Michael Sinton, owner of the Mercerville, New Jersey Assist-2-Sell office, was interviewed at length for an article in Real Estate Business Magazine.  The magazine is produced by the Council of Real Estate Brokerage Managers (CRB Council).

Real Estate Business Magazine

Technology 101

By Lon Mills

Home life may not mimic "The Jetsons" just yet, but buying and selling them has moved a step closer to that futuristic lifestyle that was merely a fantasy 40 years ago.

As the 21st century moves forward, more real estate brokerages are adding, upgrading or researching the latest technology innovations to better their firms, customer service and agent productivity.

It's not just today's market conditions that brokerages need to analyze, but it's the real estate trends as well.

"The idea behind an office with 100 desks isn't needed anymore," says Steve Westmark, CRB, past president and broker of Counselor Realty in Minneapolis-St. Paul. "Agents may be in the office three hours a week; and the rest of the time they are running their business out in the field."

As real estate agents embrace an expanding mobile society, brokers must adjust their management tactics and strategies. But where to start? The tools and services available to real estate brokerages can be overwhelming, especially to a new broker, owner or manager.

Go e-PRO
One place to start is by earning the e-PRO certification offered by the National Association of REALTORS®‚ (NAR). e-PRO is the only NAR-approved Internet certification program and is designed to keep real estate professionals abreast of online real estate developments.

For Michael Sinton, a CRB Candidate and broker/owner of Assist-2-Sell Buyers & Sellers Edge in Mercerville, N.J., the e-PRO course was the starting point for him and his agents. Approximately a year ago, after reading many articles forecasting the downturn in the real estate market, Sinton decided to bring his office up to speed on technology.

"It was an eye opener," Sinton says. "It made us ask, ‘What more could we do?'" His experience with the course led to researching innovative tools and services that could keep his brokerage competitive in a changing market.

In an industry where customer service is everything, technology is needed to make things more efficient, not necessarily easier.

"The things we've implemented make us more efficient," Sinton says. "It gets us in front of people rather than stuck behind a desk trying to find people. It streamlines our operation."

Tech Talk
Offered by the CRB Council, the brand new course "Technology Management: Develop & Deploy an Effective Strategy for Your Office" presents strategies for both small brokerages as well as managers working within larger firms who enjoy the luxury of having a full-time IT person. This course was developed in partnership with Matthew Ferrara & Company, a leader in real estate technology. It aims to give participants a technology plan to implement right away when they return to their offices.

"One of the benefits of the class serves to help build the bridge for large and small brokers," says John Mayfield, ABR, ABRM, CRB, e-PRO, GRI, and broker associate with RE/MAX Best Choice in St. Louis, Mo., president of RealEstateSalesMeeting.com and instructor for the "Technology Management" course.

Topics in the class include technology, office policies, modern office infrastructure, enabling a mobile work force, marketing technologies, Web site enhancement and metrics, blogs and Intranets. It's a resource to learn what can work, what saves time and what makes a firm more profitable.

"The goals for the course are to get brokers and agents up to speed on what technology changes are needed for their firms," Mayfield said. "We want to inject a lot of ideas into them to implement into their own office."

If a real estate brokerage has a full-time IT person, Mayfield suggests the broker and IT director take the course to understand each other's roles to ensure a smoother operation.

"It allows both parties to understand what the other does," Mayfield says.

Your Software is Showing
An innovation that is making ground with real estate brokerages is the use of "showing software." Sinton and his firm use Real Front Desk from Advanced Office Solutions and appreciate the personalized automatic feedback system it provides.

The software works like this: As soon as a showing agent shows a house listed by Sinton's firm, they receive a survey via e-mail with personalized questions about the home. As soon as it's submitted via e-mail, a copy goes to the listing agent and the homeowner. Sinton cites his firm had a showing agent response rate of 20% without Real Front Desk as compared to 90% with it.

"It's quicker to get feedback from the showing agent," Sinton says. "It takes less of their time, and they can do it at their leisure. That's one of the reasons our response rate went up."

