As a real estate agent, you know how busy things can get. You're on the go constantly, whether it's showings, juggling phone calls, paperwork, or handling day-to-day administrative tasks. The days are long when you’re showing houses, negotiating offers, and talking with clients. Real estate is a competitive business that requires long hours to be successful. It can be difficult to be efficient with so much happening, but there are a few ways you can get more done in less time, helping you grow your business while ensuring your clients always receive the best service possible. Check out these tips for increasing efficiency, brought to you by Lowen Sign Company.
#1 Get Organized With The Right CRM For You
A real estate CRM is a customer relationship management (CRM) system that is designed to keep your leads organized and ensure better communication between you and your clientele. CRM tools are becoming increasingly more important to the success of real estate agents each year. To get the most out of your CRM, opt for systems that are specific to the real estate industry and offer messaging features, as well as tools to help you follow up with leads, email automation for drip campaigns and newsletters, transaction tracking and management. The right CRM can help you plan your business growth and help ensure your pipeline is always full with potential clients.
When choosing which CRM is right for you, there are many options out there. To help you get started, here are the top 5 real estate CRMs according to Forbes Advisor, based on their ratings:
1. WiseAgent
2. Realvolve
3. LionDesk
4. Follow Up Boss
5. Top Producer
#2 Don't Be Late To The Party... Automate Responses!
As you probably already know, people browse properties online. When they submit an online inquiry requesting contact or an answer to their question, time is of the essence when it comes to your response. Online sites such as Follow Up Boss and SimpleTexting allow you to automate your responses, so you can provide immediate contact to the online prospect. As soon as the potential customer submits an inquiry, you can have an automated text go out saying something like “Hi [name], thank you for viewing [property address]. I’d love to tell you more about the property. When’s a good time to chat?”
By automating these replies, you don’t have to spend time typing texts, or waste time monitoring your phone constantly replying to leads. You’ll only engage leads that message you back and are truly interested. Putting responding off until later is not a viable plan when it comes to the questions, comments, or concerns from your current and potential clients. The "I'll get to it later" approach is risky, since that potential client may end up getting answers from another agent and you might lose a potential sale.
#3 Save Time With Tech
In addition to the business and client relationship streamlining that you can get with a CRM, there are other real estate tech tools that can really help you work more efficiently. Real estate technology has come a long way in recent years, and most agents are using tools that help them market properties, save time on paperwork, and send marketing emails at scale.
Go Paperless - It is estimated that 78% of realtors use electronic signature tools to save time and cut down on cumbersome, old-fashioned, hard-copy paperwork. E-signature tools allow you to send paperwork back and forth electronically instead of by mail or fax—saving you hours of your week that would otherwise be spent printing, signing, scanning, sending and receiving paperwork. You can also use e-signature tools like DocuSign or eSign to automate your contract process so that all you have to do is click a button when you receive an offer on a property—saving you and your clients even more time.
Mobile-Friendly Video Marketing Tools - Some industry experts recommend that realtors create a video profile, in addition to a written bio, for their website, citing that video is more engaging and can increase rankings in online search results. Video can put new agents ahead of seasoned agents, according to many industry insiders. Additionally, video presentations of property listings can really help drive views, when compared to photos. Video home tours receive an estimated 430% more views than just photos! It’s pretty simple to create videos on your phone, but for more wow factor, consider programs that enable you to add headers, filters, titles, logos, and music, such as WeVideo, BombBomb, and Animoto.
Software for Email Marketing - Although you may find a CRM with automated email options, you may opt for a separate tool to create more in-depth drip campaigns and newsletters. Specific email marketing software can help you create ongoing campaigns to stay on top of leads, showcase recent successes in your business, and share current and sold listings with your contact list. Tools such as Mailchimp, SendGrid, and Constant Contact, can also provide analytics and email tracking, showing who is engaging with your content and at what rate.
With these tools and others available today, it’s easier than ever for agents to spend less time doing administrative tasks and more time selling homes!
#4 Lead Management
Let's face it, some leads are duds. Rather than spend tons of wasted time on leads that never go anywhere, establish a pre-screening process so you can pre-qualify your leads before you invest a bunch of your valuable time and resources. Create surveys and questionnaires for your potential clients. Prior to starting a home search you can find out specifics on what your potential buyers are looking for, what their price range is, and request pre-approvals up front. Try to minimize the amount of time you spend showing homes to buyers that really aren't that interested when it comes right down to it, or to buyers who really don't know what they want. If they put some time into narrowing down their desires and means for their home purchase, you can increase the odds that it will lead to a closing, save lots of time, and indicate to the client that you care about their desires and satisfaction throughout the process. With a little upfront communication, you can often avoid unnecessary showings by guiding your leads to get serious with a pre-approval.
#5 Real Estate Signs
Many industries nowadays have moved past the need for print media, but not real estate. According to top-ranking realtors, real estate signs still make a massive difference in marketing their business and services. Online advertisements and social media are necessary of course, but never skip the traditional signage outside available listings.
Good quality, durable real estate signs help realtors maximize efficiency because they are cost-effective, require little or no maintenance, help build brand recognition and professional image, and they keep marketing your business and listings 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, come rain or shine!
At Lowen Sign Company, we use the best quality and most durable materials for our real estate signs. We offer a huge variety of sign types, posts, riders, and more. We're an approved sign supplier for every major real estate franchise in the United States. Whether you're part of a franchise or an independent agent, we deliver the perfect signs for your needs.
#6 Collaborate With Lowen Sign Company
Fortunately, as a real estate agent, you have many tools and techniques available to help you maximize efficiency and become a lean, mean transaction-closing machine. We hope that these tips help you streamline your growing real estate business. While technology can be a huge help to you, there's no denying that attractive and quality signage can still significantly impact your real estate business.
Call 800-545-5505 to talk to an expert customer service representative or visit www.lowensign.com to view all our sign products. Start working smarter and more efficiently by collaborating with the best real estate sign manufacturers in the business. Reach out to Lowen Sign Company today!