Technology is transforming every industry and estate agency is no exception. No agency can expect to succeed without investing in an up-to-the-minute estate agent toolkit. The good news? There’s plenty to choose from.
So – what software do estate agents need? From CRM tools to social media channel managers, agents currently enjoy a wealth of options enabling them to enhance efficiency, productivity and customer service. In almost every instance, these digital innovations build upon those important human skills, rather than replace them.
Table of Contents
- Electronic signatures
- 3D tours
- Contact management
- Lead nurturing
- Transaction management
- Social Media Management software
6 Essential Online Tools for Estate Agents
1. Electronic signatures
Signatures are, of course, a necessary legal requirement at various stages of a client’s journey towards purchasing or renting a property. One of the most common essential tools for estate agents today is electronic signature software – Docusign being one of the most popular.
This estate agents’ tool enables you to capture contracts, tenancy agreements, references, inventories on any internet-ready device. You can easily customise the secure software for your agency. The result? Increased process speeds leading to improved cash flow.
There are many electronic signature tools available on the market today, and choosing the right one can be a challenge. Here are other electronic signature tools we recommend for your Estate Agency:
- Adobe Sign
- eSign Genie
- Hellosign
- RightSignature
- Scrive
- SignNow
- Sertifi
- SkySignature
- ThinkSmart
2. 3D tours
3D tours from a reality capture system like Matterport are the next best thing to walking through a property in reality. You simply scan your property with a 3D camera and upload the data to the cloud. Matterport then processes the upload into 4K doll’s house and walkthrough views for you to share directly with potential purchasers. In our view, this is one of the best gadgets for estate agents in 2021. Potential buyers or renters can explore every corner and detail of properties at their leisure, with no need for time-consuming repeat visits. This saves you, the estate agent, time and money.
Matterport.com is one of the most well-known 3D video-capturing companies, though there are other companies offering varying 3D tour tools. Check out others from our list:
- Zillow 3D Home™
- Tourbuzz
- RTV360 Virtual Tour Software
- iGUIDE
- Blue Prudence – 360 virtual tour software
- Realtour Vision – 3D virtual tour software
- EyeSpy360 – 360 virtual tour system
- eXp Realty – 3D virtual tours
3. Contact management
One of the handiest estate agents’ tools is a reliable and flexible CRM system, such as Contactually – a platform that simplifies and automates your client communications with your entire network. The software enables you to sync your phone and email history to centralise your network and share contacts with colleagues — as well as sorting old and new contacts into prioritised buckets.
The benefit is that you can keep a close eye on every deal, applying productivity pipelines. These instantly show the current position and automate delegated tasks to team members at vital stages.
Keeping track of multiple clients isn’t always straightforward. With an efficient CRM, you’ll make project coordination and teamwork far more manageable than ever before.
Here are other recommended CRM software systems:
- IXACT Contact
- Base CRM
- Highrise CRM
- Zoho CRM
- SalesforceCRM
- SugarCRM CE
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online
Be sure to checkout our article on the best free CRM software for Estate Agents.
4. Lead nurturing
The world of estate agency has rarely been as competitive as it is today. In order to succeed, you need leads … plenty of them, and you need them fast! To support you with this, a lead nurturing tool, such as RealScout will prove to be a godsend, making the entire process swift and hassle-free.
The software rapidly sifts through multiple listing service data and sources the perfect properties for lucrative leads based on 400 specific criteria. The system sends the most relevant listings to potential buyers via alerts customised with your estate agent brand and contact details.
Once you have the ability to collate and curate the best client matches, it becomes that much easier to close the deal.
We are market leaders in providing prospecting and lead generation services to UK estate agents. If you want to find out how we can help your agency thrive, get in contact with Jack today to find out more.
5. Transaction management
Arguably, our favourite top tech tip for estate agents is to use Transaction Management software. A platform worth a close look at is Dotloop. This system enables you to draft, capture and securely store every piece of paperwork for any particular estate agent transaction.
You can collaborate with teammates to customise and tweak templates, which you can store as evidence of legal compliance.
Transaction Management software reduces cumbersome administration tasks and offers far greater data protection security than storing cabinets stuffed with countless paper files in offices and vehicles.
6. Social Media Management software
Making effective use of Social Media is, of course, a must for any estate agent. Benefits of managing social media campaigns include
- Increased brand awareness
- Building trust and authenticity in your business
- Demonstrating your expertise
- Keeping you top of mind with potential customers
- Driving traffic to your website
- Generating more leads
Social media isn’t so much about selling yourself as an estate agent. It’s much more about building awareness of your business, engaging with potential customers, and adding value so that when someone is ready to engage an estate agent, you are first in mind.
There are numerous tools for managing your social media activity. They will help you to schedule your posts and effectively monitor their impact and influence. Here are just a few you can look at:
- Hootsuite: A social media management platform that can help you track all your social media channels in one place.
- Buffer: Another social media management platform that can help you schedule and publish content across multiple social media channels.
- Sprout Social: A social media management platform that offers a suite of tools to help businesses grow their social media presence.
- Followerwonk: A tool that helps you analyze your Twitter followers and find new ones to follow.
- Tweetdeck: A Twitter management tool that lets you view multiple timelines, search for tweets, and more.
Stay ahead – stay competitive with up-to-the-minute essential tools for Estate Agents.
Keeping ahead of the competition has always been a vital element to any estate agent business. Over the next few years, making the most of the available software opportunities should be at the heart of your business strategy.
