By Gwen Moran
Running a successful real estate business is no small feat. Always on the go, REALTORS® may be traveling to and from showings, researching buyer inquiries, prospecting, managing documents and email messages, and developing marketing plans for new listings. And that’s just before lunch.
The good news is that in this “there’s an app for that” era, an increasing number of resources can help mobile REALTORS® manage the many details of their jobs—and provide return on investment ranging from significant time and money savings to greater productivity and increased sales. We asked REALTORS® which apps they can’t live without, and they responded with the “must haves” that deliver ROI and turn their smartphones into mobile offices. Some of their favorites:
Canva
canva.com
Pricing: Ranges from a free version to $12.95 per month per user for up to 30 team members. Contact Canva for team pricing options.
Ginger S. Nixon, CRS, a REALTOR® with Blue Ridge Properties in Kingsport, Tennessee, now designs most of her own marketing materials with the Canva app. She has created flyers, tip sheets, letterhead, social media graphics and a home anniversary card. “It took me two to three times to really get the hang of it,” she says. For someone who’s not tech-savvy, it may take a little longer. She uses the app both on her phone and desktop—functionality is a little better on the desktop, she says—but she’s happy with the results, which have saved her business hundreds of dollars. She estimates she has saved from $25 to $150 per piece she designs herself, depending on the complexity, and the app even lets her generate designs she can send directly to the printer.
SentriLock
sentrilock.com
Pricing: Varies by brokerage.
Charlotte Chang, CRS, a sales agent with Michael Moran & Associates in Honolulu, Hawaii, finds SentriLock to be a valuable tool for her business, helping her monitor listing traffic. Although the system can allow other REALTORS® to simply use the SentriSmart app on their smartphones to gain access to properties secured with a SentriLock lock box, Chang requires a second code, the “call before showing (CBS)” code, for her own peace of mind.
“Agents have to call before showing my listing to identify themselves and verify which real estate agency they are with. I know who’s going in and will provide the CBS code at that time,” she says. Then the app reports back when they go into the property and when they leave. If they don’t leave within 90 minutes, I get a notification on my phone,” she says. Without the app, she says she would often have to drive up to 60 miles to personally monitor property visitors and ensure the home is locked up afterward, so the app helps her save several hours per month just in travel time, while helping her better secure clients’ properties.
SentriLock contracts with REALTOR® organizations, so check with your brokerage or with your local National Association of REALTORS® chapter.
Mile IQ
mileiq.com
Cost: Tiered, ranging from free to $5.99 per month. Contact for team pricing.
Marta Paulson, CRS, also uses Mile IQ to track her business mileage and expenses, which she uses along with the expense tracking features of her CRM. Before using Mile IQ, she would stuff receipts in an envelope in her vehicle’s door panel. “My CPA wanted me to keep a journal, which was nearly impossible for me because I’m too busy and it was a nuisance. This is simple and works for me,” she says. She estimates that she captures 30 percent more of her mileage, tolls and parking expense deductions than her paper-based system.
Realty Juggler
realtyjuggler.com
Cost: $99 per year. Three-month free trial.
Realty Juggler is a full-service customer relationship management (CRM) system designed for REALTORS®. Used on your desktop or smartphone, this cloud-based system has a wide range of features that can help you manage contacts, build call lists, send drip campaigns, and calculate and track commissions, to name just a few of the features. Marta Paulson, CRS, associate broker at A.V. West Real Estate in Boise, Idaho, says the ease of use is helping her streamline everything from her marketing to expense management. Plus, the $99 per year fee is less than half the $250 annual cost of the platform she previously used.
“I was looking for ways to improve my business overall, and having all of my records in one place was a perfect place for me to start,” she says. “It’s making my accountant very happy.” Now, instead of spending two to three days just trying to organize receipts, she’s got everything ready to go with a few clicks.