More showing agents are comfortable responding to a personalized survey rather than telling a listing agent what is wrong with a home. Through this method, listing agents can quickly gain information on the potential buyer's interest, what the showing agent thought of the property, as well as get opinions on pricing, etc.

YouTube, YouTube, We All Scream for YouTube
As showing agents let potential buyers into homes for an up-close-and-personal look, buyers can turn to the Internet for a sneak preview of what they will see. Sinton and his firm use a creative and cost-effective way to show those homes: by posting video on YouTube.

Launched in February 2005, YouTube is a free video-sharing Web site where users can upload, view and share video clips. Today, YouTube is more famous for cease-and-desist orders from movie studios, crying Britney Spears fans and babbling beauty contestants who aren't familiar with current events.

However, among the sea of quirky clips, real estate agents are taking advantage of the service and using it as a tool to sell homes.

"It's a big hit with our sellers, and we get a great return on it," Sinton says. "People really like this kind of stuff."

One of Sinton's agents, Allan Brown, experimented with producing his own video listings instead of using a professional "virtual tour" service. He simply took a video camera and walked through a home while narrating and showing everything the house has to offer.

By investing in a quality camera and video editing software, a real estate brokerage can reign in the savings while still putting out a professional-looking presentation.

An agent will still have to be creative by editing the video at the office, adding music to create ambience and re-recording the narration so descriptions are complete and clear.

"Another benefit of using YouTube is that you can embed the videos on any other site," Sinton says. "It creates huge exposure."

Depending on the home, most of Sinton's firms listings are presented this way. He cites video at the top of his firm's presentation methods.

"Videos blow pictures away," Sinton says. "We've seen it firsthand. It actually works."

Good Calls
While the Internet, computers and cameras are must-have technology items for a real estate brokerage, the telephone still has relevance when it comes to listing.
By implementing a call-capture system that works through an 800 number, Sinton's firm has gone from 10 to 15 buyer calls a month to more than 280.

Sinton uses Assist-2-Sell Buyers & Sellers Edge to set up an 800 number that allows 1,000 voicemail connections and assigns every listing its own extension. When a potential buyer tours a home, and wants more information, they are given the 800 number with that home's extension for more information. When the customer calls, they are greeted with a recorded message about that particular house greets them.

"This is one of the most advanced things we've ever done," Sinton says. "It broke the barrier on how to get the next buyer."

As the customer listens to the message, the listing agent and Sinton receive an immediate text message and e-mail of the information gleaned from the call. Within 10 minutes the listing agent makes a follow-up call to the interested party.

"Most of the time, the potential buyer will have additional questions," Sinton says. "They are always impressed with the follow-up and technology."

The listing agent stays courteous and just makes sure the potential buyer received answers to all of their questions. Since the customer made the initial call, the follow-up doesn't violate the Do Not Call law.

"Our homeowners love it," Sinton says. "I need more agents because the 800-number innovation took off so rapidly."

While the increase in warm leads for Sinton's firm jumped by leaps and bounds, he cites the call-capture system as an effective way to make sure his agents are doing their jobs.

"It's good for accountability because I receive the information the agents do," Sinton says.

By using this type of system, the broker knows a buyer called one of the home extensions and can make sure his/her agents follow up in a timely and proper manner.

"This is our golden goose," Sinton says. "It's cutting-edge stuff, and with an ever-changing market, you have to know where the next buyer is coming from."

E-volution
As the Internet's roots grow stronger and continue their evolution into becoming a business necessity, brokers and real estate offices have turned to paperless technologies to make their documents electronic.

"There are a lot of great scanning and storage solutions that can provide what is needed," Mayfield says. "Online storage solutions are a really big trend, and you're going to see more brokers moving toward it. It's affordable and available 24/7."

Mayfield recommends checking state rules and commissions regarding paperless transactions. Some states require keeping original documents for a period of time.

