Having technology as a part of your life in your career as a real estate agent is pretty inevitable. More and more consumers are going online to look for homes while expecting to communicate more efficiently, and you undoubtedly have to have a thriving database to really achieve big. Technology is part of your business whether you like it or not.
Where do you begin? The agent that is reluctant to adopt technology, but realizes the essential need to do so, needs to begin somewhere. Below you’ll find my five most important pieces of technology in my real estate business, along with my explanation of why they’re important to me.
A Computer Or Laptop
As logical as it may seem, you’d be surprised how many agents I meet that do not have a personal computer. I understand that a new agent’s first priority is to generate consistent income, and an investment in a personal computer can be tough to do.
Realize, however, that you are beginning a business just like any other business in this world. McDonald’s wouldn’t dream of opening a franchise without the ability to have an grill to cook their product; neither should you.
If you have your own office space at your brokerage, invest in a desktop computer. In many cases, it can be a little cheaper to begin with and can provide a solid foundation to begin building your business.
If you do not have your own personal office, you could work from home but I’ve always been a against doing this. Some agents are able to do it successfully, while many others cannot. You could choose to save an invest in a laptop computer that can be mobile with you; your companion at the office, during closings, and during listing and buyer consultations.
A Database
Your database is your business. Gary Keller pounded this into our heads at Keller Williams University, and I’m glad he did. Your database is the life-blood, backbone, even the spirit that your business needs to survive.
Take all the biggest teams across America: Can it be realistic that they do not operate their own databases with the amount of business they have coming in each and every day?
Investing in the right database is another task upon itself. I recommend Top Producer not only because of the features it comes packed with for a real estate business, but because of the simple fact that I can log into my database from any computer anywhere in the world as long as I have access to the internet.
A Cell Phone
A simple cell phone is something nearly every adult in America has or has had at some point in time. A cell phone for your real estate business will be essential to responding to new leads where time is of the essence.
If you already have a cell phone, consider using it for your business but please do not ever answer the phone with a plain, “Hello.” This is now your business phone; act like your clients are calling a multi-million dollar company!
If you are with a large real estate brokerage, many times cell phone carriers will offer promotional discounts that can be applicable to the purchase of your phone and even your rate plan. Contact the administrator for your office if you think you might have a promotion you could take advantage of.
In recent years, free email services have had the chance to mature in features that they offer that I feel confident promoting the use of online email as your sole business email rather than a program that downloads emails locally to your computer, such as Outlook.
One email provider shines above the rest: Gmail from Google. Gmail offers a more space than you could possibly imagine filling up, and is flexible to allow you to use their service as the backbone of your email technology for your real estate business.
A Website
It’s a fact: more consumers are starting their search for a home online rather than contacting an agent directly. Your website should be built to give consumers what they they are looking for first, then what you want to tell them second.
The main use of a real estate website is to search for homes for sale in your local area, so be sure to make it blatantly obvious that your site satisfies this need.
Adopting technology is actually an easier task than you think, but the overwhelming response I get from the use of technology in a real estate business is that it can be complicated. Well, isn’t anything that you aren’t familiar with considered complicated?
Choose to make the right move first and incorporate the five technologies listed above into your business and have the piece of mind that you’re not falling behind the expectations of consumers in this day and age.
For those of you that have these technologies in your business now: could you even fathom the effect on your business if any one of them was taken away from you?
-SC-
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February 24th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Very good post Steve, I would suggest that agents just go to a laptop these days though, as the cost difference is not that much anymore. I do everything on my laptop, including listing presentations.
February 25th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Great article Steve. The real estate market is defiantly getting more technologically advanced. At least the Houston real estate market is. I live by a computer, phone, and fax machine. Although the five items you listed are a necessity to work in the real estate business these days, I would like to add a few amendments to your article.
1) To increase efficiency I have found a good scanner that is compatible with Adobe PDF files helps. This equipment will save you endless amounts of time and allow you to relay documents to business associates with greater ease.
2) A fax machine. One that can send and receive fax without complications is also a necessity in my opinion. Most incoming fax can be received via email to cut down on paper. EX) if you need to get a referral agreement to an agent you can receive it by email, scan it, and then fax within minutes.
3) A professional cell phone message is also a good idea. This goes out to the younger generation of real estate professionals. I can’t count the number of voicemail messages I’ve heard that sound like some college spring break promotion.
4) In regard to email, be persistent in returning them.
5) If you operate a website, that’s great! Just keep the info up to date and accurate.
Like you said Steve, “Technology is a part of your business whether you like it or not”.
February 27th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Great article and I could not agree more with your list of requirements. I am wondering, however, what role mobile devices will play in the future. Some palms and pocket PCs are getting so powerful, I think that some agents are using these more portable technologies. I wonder what the trend will be 5 years from now?
February 28th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Great article. I find it amazing the amount of real estate agents who don’t have their own personal website. I am even more amazed at a few of the real estate brokerages I know of that don’t have a site for their company.
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:17 am
@Ben DeBell: Isn’t it fascinating? With the new technologies out like IMAP, you can automatically synchronize your email on all mobiles devices you have with your main email software.
In 5 years, I see the adoption of mobile technologies (laptops, smart phones, etc.) increasing, but the real estate industry is always slow to adapt. It’ll take substantially more time for anyone to consider the average real estate agent a “techie”.
@Johnny Davis: Agreed. Not having a website now-a-days is such a handicap. There are plenty of options to establish a web presence. I’ll post more about this soon.
March 4th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Definitely the best option for a real estate agent is a laptop.
March 10th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Steve, great post. I agree that IMAP can be a big help keeping emails organized between different devices.
March 18th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Laptop would be suitable for a real estate agent.
April 14th, 2008 at 7:42 am
Nice post Certainly those things you have suggested for real estate agents are necessary and useful especially the website. It shows the facade of your company. They can explore and get to know more about your company if you have one and good website.