HomeSnap Pro
homesnap.com/pro
Cost: Free where available
HomeSnap Pro partners with various regional REALTOR® associations and offers its powerful app free to members. With the app, you can access Multiple Listing Service (MLS) listings on your phone. “[Clients] can look at listings as they drive by. It uses a GPS system and shows them whether a property is active or not,” says Marta Paulson, CRS. The app allows you to track listings, generate instant comparative market analyses, coordinate showing times and conduct market research right on your phone.
The value here is better communication and reduced frustration, Paulson says. “It enhances my clients’ understanding of how the MLS works, so they are not randomly looking at everything with a sign in front of it thinking all those properties are available,” she says. The enhanced communication and more effective searches lead to happier clients, and more sales and referrals.
Dropbox
dropbox.com
Cost: Free for up to 2GB of storage. Pricing for 1TB up to $8.25 per month to $16.58 per month, depending on features.
Debbie Reynolds, CRS, a REALTOR® with Century 21 Platinum Properties in Clarksville, Tennessee, carries all of her documents in her phone with Dropbox. The cloud-based file management app houses photographs, contracts, market research and any other document she saves to it. “I put every picture, every photo, every document and anything else that I need into it, and I have those files accessible at my fingertips so that I can push them to anyone who needs them,” she says. Reynolds upgraded to 1TB of storage and says it’s her go-to app that helps her keep productive on the road.
Reynolds says that having her files close at hand and easily accessible wherever she is located can add greater efficiency to many tasks. “In terms of reduced drive time and the greater efficiency of getting it done right at that time, I save at least 20 to 25 hours a month. That gives me another 2-3 full workdays to make sales and work on listings,” Reynolds says.
If there are areas in your business where you’re facing challenges, explore app options to help you solve them and provide valuable ROI for the time and money you invest.
LandGlide
reportallusa.com/solutions/landglide
Cost: $9.99 per month or $99 per year. One-week free trial.
LandGlide is a GPS-based app that lets you view and search more than 145.2 million land parcels covering more than 97.1 percent of the U.S. Tracy Kirkley, CRS, broker and vice president at Crye-Lieke Real Estate Services in Olive Branch, Mississippi, says it’s her go-to app these days.
“It pulls up property lines based upon the tax records. I can be anywhere in the country and open the app and it will pull up a satellite view of where I am standing and show the property lines,” she says. The app can also identify the owners of the adjoining properties. In some areas, the amount of data is inconsistent—tax records are available for properties in her home county, but not the next county over—but she says the property line data improves buyer experience, especially in rural areas.
And while the app doesn’t necessarily deliver a time or money savings, she says it gives her an edge over other REALTORS®. Without its features, she would just need to forego showing property lines to clients, diminishing her customer service ability. “[LandGlide] makes me look very knowledgeable to my clients. I am able to give them info on the spot that most agents cannot,” she says. And that gives her a competitive advantage.
Beyond apps
In addition to the apps they love, two REALTORS® shared other tech communication tools and techniques to communicate with clients more effectively:
- Video email. Geena Becker, a REALTOR® with William Raveis Real Estate in Avon, Connecticut, uses BombBomb to respond to traditional email and voicemail with short videos. The engaging responses have increased customer response. “It also impresses current clients, or someone who has called me and left a voicemail from a sign call or a property they saw online,” she says.
- Talk to text. Use the talk-to-text function on your texting app to help you send your message without feeling like you’re all thumbs, says Debbie Reynolds, CRS, a REALTOR® with Century 21 Platinum Properties in Clarksville, Tennessee.
- Document signing apps can be another invaluable tool for REALTORS®, says Debbie Reynolds, CRS, a REALTOR® with Century 21 Platinum Properties in Clarksville, Tennessee. She uses Instanet, which is her local REALTOR® association’s form system, through which her contracts and forms are offered as part of her membership.
“It makes a very streamlined process of being able to just click on the listing, and when you’re ready to write the offer, go to the Instanet form through our TransactionDesk, which allows you to instantly use the signing application, Authentisign,” she says.
Other signing applications that are also good are DocuSign or DotLoop, which are available to anyone, she says.
