7 High-Tech Real Estate Agent Tools for Better Listings and Showings
Are you a real estate agent who really loves to wow and excite your customers?
There are so many different real estate agent tools available to you these days to help you do just that.
Whether you are well-versed in using technology or are a little apprehensive about it, there are so many different options available to you.
Perhaps you have been successful just selling real estate the traditional way. You list your properties, meet with clients, do showings, and sell.
Or, maybe you have been experiencing some unexplained lulls in business and you’d like to remedy that.
Either way, you can benefit from incorporating high-tech real estate tools into your business. Most are much easier to learn and use that you might imagine, and you will be amazed at how much extra business they can drive your way.
Read on to learn about how to use technology in your real estate business. If you implement one of the following ideas to start, you’ll likely soon be inspired to try the others, as well.
- Virtual Tours
If you’re not using virtual tours already in your real estate business, you should be. In fact, this is the item on this list that will help you grow your business the most.
Face it. Your customers are busy people. Gone are the days when people had the time to do in-person tours of every single property that interests them. Also, depending on where you live and work, many of your potential buyers may live outside of your area and may not be able to visit easily.
Homebuyers today want to be able to look at properties online to help them narrow down their options before taking the time and using the energy needed to take a look at their favorites with you in-person.
Offering virtual tours on your site will attract customers, plain and simple.
There are several ways to offer virtual tours on your website. Of course, you could just walk through the home yourself and record it; this would be the simplest way to accomplish this, but unless you are a videographer, chances are that it will look unprofessional.
Virtual Tour Apps
Fortunately, there are a few apps out there that can help you to make high-quality virtual tours for your customers.
One is 3D Showcase. This program lets buyers do a virtual walk-through of property in three dimensions and also provides them with a 3D floor plan of the property overall.
Although you’ll need to buy a special camera to use this program that costs around $4,500, once you get it set up, it does the work for you; you set it up in each room and it rotates to capture the space. It will take about an hour to shoot an entire home.
Another virtual tour app made for real estate is Vieweet. This is an application that you download to your phone, and then you use your cell phone camera to capture the space yourself by standing in the middle of a room and rotating.
The app includes easy to follow, on-screen instructions, and guides you in uploading the finished product to your website.
- Drones
Virtual tours are great for showing your customers the interiors of your properties, but many would love to view the exterior and surrounding property as well. That’s where drones come in.
Piloting drones can be tricky and frustrating. You can buy one yourself, but the learning curve may be huge. You might be more successful in this realm by hiring a drone pilot to shoot your properties from above for you.
However, drone footage of properties can really impress your clients and the investment is well worth it. When a potential buyer can see an entire property from above, they’ll get a much better overview of the home and property they are considering.
- Electronic Signature Apps
Keeping paperwork organized can really be a drag. This is true in every industry, but in real estate, it can be even more confusing and stressful.
Real estate agent tools that simplify this process are invaluable. There are several great electronic signature applications that can help you in this area.
One is DocuSign. Using this application allows your customers to sign anywhere, anytime, and on any device using electronic signatures. Signatures are then stored in the cloud.
Another is HelloSign. While both are used by people in a wide variety of different professions, real estate agents seem to prefer HelloSign a bit more due to its built-in integration with other applications and its useful Sales Agreement templates.
- Showing Suite
As a busy real estate agent, you know that it’s often difficult to keep track of everything when it comes to showings. Showing Suite can help.
This app will help you to keep your showing schedule, addresses, notes, feedback, photos, and lockbox codes organized in one place. It will make you look prepared and ready for every show by demonstrating to your clients that they are important to you.
- Property Shark
Property Shark is a great way to get information about a property instantly. This web tool will immediately produce things like ownership records, past pricing, property taxes, market value, permits, and more on any property.
You can tell your clients whether you are ready to sell your home yet or not, a lot of valuable information about it can be learned from this site. It can tell interested parties about a particular property, and about the neighbors to that property as well.
- Doorsteps
First-time homebuyers often struggle with the complexity of the home buying process. Although you would certainly love to hold their hand every step of the way, it’s often not possible to do so. All your clients are important to you, but you have other clients, too.
Doorsteps can help make this easier for all parties involved. This online tool is a shared workspace for you and your buyer and can help them to understand when they need to do certain things and why. You can keep track of their progress on your end, and everyone will feel much calmer and more secure.
Happy Selling With These Real Estate Agent Tools
Each and every one of the above real estate agent tools exists to make your job run smoother and easier and to help you sell more effectively.
Although they are a lot to take on and master at once, consider trying one per month until you have incorporated all of them into your business. They may be challenging to learn at first, but the benefits will come back to you tenfold and you’ll be happy you gave them a try. Good luck!
If you are interested in learning more exciting things about real estate, check out the rest of our site for many helpful articles.
