The Modern Agent’s Toolbox: How to Automate Your Work
Hard work is and will always be a requirement to become successful in real estate and in any other profession. However, with our limited time and energy, real estate agents are always busy working on hundreds of different tasks during a typical work week.
Without effective time management, agents become highly prone to burnout and it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the never-ending workload from the demanding nature of the real estate profession.
However in recent times, we’re living in the information age and new technology are being designed and built everyday to make us more productive at work. And suddenly, we find ourselves in an unique position where it’s entirely possible for us to set up systems and processes that can automate most of our work.
Therefore if done right, we can thrive in the workplace by working smarter not harder, by getting most of the energy sapping menial tasks delegated and save lots of time for more productive activities that can potentially double or triple our results. Gain more free time for productive activities that helps agents earn their commissions:
- Knocking on doors and having face-to-face meetings with prospects
- Making more sales calls and staying in touch with our clients
- Having more time to address enquiries, inspection appointments and negotiations
- Being able to avoid working overtime and spending more leisure time with family and friends
- Searching for property owner’s details and preparation for canvassing
Listed below are the 10 top software tools that every real estate agent can get started with to save lots of time, become more productive, automate their work and achieve more results.
Rex Software
A popular CRM software for Australian real estate agents. An all-in-one tool from managing contacts and listings, financial transactions to newsletters and mail merge. Integrates with RpData where you can save more time by directly importing property data into Rex Software.
AgentBox
Another highly rated alternate CRM for Australian real estate agents. Like Rex Software, AgentBox manages all contacts, listings and transactions with an added bonus of being compatible with smartphones and tablets, allowing you to work effectively outside the office.
ADL Forms
This software grants you access to every agency agreements, legal contracts and forms that Australian real estate agents use. ADL Forms only requires an one-off payment for the right to use the software. Once set up, every agency agreement is pre-filled with your agency’s details and company logo. Integrates with Rex where you can import vendors, tenants and solicitor’s details using the Rex Connector.
Slack
Slack is regarded as the leading group chat tool, keeping all internal communications in one place. It’s free to sign up and use, with extra features provided for paid subscriptions. Slack allows you to easily integrate with other software tools such as; Dropbox, Drive, Twitter and MailChimp.
Streak and Email Hunter
For those that use Google Chrome, there are plenty of apps that can help you save time and become more productive when it comes to managing contacts. Streak is a free-to-use CRM for Gmail which allows you to track email opens, mail merge and manage leads. Email Hunter helps you find email addresses in seconds which you can easily export for further use for building your contact lists and marketing strategies.
MailChimp
A popular email newsletter tool known for being easy to use. MailChimp provides many features from pre-built templates, A/B testing, automated drip feeds and advanced performance analytics. The software is free for up to 2,000 subscribers with affordable pricing plans.
Buffer
Buffer allows you to manage all your social media in one place. Scheduling all your contents and posting them at a certain day and time to all your social medias simultaneously; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn and Pinterest.
Fiverr, Airtasker and Freelancer
For external assistance at affordable pricing and quick turnovers, Fiverr provides a wide range of technical skills starting at $5. Airtasker allows you to locally outsource tasks from cleaning, maintenance, flyer distribution and more. Freelancer is another alternative to Fiverr which provides talent for hire in graphic design, copy writing, email newsletters and web development.
Upcoming productivity hacks for real estate agents
- OwnerSearch is an automated search tool which can simultaneously search multiple directories and extract accurate property owner’s details in a few seconds
- Advanced and improved intelligent personal assistant making Siri, S Voice and other voice assistants capable of AI machine learning and performing human tasks closer to the level of the fictional Jarvis AI that assists Tony Stark and his Iron Man suit
- Virtual reality is not only expected to revolutionize the gaming industry but also change the way we work professionally. This new technology and its ability to create alternate realities, opens many possibilities for real estate in marketing and productivity. It could become possible to arrange virtual property inspections from the comfort of your home or office, plus have a more interactive experience when designing and developing properties from houses, apartments to colossal city skyscrapers
- Fully integrated systems which allows us to use all of our software tools on any piece of technology making it possible to work at home, while driving a car or even in the bathroom
Adopting these tools into your day-to-day work can effectively reduce your workload while potentially doubling or tripling your output, and it can only get better in the future as the technology continues to improve and change the way we work in real estate and in other professions.
As new technology are regularly brought to the market, the smart and opportunistic agent always keeps both their eyes and mind open, willing and eager to adapt and change to a new and superior tool to gain an early advantage over their rivals, while the agent that stubbornly sticks to obsolete technology and outdated methods which worked well in the past will soon find themselves overtaken by the competition and eventually out of a job.
