Amid an intensely competitive market with little inventory and widespread bidding wars, showing management company ShowingTime said Monday it has seen surging interest in its Offer Manager platform.
In a statement, the company said that over the last year Offer Manager has been used to handle more than 120,000 offers. The statement goes on to describe Offer Manager as “an experience that is intuitive, presenting a ‘submit an offer’ button that can be used from any device.” The platform is consequently designed to reduce “panic-laden” communications between agents who are concerned about other agents receiving their offers, the statement adds.
Michael Lane
ShowingTime debuted Offer Manager about a year ago. The tool first launched in Canada, and became available in the U.S. this summer. The 120,000 offers the platform has handled over the last year include both Canadian and U.S. deals.
ShowingTime President Michael Lane said in Monday’s statement that “delays often result from communication barriers between agents, leading to confusion on the status of offers while essential documentation can easily be misplaced.”
“With Offer Manager, listing agents and buyer’s agents have a full view of the status of an offer from start to finish, all from within the interface of their existing ShowingTime showing management service,” Lane continued.
On its website, ShowingTime further notes that Offer Manager automatically organizes and stores offers, while making them available to agents 24/7.
ShowingTime has been popular in the real estate industry for years, and says on its website that nearly 1 million real estate professionals from 370 different multiple listing services use its technology. Among other things, the company’s platform allows real estate professionals to manage and coordinate their home showings. The company also provides market reports and visualizations.
Earlier this year, Zillow announced plans to acquire ShowingTime for $500 million. The deal prompted an intense debate within the real estate industry, much of it focused on issues related to data privacy — though Zillow has said it plans to keep ShowingTime’s existing data policies in place.
Joe Kipping
In Monday’s statement, Florida-based Keller Williams agent Joe Kipping said that “we received so many offers at the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021 that it was beginning to put a strain on our admin staff and we clearly needed a solution.”
“Before Offer Manager, all offer management would be done with an email inbox, a spreadsheet and Google Drive,” Kipping continued. “Now, I can view the offer quickly and I know the buyer’s agent will be sent a notification letting them know the offer was received, saving me a lot of time.”