NetDocuments is a document management service that requires no hardware or packaged software. In an era when more real estate agents are mobile, Mayfield recommends a service like NetDocuments. As an example, a real estate brokerage can scan contracts and marketing materials and store them in specific folders and set parameters on who has access to those folders. If a listing agent has a request from a buying agent for a certain document, the listing agent can grant the buying agent access to the necessary online folder to retrieve that document.

NetDocuments, according to Mayfield, charges $20 per user per month with a requirement of two users per office. So not only does the service streamline document management but it can also be cost-effective.

In the 21st century, real estate agents who are new to the industry no longer hang out at the office. They use broadband Internet connections and work out of their home or out in the field.

"Having an online solution where your documents are accessible from remote locations is a valuable tool," Mayfield says.

Call in Backup
While having real estate documents available from anywhere is convenient and cost-effective, it's all for naught if they are inaccessible. Brokers need to back up their firm's data. It's as simple as that. Brokers need to ask how to do it, not whether they should do it.

"What if you have a fire or a server crash? You're going to lose all that data," Mayfield says. "There are some really good solutions out there for
online backup."

A backup method Mayfield recommends is MediaVault, a storage drive that offers an easy way to back up files from networked PCs, along with the ability to stream digital media files to other networked devices.

Carbonite.com is another service that specializes in backing up computer files. According to Carbonite.com:
• 43% of people lose irreplaceable files every year due to accidental deletion
• Only three out of every 100 stolen laptops are ever recovered
• Thousands of files are lost each year due to fires, floods and other disasters
• Up to 13% of hardware drives crash in their first year

The service Carbonite offers is Internet-based and doesn't require hardware. The service is subscription-based, costing $49.95 per year per computer and provides unlimited storage space.

For brokers experiencing growth and wanting to store office files offsite for extra security, an Internet-based service like Carbonite is a good option.

"It's an area brokers need to consider technology-wise," Mayfield says. "If you woke up one day and your files were gone, what would you do? The total loss of computer files can put six out of every 10 businesses out of business."

Smart Phone, Smart Move
As agents move into mobile mode, more real estate brokerages are hosting Microsoft Outlook on their server which allows agents to sync their smart phone and turn it into a mobile office.

For smaller brokerages, services like MailStreet.com are available and will host an office's Microsoft Outlook for a small fee. This type of service eliminates the need to maintain dedicated in-house servers.

"This service can be used by anybody wanting to keep their smart phone up to date in real time," Mayfield says. "A lot of real estate agents use Microsoft Outlook and this feature is a real benefit. A lot of small brokers don't realize it's out there and when I tell them about it, they are wowed."

For a real estate agent, speed of response is critical. Agents need to be able to do that efficiently with consumers and constantly be looking for new ways to communicate.

"We want to be leading edge," Westmark says, "not bleeding edge."

Virtual Realty
Westmark cites that four out of five new agents at Counselor Realty are "virtual agents." As a result, the office space there is designed with the remote, or virtual, agent in mind.

It still features traditional amenities, like conference rooms, but also houses an Internet café and a flat-screen TV.

"If I want to ‘wow' a client, I may need the office for presentation purposes," Westmark says.

With an increasing number of agents using notebooks and Wi-Fi, business can be done just as easily in a more relaxing and casual atmosphere for the client such as Starbucks. According to Westmark, agents also want to forego paying for office space to keep their costs down so the firm has to maintain an "on-the-fly" structure.

Westmark also believes in maintaining a "wow" factor for agents. He suggests firms tap technology leaders when it comes to researching new gadgets and services to keep agents at the top of their game.

Counselor Realty has company quarterly meetings where the firm brings in vendors to present technology innovations. The firm also provides monthly training on new and existing technology the office uses.

The firm also has several committees and the leaders of each committee are dispatched to the NAR conference every year to, as Westmark puts it, "walk the floor."

The goal is to find new and beneficial tools or services that the company can employ. By having a specific team sent to bring back and educate agents, the agents can continue with what they need to do: buy and sell homes.