Buyers Want Smart Search And Home Features; Realtors® Should Use Smart Tools, Too!

The impact of technology can be felt in every aspect of modern lives from the moment a Fitbit vibrates in the morning to the voice command used to place a homes in sleep mode. Technology has changed the real estate industry and homes themselves, with Realtors® focused on their role as a trusted advisor rather than as keeper of the keys. Learning to make the most of new technology can be challenging, but staying on top of tech trends for business and for homes has become an important factor in every Realtor’s® success.
     
“Ultimately technology supports what Realtors® want to do: spend more time with current and potential customers,” says Andrew Strauch, vice president for product innovation and marketing for the Metropolitan Regional Information system (MRIS), the local MLS. “The idea is to use tools to do things more easily so you can work with people. If you can perform all the major tasks away from a desk, you’re untethered.”
Technology streamlines transactions to free more time for the personal relationships that are essential to the Realtor®-client rapport and to the industry.
     
“Technology has moved so quickly, but the real estate industry hasn’t moved as fast,” says Teddi Segal, president and broker, Honey House Homes in Alexandria. “There are a lot of smart agents and brokers who are using technology, including the top 3 to 5 percent of producers, but I would like to see the industry as a whole come into modernity.”
     
The National Association of Realtors’® Center for Realtor® Technology researches new trends to find future tools for members.
     
“The NAR lab workers are basically like mad scientists researching new technology, finding products and reviewing them for members,” says Shawn Hanna, director of technology initiatives for NVAR. To learn more about CRT, visit http://crt.blogs.realtor.org/. 
      
TRANSFORMATIVE TECH FOR REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONALS
Segal says that while consumers can access much of the same information as real estate professionals, Realtors® have to leverage that information to provide services to customers.

“The only way data is meaningful is when it is interpreted and used as part of a strategy,” says Segal. While Realtors® who have been in business for decades may think the biggest tech transformation was finally eliminating massive real estate listings books or the opening of listing information to consumers, many experts think that the next big transformation is occurring right now, with the increased use of   mobile technology.
     
“Real estate agents were among the first to embrace the internet and then accepted that consumers could have access to information, too,” says Guy Wolcott, founder of HomeSnap in Bethesda. “The reverse is true of mobile technology. Consumers have led the way and agents have had to catch up with them. We are still in the phase of patching the gap between consumers and agents, and making all the information agents need available on mobile devices.”Realtors® use technology in every aspect of their business, including the following transformative tools:

HOMESNAP
HomeSnap started as a one-feature consumer app, says Wolcott. Basically it allowed people to take a photo of a house and then find out information about the property. Eventually it became a full-featured consumer app and then the company discovered that Realtors® were using it, too.

“We heard from Realtors® that while most of their professional tools had good data, they had to use them on the web or on a desktop rather than on their phones,” says Wolcott. “HomeSnap Pro combines all the data that both Realtors® and consumers need with a quality interface. We partnered with the MLS so it’s available to every agent rather than limited to subscribers.” 

HomeSnap has a built-in messaging app for agents and consumers that Realtors® can use to communicate with each other. Strauch says the app functions as a remote meeting place to share information. 

“I think every agent should devote a few hours every week to learning how to use the tools available to them,” says Zelaska. “They need to become masters of their profession.”

“HomeSnap has changed the way buyers and agents interact,” says Julie Zelaska, principal, Smith Schnider, LLC Residential Marketing and Brokerage in Arlington. “It’s a journey to figure out what you want to buy, so it’s helpful for buyers to use [the app] to educate themselves and to communicate easily with agents and share information.”
Wolcott thinks the next tech trends will include expansion of mobile technology and messaging, along with the rise of Facebook as a platform for more communication and marketing. 

COMMUNICATIONS 
Hanna says Realtors® should take advantage of the numerous opportunities technology offers, such as filling out a free Realtor.com profile and their profiles on Yelp, MRIS Homes, and other platforms that may interest them. 

“NAR’s member benefits center has tools like the Realtors® Content Resource that members can use to provide information to clients such as the best ways to improve a house before selling,” says Hanna. “At NVAR we’re working on improvements to our website so that it will populate with articles and information relevant to whatever someone is searching for.” 

While Segal says a lot of technology can be valuable, products that remove the agent from the transaction and diminish the role of the Realtor® can make Realtors® look bad. For example, she says arranging home showings online reduces contacts between agents and customers. 

“Customers want to work with people and have a chance for interaction,” she says.
Katie Wethman, a Realtor® with Keller Williams Realty in McLean, says she appreciates the automated scheduling for showings since it avoids wasting time playing phone tag with listing agents. “The SentriSmart™ app that allows you to enter a code to open the lockbox is great, too,” says Wethman. 

