How Technology Can Be a Real Estate Agent’s Best Friend

Sometimes, as a real estate agent, it seems like technology has made our lives harder. Because of technology, particularly cell phones, it can seem like the work never ends. Even when you go home at the end of the day, clients will still be calling you and colleagues may still be emailing you. But this is only part of the story of modern technology. When utilized correctly, such as with the tips below, technology can make the life of an agent easier than ever before. 

Don’t Lose Sight of Your Contacts

And no, I don’t mean the ones that go in your eyes. As real estate agents, we all have an extensive list of phone numbers saved in our mobile devices. When we meet someone new at networking occasions, or even just make friends with someone at a local community event, it’s our first instinct to get their phone number and save it (at least it should be—Hey! It’s a potential future client!). But sometimes, we have so many phone numbers and names in our contact list that we tend to lose track of who is who. One of the simplest solutions to this conundrum is typing out a short biography under their name in your contact list about who they are—just a simple sentence or two to remind you of the conversation that you had with this individual when you met. Not only will this solve your dilemma of remembering who is who in your contact list, but it also will help you strike up a conversation when you speak to them again. 

Save the Date

The best thing about technology? Your cell phone, laptop, tablet, etc.—they all have calendar capabilities. Real Estate agents have a busy schedule and utilizing available technology to keep track of important meetings and events is wise, and certainly important. Technology has much more to offer real estate agents than just saving the date, however. Consider using technology to not only keep up with your calendar, but to expand it as well. For example, Facebook has a nifty feature that creates a calendar of local events and alerts you to them if you live in the area of the event. Taking advantage of this calendar is an excellent way to learn about events going on in your community, and hopefully, if other parts of your calendar are empty, you can attend some of them.  

Moreover, you can notify Facebook that you are attending the event, which will then automatically add the event to your calendar, as well as notify other members of the community that you are attending. This is an excellent way to market yourself on social media as someone who is involved in the community, and hopefully will encourage others attending the event to seek you out once you get there. And, if Facebook isn’t your style, then consider staying up to date with community events either by signing up for local newsletters or keeping track of city websites for events. Whatever your preferred method is, be sure to utilize technology to stay up to date and fill up your calendar with meaningful community events they may provide networking opportunities, as well as get you more involved in the community that you love. 

Be a Social Butterfly

Speaking of social media, make sure that you are speaking on social media. Social media—be it Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, or whatever the flavor of the month is—is one of the easiest and most useful ways to promote your business and yourself. Many real estate agents make the mistake of only using their social media accounts to post pictures of their listings. But when has that ever grabbed someone’s attention? Unless there is something extremely unique and immediately compelling about a property, chances are that a social media follower will scroll right past a picture and description of the house you have for sell, no matter how much time and money you spent getting professional pictures taken of it.  

Save the property listings for the company’s official website, and use social media to promote yourself as a not only a realtor, but as an involved member of the community. People will contact you and ask you to be their realtor because they find something to be relatable and approachable about you, not because they glanced over a home listing on Facebook. Use your social media to show pictures and videos of you being active in the community, partaking in hobbies, spending time with friends, etc. This is what people log into social media to see, and this is what will draw them to your page and make you a memorable realtor when it comes time for them to find someone to sell their home. 

Reach Far

There are tons of websites to list your property on. While keeping up with every single website may be unrealistic, do your best to anyway. Having a presence on multiple MLS sites expands your business’ reach to markets that you may not even be aware existed. A particular website may not be popular for use in your community, but if someone from another community is searching for a home in your market, perhaps they are using that particular website. If you’ve taken advantage of as many MLS sites as possible, then you’ve significantly increased your chances at finding a new client from a new market.

Save Up

Between social media pages and all of the MLS sites you’re listing your properties on, there are a lot of passwords to keep up with. With so much to do, the last thing you want to deal with is having to constantly reset passwords that you’ve forgotten. Keep everything safe in a Password keeper on your phone and laptop. It is better to take the time up front to download and save all of your passwords into one easily accessible application, rather than have to ponder over your password every single time that you log into a website, then have to go to your email to reset the password (that you probably never remembered) anyway. 

Have a Backup Plan

There is a lot of information stored in your phone—like all of those contacts with biographies—and the last thing that you want to happen is to lose all of that information if something should happen to your technology devices. Depending on what type of device you use, keep your iCloud and Google Cloud backed up. Sometimes, this takes more work than it seems. Some devices and phone plans require you to manually backup your device, and sometimes your device gets so full of information that your device’s cloud gets full. Although we roll our eyes at the thought of having to buy more storage or cleaning out our cloud, dealing with the issue of backup up front is much better than dealing with lost contacts, emails, and other important information down the road. 

Like anything else in life, technology has its good and its bad. If you use it correctly, however, your devices and internet activity can make you a better realtor.