Every industry’s water cooler talk is all about real estate automation – and with good reason. One of the greatest ways to excel in the real estate industry is by automating everything in your day-to-day operations. But automating your marketing and sales efforts can also improve your agency.
Automation is such a buzzword, though. What is it, really?
Why should you adopt automation?
How can a real estate agent automate its workflow?
If these are questions you’ve ever pondered, we’ve got answers. Ready to see what’s possible for your real estate business?
What is Automation for Real Estate Agents?
Automation is simply a reduction in the number of manual tasks you perform. It’s letting tools turn those tasks into automated workflows, allowing you to spend more time on what matters most.
Automation takes time-consuming tasks off your hands – lead generation and other real estate transactions that help you grow your business are taken care of in real time without you having to monitor each one.
For instance, your operations, processes, and marketing can go from lackluster to stellar as your reduced workload provides time to focus on your current clients and nurture your leads.
It doesn’t mean you’ll replace your employees with tools – you’ll give your agents and brokers the tools they need to do their job more efficiently and effectively.
And you don’t have to automate everything! Just those aspects of your daily operations that would increase efficiency if taken off your plate. In fact, if you use a customer relationship management (CRM) software, you’re already automating something. Can you imagine having to keep track of all the daily touchpoints between your agency and prospects in your head? Even on paper that’d be a tremendous feat.
Does real estate automation sound enticing?
Here are a few of the easiest automations you can add to your real estate agency:
- Marketing
- Business operations and processes
- Engagement
- Management
- App and tool connection and integration
Let’s look at these real estate automation types, how you can put them to use, and the tools available to make it reality.
Marketing
Automating your real estate marketing has many applications, such as:
- Automating lead generation
- Capturing leads for open houses via landing pages
- Syncing leads across channels into one convenient location
- Having leads sent to your mobile device
- Routing leads automatically to any device or location
- Nurturing leads and syncing with workflows
- Creating email workflows based on activity or action taken
- Improving lead management
- Tracking opportunities
- Monitoring lead actions and activities via specific triggers
Time spent watching leads and deciding which ones to contact or interact with is time better spent elsewhere. You can use real estate automation to track every lead’s behaviors, whether on your social profiles, website, or landing pages. Use a preset trigger that notifies you when you actually need to take action.
Automating your business processes
Several of your day-to-day processes can be automated to save time and resources, such as:
- Everyday tasks
- Notifications
- Accounting and financials
- Property management tasks
- Contract activities
If you’re responsible for multi-family units, consider automating notifications from tenants. For instance, create different triggers depending on if the notification is low- or high-priority.
Automating engagement
There have been a number of advancements in communication technology in recent years. Tools now exist that allow tenants to initiate a work order if, for example, they’re having plumbing issues. They can then track that order via SMS text or email without property management needing to answer each time the tenant has a question. When the tenant initiates the order, building maintenance is alerted. Maintenance then acknowledges the order, performs the work, and notes when a job is completed. If more work is needed, the maintenance personnel can note this within the tool. The tenant is notified each time maintenance makes a change to the work order, and vice versa.
Automated engagement is also helpful for:
- Sending reminders of appointments and other important dates
- Sending automated voicemails
- Engaging and keeping in touch with past clients
Anytime you’re seeking new leads, realize you’ve already got the best ones – past clients. You can automatically send email and text messages that are preset for specific dates relevant to each previous client. For instance, consider an email that sends to a client exactly one year after they’ve purchased their home – it’s this kind of personal touch that keeps you top of mind. Include your contact information with each message – they just might know your next sale.
Automating management activities
Real estate business management encompasses everything from HR activities to metrics and analysis of campaigns. Imagine automating:
- Property inspections
- Agent and broker availability
- Analytics of engagement, performance, and other key metrics
The time, effort, and money you’ll save is immeasurable.
The Top 10 Tools You Need in Your Real Estate Automation Toolkit
To succeed in real estate automation, these are the tools you need in your arsenal:
And while it isn’t an automation tool per se, ProspectNow is a tool that can seriously up your real estate game and save you time and costly fees in the process.
Wrap Up
These real estate automation tech advances are exciting. Their invention has demanded changes in everything from residential to commercial real estate. There are tools for every aspect of your agency.
If you want to stay relevant in the real estate market, adapting to these changes is necessary.
And we should know – we’ve been in real estate since 2008, helping agents and brokers just like you find more leads and make more money.