Unlike other industries like publishing or travel, real estate has been slow to adapt to new technologies, says Lois Hardacker, a real estate broker from Brome Lake, Que.
“My impression is that current systems are being created to fit old school real estate. We need new tools to manage how we do business today,” she says.
Starting in the industry 37 years ago, even before the fax machine was being used, Hardacker has seen her share of clunky software applications. Still, she managed to build a top-ranked Royal LePage brokerage that currently employs three staff members and manages between 50 and 60 active listings at any given time.
About five years ago, Hardacker grew frustrated with a real estate-specific application that she was using, and its inability to make updates or integrate with newer applications. She needed one platform that would allow her to manage her whole business and minimal clicks of the mouse. She also needed mobile access to her data. It was a tall order, but luckily help was close to home.
She told her spouse, Charles Prosser, about her software needs. Coming from the world of commerce, Prosser took a business approach to the problem and commissioned a small team of developers to create Broker Business Manager or BBM. The resulting application addresses all of Hardacker’s issues and then some.
Brian Shemilt, a friend of the couples’ and the marketing lead on the project says, “This is an end-to-end application that includes managing all aspects of an agency and a broker’s back office functions, as well as listings, and including documents, photos, marketing tools and buyer and seller communications along with mobile functions.”
Currently brokers and agents pay a fee to a larger brand like Royal LePage to have access to a differing array of software applications, none of which are standardized or that offer a singular platform, Shemilt says. This product, with its integrated and innovative capabilities promises to build efficiencies into a broker or agent’s workday in multiple ways.
For example, one of the software’s key features is its ability to neatly house all of your extraneous applications, such as your MLS feed, your email or your accounting program, on a resources tool bar. You only need to use one login username and password for all applications.
The BBM database keeps track of all current and past clients and allows for the linking of potential buyers to sellers. It also creates one location for all information associated with a given listing, including legal documents, a visit schedule and even the number of hits the listing has received on the broker’s website.
“When a client calls to ask about the status of their property, they can be given a detailed report of all activities within a given timeframe,” says Shemilt. “This helps to strengthen the agent or broker-client relationship.”
The task manager feature keeps a broker organized by guiding them through the 31 steps of a sale.
Another time saving element is the ability to assign a role to a user. When logged in as a broker, a user can manage all of the aspects of the sale, whereas the role of manager allows a staff member to complete various tasks on the broker’s behalf such as scheduling a photographer or updating a contact file. This is an essential feature that has freed up Hardacker’s time and upped her productivity. Further, with the mobility feature, she can access anything in BBM from her smart phone.
“It’s like having a giant file cabinet with you all of the time. You are never out of touch with your whole business and it is intuitive and easy to use,” she says.
Shemilt is particularly enthusiastic about the potential of this technology to change how business is conducted. In the near future a broker or a small agency with an already established name or brand can drive buyers and sellers to their own websites – including to their own exclusive listings and MLS listings – cutting out the need for affiliation with a larger brand, he says.
“A broker who knows how to use digital marketing combined with BBM in their back office can set themselves apart,” Shemilt says.
For Hardacker, BBM makes sense from a business perspective for anyone from the independent broker to the small agency, from the ambitious upstart broker to the seasoned veteran.
“If you are trying to establish an agency with a shared philosophy and shared processes, this gives you a very good basis so that your whole group can be organized along the same lines,” she says. “It is good for everyone.”
The BBM application will be available in the fall of 2016. For information, email bbmloch@gmail.com.
Carrie Brodi is a contributing writer for REM.
