Why Buy a Real Estate Tool in a Bad Market

I get it, the real estate market stinks right now. Yet, I continue to ask my team of professionals to accomplish the seemingly impossible… Convince the powers that be in real estate offices to spend money. That’s all everyone seems to hear – SPEND.

In this article I want to ‘spend’ some time breaking down costs, quantify value and hopefully explain why cost driven decisions in a down market may be detrimental.

From a very young age we are taught to maximize our dollar! Spend as little as possible while getting the most out of every penny. I happen to like this way of thinking because 20 bucks at Burger King can feed the family but at Bonefish I would be hard pressed to even feed myself (lite menu items only). Obviously food is not the same as real estate but it drive home the point of how we are wired. If times are tough we eat at BK or at home when times are good we upscale to fancier places.

Now that I have you thinking about food lets talk saving money and time. We all love to eat and we all love to make money and we especially love to save it.

Your in Real Estate, the banks are hanging on to the purse like its the only air available to breath. Every Joe Schmo and Jane Doe got his and hers matching real estate licenses all while claiming to be ‘the’ experts in all things real estate. To top it all off, the well of buyers has dried up. Essentially the pie has been gobbled up and you’re left only with the crumbs. Getting hungry yet?

Then there are those firms and agents who may not be doing as well as they were say 2 years ago, nonetheless they are at the top of the heap. You sit back and scratch your head just like I did, I’m sure. With a little bit of investigating it became clear why. Tools! All the people in real estate that are still succeeding even excelling in this slumping real estate market are effectively using tools to squeeze out every last deal they can. There are many other factors that come into play, but the effective use of tools seems to be at the very heart of it next to sheer hard work.

So what tools am I talking about? Technology. If your not using it, especially now you are begging to fail. Sounds harsh I know but you are. Even if your goal is to be a solid contender in the market place with no desire of becoming number 1, it is virtually impossible to maintain. I’ll prove my point.

Imagine not having a cellphone?

Let’s talk cost. If you are an agent your cellphone bill is easily over $150.00 a month. So, you spend roughly a minimum of $1,800 annually for cellphone service. The cost however is irrelevant for two simple reasons, a) you have to have it and b) it contributes to your income generating potential. Very simple concept.

Let’s talk saving money and buying tools. Let’s take Markler for example. There are a whole host of other products and I encourage you to look at them all. For the sake of ease, richness, form and service however, Markler is without a doubt the one you should seriously consider (Plug, Plug). It also incorporates the 4 commonality of all winning real estate pro’s.

But why?

In a down market or any market for that matter, there are 4 key things that make a real estate company and agents successful and others failures.

1. 1st and foremost clear customer service priority
2. Advanced lead management, tracking & follow up.
3. Keeping customers with pending transactions in the loop
4. Accessibility to vital information 24/7 from anywhere

If you understand these 4 simple principles and you don’t have a system in place that aids in performing these functions, this market will have your lunch. I want to point out that most systems for real estate do not hone in on these critical areas.

Back to the cellphone. It is a communication tool. Communication is the number one most important thing in the human experience. This is why everyone understands the value of having a cellphone. If you don’t communicate you will not be heard (cliche’ I know). You need a tool that goes above an beyond a cellphone into the world of automation.
Now lets go back to tools, ie technology, then we can all go eat. When you buy a system, that system should help make you more money. In a bad market you need tools and tools cost money but if you make the right buying choice that sticks to the four things that are common to all successful real estate pro’s (which I highlighted in this article) than you will have a better chance of surviving this crazy market. If not – Good luck to ya.

– Terrance Luckett

ASP Is Ideal For Real Estate

I think it would be safe to assume that a vast majority for professionals in the real estate world are confused if not overwhelmed by all the tech acronyms. We hear them all the time. Any company that provides services or products related to technology will list a whole host of ABC’s, IDUNO’s and HUH’s and we are all supposed to know what they stand for. Once we know what they stand for we find what they mean requires a tech geeks cipher just to decode the vagueness.

With that said, what in the world is ASP and what does it have to do with real estate. ASP stands for (With regard to this article) Application Service Provider. It is a company that provides computer based services over a network. Translation: Web Base Software; software you use on demand from any place you have (1) a web browser and (2) an internet connection.

Immediately the benefits of this kind of system or model should become obvious to you. You can be in London England sipping a hot cup of coffee at a posh little cafe with free WI-FI and a snazzy new Macbook Pro. [And] your office is in Napa California. The information available to you at the office is available to you in London. Not only is the information available, it’s real time, on demand and looks and functions exactly the same as if you were sitting at your desk.

Real Estate Professionals are on-the-go all the time. The nature of the business mandates mobility and ASP is the only software model that can fit the technology requirements of a high performance agent and real estate office.

My views on ASP’s is obviously biased towards Markler, but there are plenty of system out there that do many different things and fit different bills for different scenarios. Markler, for example, is a high performance real estate business management system with rich content control. This type of system may or may not be right for everyone in real estate (I personally happen to believe it does, but thats beside the point) but it does address many issues niche products don’t provide.

Yahoo Mail, and Gmail are good examples of niche products using an ASP model. It does one thing, manage email. The alternative would be using a mail client you install on your computer such as Outlook, Eudora, Thunderbird, etc. These both do the same thing, however the ASP (Yahoo Mail, Gmail) version is accessible from anywhere, with any computer that has an internet connection and web browser. While installed software will only work on your computer. There are email servers that enable better portability but for the sake of this conversation you will more than likely only be able to check your email from your computer where your mail client is installed.

In closing, I highly recommend anyone in the real estate industry take a serious look at using ASP type products. Buying installed software is old school. Don’t get me wrong there are many systems out there perfect for traditional software installation and there will always be a need for it. The real estate industry as a whole is ideal ASP type software.