At a recent tech presentation, Brandon Weber of Hightower said one of the reasons he developed the lease management app was because the platform used before – the CRM – has never been effective. That’s for sure. Even if a CRM app had a deal tracing, opportunities or a project management feature, most agents never used it. Plus, CRMs were stuck on a desktop. But even cloud CRMs that allow for multi-user access… Maybe it’s different elsewhere, but agents just don’t use that feature for … [Read more...]
Inside SIOR’s CRE Tech Sessions
Last week I attended SIOR’s Fall Convention in Chicago. There were several sessions on CRE tech – and I went to all of them! Here’s my highlight reel from these excellent presentations (nice job, SIOR and panelists!). According to Steve Weikal of MIT’s Center for Real Estate, what’s driving the technology boom in CRE is the realization that CRE is a big market ($) and a rush to service institutional investors who have become increasingly involved in CRE. Over the past decade, the share of … [Read more...]
Google Takes Another Look at Real Estate
Several years ago, Google offered a real estate search site. Powered by the now defunct GoogleBase, brokerages imported their data manually or via an app which fed the search site. GoogleBase also provided data for user generated real estate maps. But that was before February 2011. In their sayonara post, Google pointed to low usage but also suggested that the search and map models may not be the best way for users to find real estate. The Atlantic Monthly questioned the low usage excuse … [Read more...]
Should Agents Do Their Own Marketing?
I was discussing the role of agents with someone who was adamant that of all the things agents do, marketing is of the least value and should be outsourced. It kind of surprised me. Isn't the job of an agent to find willing buyers/tenants and sellers/landlords? How can you do that without marketing? Many brokerages don't even have a marketing department anyway. Even if they do, agents are often left to their own devices when it comes to marketing whether it be generating leads, marketing … [Read more...]
The Smartest Brokerage in the World
There are a lot of smart people trying to get rid of the brokerage model. They say things like it’s inefficient because brokerages don’t embrace technology or they rely too much on relationships. Whether they’ll be able to fully rid the industry of relationships is another story. But there are some groups of users who do feel under-served. In fact, those smart people trying to get rid of you have done the work of identifying them for you. That’s why brokerages have a great opportunity … [Read more...]
Modern CRM
Ask any agent what a CRM is and most will tell you it’s where they keep their contact info…and maybe their appointments and calls. In other words, for the majority of agents, CRM apps are souped-up Personal Digital Assistants (PDA). That view probably explains why so many agents dislike their CRM app so much. If all you want is a PDA (that syncs with all your devices, of course), then most CRM apps are way too complicated. Just what is a CRM app supposed to do anyway? Short for … [Read more...]
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