If you’re a tech-savvy real estate pro, you’ll find that you have scalable opportunities in the field that are just amazing. Whether you’re a property manager, like those at Green Residential, or a real estate investor, technology can make your job simpler than ever. Below are some of the best tech systems that make working in real estate so much easier.
1. Online Education
One of the most important things you do as a real estate investor is to continue your education. There are so many outstanding real estate investing podcasts available today. No longer do you need to drop $10,000 to be taught by a real estate guru. You can get so much of what you need with the click of a mouse.
Much of the real estate education you need is available on the Internet for free in articles and podcasts. Some of the best are:
- The BiggerPockets Podcast
- Real Estate Guys
- Masters of Scale Podcast
2. Sales Comps Are Available
Zillow is an excellent tool for smart investors. The filters on the website make pulling comps easy. Zillow’s filters make it so simple that you can get good comps in five minutes. Having good comps is essential to refinance a property for buy and hold investors, and they’re necessary for flippers, too.
You also can get MLS data from your real estate agent. But you can obtain most of what you need from Zillow in less time.
3. Apartment Leasing Apps
Property managers and landlords must show their properties and reach as many tenant prospects as they can. There’s so much competition, so the savvy property manager needs to be aggressive and creative when promoting new listings. There are many apps on which you can advertise your listings, but the website and app Rentable is one of the best.
As soon as you have a vacancy or listing, you can upload it easily to Rentable, and the details can be changed in real-time to offer the most timely, accurate information to apartment seekers.
4. Rental Estimates
There are many ways to get rental estimates online today. Zillow is a good starting point, especially for single homes in large cities. Another good choice is Rent-o-Meter. As a third option, AccurateRent can be a big help.
Once you have some rental estimates, you can find a property manager in the area to see if rents are in line with what you have. Once you know how much rent you can get per month, you can decide if the asking price on the property you want is reasonable or not.
5. Marketing To Sellers
When you are looking for rundown fixer uppers to buy, the old way to do it was to drive around looking for properties that look in rough shape.
Today, you can find homes to buy at a low price by purchasing a database and targeting people with online advertising. If you find that right database, you can send emails to hundreds of possible sellers in one zip code. Knocking on all those doors would take you weeks!
6. Client Resource Management (CRM) Tools
CRM software and apps help you keep track of clients, prospects, and contacts you meet in your real estate or property management career. You can purchase a CRM that does much more than set up follow-up messages or send notes on clients’ birthdays and so on. There are CRMs available now that include website templates, email marketing, and the functionality to work with Facebook and other social media.
Many people entering real estate and property management know it’s essential to stay in touch with people. But to become successful, you need to get hundreds of people who refer business to you. Keeping track of all of those contacts is extremely difficult without a CRM tool. A CRM with a real estate focus can help you track details about their family, likes, dislikes, reasons to follow up with them, and more.
7. Paperless Technology
Most real estate and property management clients expect to sign documents electronically, so they don’t have to keep paper copies anymore. It’s also a fantastic timesaver for a busy property management professional.
Handy tools such as DocuSign allow you to send leases, contracts, listing agreements, and escrow paperwork by email to clients. They can, in turn, sign documents electronically on almost any electronic device.
8. Finding On-Market Deals
Many investors avoid buying houses on the MLS, but other investors say you can find good deals on the MLS. The key to buying good deals on the MLS is persistence and organization. Have updated filters on MLS in various markets that tell you when a property hits the market in your criteria.
Then, try to get an offer ASAP. If the seller says no, add that home to a database to follow up later.
9. Email Campaign Software
Automated email is often an option with CRMs, but you may need a separate email campaign program to handle your more complex email marketing. Many email campaign programs allow you to create regular campaigns to stay in touch with warm leads, highlight successes in your property management business, and share listings with your contacts.
Most of the powerful email campaign tools, such as Constant Contact, also offer robust analytics on who clicks what and the rate at which your contacts are interacting with your content.
10. Property Management Ledgers and Databases
One of the valuable technologies that property management companies use is back-end accounting databases. This database is vital for real estate investors because it’s possible to track, manage, and optimize properties fast.
Many investors think investing success can hinge on checking in with a property management company’s data dashboard every few weeks. You get an idea about what’s going on in the market and the ability to score more deals.
Real estate investing successfully takes a lot of work and skill, but it’s easier today with all the technology available. If you want to develop passive real estate cashflow, give some of the above tech tools a try.
