include contact information, a website and other important details that help the user identify you.
Keep in mind, too, that though they may not remember our names in the weeks after the initial meeting, we can add details that will make it easy for them to find us, like “Sally agent” or “beach Realtor.” If they don’t remember a name, they’ll at least remember the keyword “beach” and find it on their phones.
11. Asteroom
Asteroom is a new technology that disrupts the Matterport tool that previously provided entire floor plans or virtual walkthroughs of a property. Using a stand and a smartphone, for an affordable fee, Asteroom will take the pictures and adjust the lighting and other features to give the photos a professional look — even for those of us who aren’t professional photographers.
Asteroom also allows users to provide a view of the outside spaces in addition to the inside of the house, which is more important than ever for users who want to virtually walk through a house.
It’s a less expensive option than Matterport with powerful capabilities to impact every one of your listings.
Any one of these 11 tech tools can streamline our processes and help us grow our business. Automating our steps to make better use of our time and resources will allow us to focus more on building relationships, which are the foundation of the work we do, and the keys to taking our business to the next level.
Jimmy Burgess is the Chief Growth Officer for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Beach Properties of Florida in Northwest Florida. Connect with him on Facebook or Instagram.
