Let’s say you’re in market for a new home, but you don't want to do a buyer-broker deal with a local realtor. You might search on Trulia, Redfin, or Zillow. But, when the time comes to see a property, you still need to contact a realtor, even if it’s the listing realtor and not a buyer-broker.
Consumers have definitely benefitted from the disruptions created by web based real estate tech. But, realtors have seen their jobs become more and more difficult every year. If there were as many real estate transactions as there were 20 years ago, the increased volume in showings alone, generated by these web-based-services, would be meaningful. But, real estate transactions have continued to increase as employees and job seekers have had to become more mobile and interest rates have stayed at historic lows. This has led to increase complexity for realtors, many of whom now get hundreds of emails every day.
Enter Amitree, a Bay Area startup whose Folio product automatically sorts emails by transaction for realtors. Literally thousands of realtors have begun using this email plug in since its launch last year, enabling Amitree to see more than 10% of all US real estate transactions. I visited with Amitree Co-Founder and CEO, Jonathan Aizen, to learn how his company is helping realtors provide better service to their clients.
Improving the Customer Experience
Customer Experience, or CX, is top of mind for every brand in the world today. And as we all well know, every realtor is his/her own brand. Folio helps a realtor manage his or her customers’ experience by projecting an image of authority and organization around every step of the home buying process.
Realtors confirm or add all of their key deadlines into the software, which will then schedule reminders for them to keep everyone on track. The best part is that these reminders aren’t only going to the agent – he or she can set them up so that the homebuyers and the seller’s agent receive the reminders as well. It builds an automatic communication channel between realtor and client, so that the client knows about upcoming deadlines and can reach out with any additional questions.
Agents are also turning to platforms like Agentology to improve customer experience by cutting down their response times to initial inquiries. The platform’s immediate lead qualification occurs within 5 minutes of the first inquiry, matching prospects to the ideal agent and creating opportunities for valuable human-to-human interaction.
Better Automation Through AI
Artificial intelligence is a hot buzzword across the tech space right now, but it can be a difference maker when it comes to automation and communication with a consumer.
Homebuyers are working with real estate agents now more than ever before – it is very much a relationship business. AI tools should always help strengthen relationships, rather than eliminate them. This is an example of how technology can empower people, rather than take their jobs.
Changing The Rules Of Real Estate
Technology is also changing the rules of real estate and altering expectations about the overall customer experience. Thanks to companies like Beycome, there is also the new reality that consumers and businesses may work outside of real estate agencies to buy, sell, and rent properties.
This real estate service is providing a new type of customer experience for real estate that does not involve paying commissions. Instead, it delivers an online platform that puts the power in the hands of the buyer, seller, and renter, giving them marketing tools to complete their own real estate transactions. For sellers and landlords, those tools include free listing service, a marketplace of service providers, and industry advice that offers affordability, convenience, and speed within a trusted, credible transaction environment.
Big Data To Discern National Trends
As with many software-as-a-service products, there is immense value in the aggregated, anonymized data that Folio collects. Folio is used on thousands of transactions every day - literally five percent of the overall home-buying transactions in the U.S., which provides great scale for the overall market. Knowing where trends are emerging in real time can provide not only marketers with actionable data to target their marketing.
“This is true for agents, brokerages, and the greater real estate tech ecosystem as well,” said Aizen. “Today, we’re beginning to explore how we can surface insights to them to help them make better marketing decisions as well.”