MARKETING
Zelaska says marketing, particularly for new home communities, has changed dramatically due to the ability to identify demographic groups that are potential buyers using social media and geography. “Virtual reality is starting to be used, but that technology isn’t user-friendly yet,” says Zelaska. “While videos are essential and virtual reality is helpful if someone can’t visit a property, people prefer to see a model and to feel the energy that flows through a property.”

Customer Relationship Management tools can be used to streamline marketing communications. Wethman’s team uses multiple (CRM) products for various tasks, such as an e-newsletter, a drip campaign to reach possible leads and an excel spreadsheet for mailing lists. She says Google Drive works well for internal communications and to share folders.

“The value of using CRM tools is that you can create the process you want, set up a reminder, and then forget it,” says Strauch. “The point of automating these systems is to open up time for face-to-face meetings and phone calls.”
 
TRANSACTION MANAGEMENT
“Technology has made it so much easier to accommodate everyone’s schedules,” says Wethman. “It used to take hours to meet with people to write an offer, get it signed and scan it, but now that’s a 15-minute process.” Wethman says one risk of this convenience is that buyers don’t always read what they’re signing. 

“That could happen with or without technology, but now that everything moves faster it’s more obvious when people don’t read documents,” says Wethman. 
Contract management tech allows buyers to be more efficient and agents to focus on the most important things, says Zelaska. On the other hand, she misses the days of presenting offers in person.

“It takes away the personalization of the experience,” says Zelaska. NVAR provides Instanet Solutions products as a member benefit, which includes Authentisign™ and cloud storage and is available on every device a Realtor® uses, says Hanna. 

“One of the most important elements of e-signatures is legibility,” says Segal. “We used to fax forms back and forth to the point that you could barely read anything on the page, but these are legal contracts and it’s essential that people be able to look at them carefully.”

ANALYTICS
 Segal says a few companies such as SmartZip provide predictive analytics data on a localized basis to help agents determine who might want to sell a property and to estimate the sales price and pace of sales. 

“SmartZip is the big player for usable data analytics for Realtors® organized by zip code,” says Hanna. “Realtors® can subscribe to the data and then use their CRM to reach out to potential clients.” MRIS and others have access to increasing amounts of data. “The goal is to make that data digestible with things like Smart Charts,” says Strauch. “Now we’re working on bringing more value to Realtors®, with more neighborhood information and easily shared information.” 

“The new reality of open access to information for consumers and Realtors® focuses attention on the consultative value of Realtors®, which helps buyers and sellers decide what they want.”

SmartZip also provides marketing services based on its data, although Segal says she prefers to use her own marketing materials. “I use RPR [Realtor Property Resource® from NAR] reports, too. In fact I use as many sources as possible for each client and then repackage the information for them rather than rely on the prepackaged product,” says Segal. 

TECH HELPLINE AND TRAINING
 Strauch recommends that Realtors® go to NVAR training sessions or watch videos online from tech vendors to learn how to use the Instanet system, HomeSnap, RPR and other tools.

“You can go to the mentors in your office, too, but whatever you do, the more you know about how to use your technology, the more professional you appear to your customers,” says Strauch. “I also recommend that Realtors® take the training we offer for MRIS tools so they understand how to use them. It just takes a few minutes to use Smart Charts to increase your neighborhood knowledge.”

Zelaska says agents should take as much online training as possible from NVAR and other sources.

“I think every agent should devote a few hours every week to learning how to use the tools available to them,” says Zelaska. “They need to become masters of their profession.”

NVAR’s Tech Helpline provides training and troubleshooting support for hardware, software, networking systems and devices. “It’s like a ‘Geek Squad’ but designed for Realtors®,” says Hanna. “It’s free for our members and it also saves a lot of time. It’s especially helpful when members are out in the field and need some immediate assistance.”
The HelpLine at 800.276.4216 is available weekdays from 9 to 8 and Saturdays from 9 to 5. 

REALTORS®; VALUED CONSULTANTS
“The new reality of open access to information for consumers and Realtors® focuses attention on the consultative value of Realtors®, which helps buyers and sellers decide what they want,” says Strauch. 
     
Realtors® use their knowledge and experience to work through the entire process of buying and selling a home, including the emotional side of the transaction, something no technology can ever replace. 

TECH SITES FOR REALTORS®
• http://techsavvyagent.com/ 
- includes product reviews
• http://www.homesnap.com/
- includes separate portal for agents
• http://www.narrpr.com/
- access to range of reports and data
• http://www.getsmartcharts.com/
- access to-organized market data
• http://www.smartzip.com/
- data by zip code
• http://www.instanetsolutions.com/
- paperless solutions
• http://www.softwareadvice.com/
- reviews of CRM programs, searchable according to your business
• http://www.inman.com/category/technology/
- up-to-date news and reviews of latest real estate technology
• http://realtormag.realtor.org/technology
- latest tech news from Realtor® magazine