With multi-party inspections and auctions now shut down, real estate agents everywhere are looking for tech options to help them to continue to list, sell and manage properties digitally.
Here’s a quick summary of the Australian proptechs that can help you keep operating.
1. Technology to keep you in contact with your market
Everyone is now scanning social media constantly so now is a good time to build your social media profile and finally get your EDM strategy under control. Look at ActivePipe to set up your EDMs so that you’re tracking, engaging with clients and generating leads and Campaigntrack to help automate your listing marketing.
But if listings are slowing, look at how you can create great content further up the marketing funnel to build your reputation as a market expert. HomePrezzo turns your data feeds into great content in the form of suburb videos and reports while RealContent offers a range of ready-to-go articles already pre-written.
Turning that content into targeted advertising is the next step and there’s now a range of tools to help real estate agents do that without needing to master Facebook Ad Manager. Check out SpokeApp .io which will automate digital ad creation for Facebook, Instagram and GoogleAds. Adfenix and CCT are other options being used by agents in Australia.
Or if you want to outsource it altogether, use this time to check out Plezzl or Socialestate which offer more media-agency based services.
2. Technology for appraisals and sales workflow
Look to new appraisal tools that allow you to create pitches for potential vendors and support the end to end sales process. Options like Proposal Point will allow you to create interactive presentations and send them easily. Schedule a Zoom meeting or Google Hangout to run through the proposal with your vendor.
Full end to end digital sales solutions can be found in Realtair which has products called Pitch, Sign, Flow and Track to let you appraise, pitch and manage sales documentation from end to end and connects seamlessly with Campaigntrack. Real Time Agent also manages end to end sales administration saving four hours per property in paperwork.
3. Technology for digital forms and contracts
Whether you’re in property management or sales, one of the risks of everyone working from home is having multiple copies of forms and contracts sitting on desktops in various state of completion. Now more than ever is time to embrace DocuSign and digital forms and contracts from REI Forms Live, Realworks in Queensland or Forms Live in Victoria. Standardised Covid19 forms have now been loaded for easy access.
4. Technology for virtual staging
If the virus has caught your sellers on the hop and you’ve not had time to stage it, send internal shots to BoxBrownie who will not only fix the lighting, but can install virtual furniture, carry out some virtual renovations or just clean up the clutter. It’s ridiculously affordable.
5. Technology for Open Homes
There’s a myriad of tech that allows viewings to be done digitally. If your sellers are okay with you visiting the property you can do a quick virtual walkthrough with HomeLive or create a virtual tour with Virtual Tours Creator so you can see where people stop and click. Diakrit also offers virtual tours.
But if your sellers barricade the doors, there’s still an option. Check out RealAR. Provide them with a floorplan and your portal listing photos and they will build an augmented walkthrough that will help buyers feel like they’re really there. If you need a floorplan created, BoxBrownie can build one cheaply for you.
6. Technology to keep you selling
With public auctions now banned, it’s time to look at digital options. Realtair have just launched AuctionNow, while WA proptech Openn Negotiation is another digital auction site.
There’s also a growing number of transparent negotiation systems including RESO and MarketBuy. Both allow you to receive offers centrally, share them with your sellers and inform all buyers when a strong offer has been received (but it won’t necessarily share what those offers are). Both apps encourage interested parties to put their best foot forward and will allow your team to close sales without coming into the office. MarketBuy can behave like an auction if you wish it.
7. Technology for property maintenance
With tenants spending more time at home, the maintenance requests are likely to step up rather than slow down. Email is NOT the tool to manage this.
You need to help your tenants self-service to resolve issues where possible and have jobs briefed and ready to go in a way that can be easily tracked.
To this end, check out Rental Heroes which is a clever chatbot that allows tenants to report issues quickly and easily using SMS or chat, and get help or create a clear brief. Kiwi newcomer Tapi has a nice product called Tenant Concierge that allows tenants to report issues 24/7 helping you acquire all the details and assess the need for a call out.
8. Technology for property management
It will be extremely difficult for your team to work from home if you are still using a legacy property management system. Now is the time to evaluate the cloud-based options for property management. Check out PropertyMe, InspectRE, Managed, OurProperty, Console Cloud and PropertyTree.
This is not a definitive list but it’s tech that is easy to introduce even in the short term. If you’ve got more suggestions, let me know.