New investments and innovations in technology for real estate brokers and agents aim to automate more of the real estate purchasing process and free up time agents can spend taking care of the clients they have and prospecting for new ones.
Venture capital-funded and New York-based Compass real estate opened an office on Newbury Street in Back Bay this fall. Jeannemarie Conley runs the Boston office, where she says the company uses technology to streamline the home-buying process to a degree that doesn’t exist anywhere else.
“The marketing and valuation/analysis tools allow agents to do their jobs much faster and more efficiently,” she said. “Since time is our number one resource, it frees up more of our time for our clients.”
Conley said clients like Compass’ free mobile app, which they can download and use to view properties for sale in the MLS quickly and easily, from wherever they happen to be. Compass agents can see which properties their clients “favorite,” giving them better insights into what they’re looking for.
Compass is betting heavily on technology. Conley said the company now has more than 450 agents nationwide and 200 employees, including 30 employees working on the technology alone. In the last three months, they’ve opened offices in Boston, Los Angeles, and two others on the east end of Long Island.
“Everything is becoming automated,” Conley said. It’s a bus that is only moving forward. We’re never going to go back to paper.”
Conley said the firm is recruiting top agents and giving them the best technology available to make the process faster and easier for all. She said Compass has alumni from Facebook, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, McKinsey and Bain, and they’re looking to bring the level of service, technology and success from those companies to the real estate sales business.
The Compass model is similar to another company that disrupted an old industry by leveraging new technology.
“Über is to the cab industry as Compass is to the real estate industry,” Conley said. “It delivers a faster and better experience for the agents and, in turn, the clients.”
Outsourcing Tech
Boston Logic, in the South End, provides software, online marketing and design services to real estate companies looking to be the technology leaders in their marketplaces. The company has been around since 2004, but according to digital marketing director Bonnie Gibson, has recently shifted its emphasis to the mobile experience. Specifically, they’re trying to increase agents’ use of technology through of mobile technology, because buyers are already using it.
“One of the bigger trends we are seeing in 2016 is the use of mobile [technology] via tablets and smartphones to reach customers,” Gibson said. “It will be interesting to see how location-based technologies such as beacons will come into play in 2016.”
Boston Logic’s products are designed to help agents in existing real estate brokerages automate as much of their job as possible. Gibson said with some brokerages, Boston Logic acts as an extension of their existing marketing team; with others, they are the entire marketing team.
In addition to providing agents with the tools they need to manage contacts, transactions and promotional material, Gibson said Boston Logic helps brokerages fine-tune their Google Ad Words campaigns and popup ads, and even helps clients create content.
“Frankly, I’m not surprised when I see the number of brokerages that aren’t using technology,” Gibson said. “But it lets agents focus what they do best: Sell.”
