4 Tech Tools Real Estate Agents Need for Success in Today's Market

In the past, it was easy to close a deal by placing an ad in the paper, getting a phone call, showing a property, and working your magic. Today, some people don’t want to leave the house until they’ve seen listing photos online. Others prefer email for communication, making technology a necessity for your success.

Here are 4 technologies to help you generate leads, connect with clients, and seal the deal.

4 Tech Tools Real Estate Agents Need for Success in Today’s Market

1. A Professionally Crafted Website

There’s a difference between a website and a professionally designed website. Anyone can use a WYSIWYG editor to replace content in the designated areas of a template. Only a professional can create a design to suit your content.

Hiring a professional website designer is an investment in your bottom line. They’ll craft a design that showcases the beauty of your property, impresses prospects, and captures leads correctly.

If you don’t want to hire a professional, you’ll need to buy a WordPress theme, swap out the stock photos, add your text, and hope it works.

You can’t test a theme fully until you buy it, and halfway into building, you might discover that basic features, like widgets and drop-down menus, are removed. Then you’ll need to buy a new theme or settle for imperfection.

When you work with a developer, they’ll design what you need from the start, and you can provide feedback for every stage until it’s complete.

2. The Ability to Connect With Leads and Clients on the Go

A 2013 REAL Trends study discovered 45 percent of consumers who submit an online real estate inquiry expect a response in 15 minutes, and 56 percent expect their agent to respond in 30 minutes. If you’re not carrying a mobile device with you wherever you go, you could lose (or upset) a client.

An unlocked mobile hotspot gives you an internet connection wherever you go. You don’t have to tether your phone and run out of battery power or data. You can bring it with your laptop to your showings and respond to inquiries from a normal-sized keyboard.

3. A Virtual Assistant

Between showings and closing deals, you have a lot of side work to do. Those tasks can be delegated to a virtual assistant. Virtual assistants are real people who maintain full-time jobs performing small tasks for businesses. As with any occupation, their skill sets can vary.

How much time do you spend pulling property data from MLS listings and county tax assessor’s websites? How much of your day is spent looking for inspiration for your next blog post, doing SEO, or formatting and posting articles on your website?

These are all tasks you can delegate to a virtual assistant.

4. A Targeted, Relevant Digital Marketing Strategy

If you haven’t caught up with marketing in the digital world, you need to. Digital marketing is an infinite global expansion of traditional marketing.

Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay, said, “We have technology, finally, that for the first time in human history allows people to really maintain rich connections with much larger numbers of people.”

In the past, marketing was equally about finding your market and selling your product. Today, your market is available at your fingertips; you just need to get and hold their attention.

Related: Will Real Estate Agents Be Made Obsolete by 2025?

You Can’t Market Like Other Businesses

Many real estate agents fail when it comes to digital marketing because they try to do what internet marketers do: generate as much traffic and as many leads as possible without consideration for relevance. This works against you when you get unqualified leads and start to wonder if internet leads are really worth it.

Some agents also post incessantly to Facebook and Twitter—two places people don’t go to look for property.

If your digital leads aren’t ready to sign your contract, aren’t buying or selling in the next 30 days, or don’t respond to your calls, it doesn’t mean internet leads aren’t worth pursuing. It means you’re not reaching relevant leads. You know your market; you just have to make your marketing efforts match.

Don’t Toss Out “Bogus” Leads—Retarget Instead

Often, you’ll get web form inquiries that have bogus contact information. It’s tempting to cast them aside, but understand that people want more information without having to talk to an agent.

By using retargeting, you can reach your “bogus” leads without having their contact information. Use Facebook to display your ads to anyone who has visited your website, and your “bogus” leads will be included. Eventually, those leads will be ready to buy and will provide you with real contact information.

Anything you’d add to this list? Which of these tools do you use?

Leave your comments below!

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.