Real Estate Automation – The Master Key To Growth
Technology is disrupting every business sector but not much has happened in the real estate business. Most realtors use the same old methods like websites, Internet ads and referrals to market and scout for leads. Systems are simply manual and a day in a real estate agency involves routine tasks like coordinating appointments, meetings, showings, completing and processing documents, open houses, maintaining and managing clients’ databases, answering emails and short term planning. These processes take considerable time, effectively reducing the time available to nurture and close deals. The above processes if automated have a potential to propel any real estate business to considerable heights. Business owners would therefore have more time to spend the things that make pull the triggers. Here are some of the things which can be easily automated.
Marketing
Marketing is a key component of the Real estate business. There are many leads in the market and maximizing on all of them can be a daunting task for agents without automation. An automated software could potentially harvest all the leads, sift through them to single out potential customers, initiate automated communication and handle conversions to an agent to close the deal. The software is can also be used to send automated text or email reminders, newsletters and information on property availability, location or price. Automation can result in a more effective marketing campaign and growth in closed deals for the benefit of the business.
Inspection and maintenance
Most real estate property managers attend to repair works after complaints from a tenant or after a long time. An automated inspection and maintenance system could take over the function and schedule routine checks and help detect repair issues ahead of a major problem. The system could also track fault and inspection requests and prompt repairs by sending messages to contracted service providers. This will keep tenants happy and longer in the property reducing idle time which adds up to losses.
Financial management
Real estate work involves handling many financial transactions, records, making payments and reporting. As manual functions, they take much time and are prone to errors and financial loss. Automating financial management would involve acquiring a centralized system to handle all financial transactions from assessment, managing and processing. Invoices and other scheduled payments can be tagged to specific people and prompt reminder messages sent and real time monitoring enabled in order to keep to deadlines.
Property management
Keeping up with the status of different properties, maintenance, defects and routine administration tasks can be both time consuming and tedious. It is however important in order to keep the business running. This is where automation is much helpful. The rise in the application of Artificial Intelligent (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) is opening up opportunities for automation in real estate. Imagine connecting your heating, electrical, lifts and security systems to an automated bot that can detect and report potential faults or even attempt remote repairs without your personal involvement. This is the opportunity real estate investors need to maximize to effectively compete in the vicious real estate market place.
Automation is the way to go in the real estate market; deploying and effective software can reduce operational costs, improve efficiency and bring in more leads and sales. There is a good number of emerging options in technology that you can give a try before your competitor does.