If you’re in the real estate industry (or any industry for that matter), you know that the right tools not only make your job possible, they make it more efficient and effective. So when you’re either first joining the industry, or you’re looking to improve your processes, you’ll eventually need to turn your sights on real estate software solutions
You might be surprised when you start looking around for the tools to help you improve your trade, as there are far more options than you might think. Why is this? Because you don’t exactly have to use only software that was created specifically for the industry. Yes, it’s always wiser to focus your efforts on software purpose-built for real estate, but if you’re either a lone agent or you work for a smaller agency, some of those software titles can be a bit pricey.
So, when you do go on the hunt for real estate software solutions, what should you be looking for?
Let’s dive in and find out.
Table of contents
Contact Management
This should be, first and foremost, on the top of your feature list. You’ll be dealing with a lot of contacts, from buyers, sellers, other agents, and various services. This feature should make it easy for you to categorize contacts and interact with marketing tools to make it easy for your to target potential buyers. Any real estate software solution must include a powerful and flexible contact management tool.
Document Management
You’re going to be dealing with a lot of documents and you don’t want to have to depend on Google Drive for that. Any good real estate solution will have a built-in document management component, where you can store contracts, legal documents, property details, and client files.
Bookkeeping
You’re going to need a single point of entry for your accounting, bank reconciliations, tax reporting, the ability to track any buyer/seller fees you must manage, and powerful reporting tools. Financial reporting should be pretty high on your must-have list of features.
Rent Payment Management
Although the majority of your dealings will be with selling homes, you will also have to deal with rental properties. When that’s the case, you might need to include the ability to process and/or manage rent payments. A good real estate solution should greatly simplify this task.
Tenant Management
At the same time, you might also need to have the ability to manage tenants who rent properties. Although most properties will hire a third-party service to manage those properties, there’s no reason why you can’t add that to the services you offer. If so, make sure your software is up for the task.
Lead Generation
A good amount of your time will be spent dealing with prospective sales, purchases, and referrals. Those referrals and leads are absolutely invaluable to the success of your business. You must make sure your real estate software can manage lead generation.
Interactive Maps and Street Views
You need to be as in the know as possible, with regards to the properties you sell. Potential buyers are going to have questions about location and you’re going to need to be able to answer them. With built-in interactive maps and street views, you should have all the information you need about surrounding neighborhoods and locales.
Social Media
In today’s world, you must lean into social media for marketing. But you don’t want to have to do this without a bit of help. A solid real estate software solution will include a social media component that makes it possible for you to easily post about listings, so you don’t have to do it manually.
Conclusion
One of the nice things about modern technology is that you don’t have to depend on a real estate-specific solution. You might find a content management platform that is perfectly capable. And so long as it has the majority of the features listed above, you should be good to go.
