There are a variety of tools and software available to help brokers to manage their real estate business. Sometimes it can be difficult to choose the best options for your brokerage business, especially when technology changes at a rapid pace.
Here are some tips for choosing the right broker management tools for your business. We’ll explore some of the current broker management tools available and the pros and cons of each.
Do Your Research
Information about new innovations in real estate broker tools and software is often published in industry magazines, such as REALTOR® Magazine and Inman. You’ll also gain valuable insight through your local real estate association and your brokers’ association.
When researching the broker management tools and software available, it’s important to first think about the problems you’d like to solve. Look at the inefficiencies in your business first and identify what you want to improve.
Are you losing time because of paper-based systems? Do you feel out of touch with your team’s listings and find it hard to find information when you need it? If you try to research tools without a clear idea of the problem you need to solve, it’s easy to become overwhelmed with all of the new technologies on the market.
Consider the Alternatives
There are dozens of alternatives available to brokers. We’re covering just a few in this blog to get you started…
BrokerSumo is a cloud-based tool to help manage both your accounting and real estate licensees. It’s suitable for mid to large real estate offices. It streamlines the onboarding of new licensees, automatically calculates commission splits, and tracks your disbursements and credits. BrokerSumo also has reporting and analytical capabilities to track your business.
Brokermint is another web-based platform offering transaction and team management functions. It offers MLS and QuickBooks integration and helps to track documents and progress in one central location. You can create and assign checklists, which is a useful feature.
TotalBrokerage is a comprehensive brokerage management tool that combines transaction management, digital signatures, an online document library, and a CRM. It’s an all-in-one solution designed by a real estate broker and a software developer. So the user interface and functionality are very attuned to what a broker needs.
Zipi is another brokerage management tool designed to help real estate brokers with back-office administration. You can track finances, licensee activity and progress, manage commission and compensation models
Most broker management tools offer demos or free trials. This provides an opportunity to test out the software to see if it’s a good fit for your real estate business.
Pros of Using Broker Management Tools and Software
The main benefits of broker management tools and software are their abilities to streamline what you do within your real estate brokerage. They offer a faster and more cost-effective way of doing business. Automation of frequent tasks can free up your time to do more important things in your business.
Most of these brokerage management tools take the thinking out of complex commission and compensation structures. It can reduce the chance of human error in complex transactions. Your brokerage management tools don’t get tired, they won’t have a stressful day and forget something crucial, and they don’t need sick days or holidays.
Modern broker software can help give you a bird’s eye view of every aspect of your business. This perspective is difficult to achieve, if not impossible, with paper-based systems that require manual checks and reviews.
Cons of Using Broker Management Tools and Software
Like with most software, “garbage in, garbage out” applies. The software can only be as good as the information you put into it. Take the time to set up your systems correctly, otherwise, you may have costly errors that take great effort and expense to fix.
Beware of super new beta version tools. While being an early adopter can be a good thing, it’s better from a risk management perspective to use a tried and trusted tool. Early versions of software may not have the bugs ironed out causing unexpected challenges.
Broker management tools and software should complement good broker management. They do not replace it. Tools and software can help you to improve, streamline, and increase your efficiency. However, human judgment will always be required in your real estate brokerage because you know your business best.
Cyber attacks are possible, as they are with all online activities. Hackers or phishing scams that try to attack your email and other systems could also attack your broker management tools and software. You should have protections (and licensee procedures for email links, email attachments, and using public wi-fi) in place, such as firewalls, virus protection and cyber insurance to cover you if an attack occurs.
Sometimes things go wrong with technology. To ensure it doesn’t impact significantly on your business, you should check your tools and software regularly. This could be a random transaction check to ensure that the system calculates everything as it should. Or, you could double-check a commission split calculation occasionally to ensure the automated figures are calculated correctly. Having checks and balances in place will ensure if an issue does arise, you’ll be aware of it quickly and can fix it immediately.
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