With technology ever evolving, best utilizing both new and old technology to keep in contact with clients and to market to prospective clients is a key to success. We talked to five tech-centric agents around Chicagoland to figure out what their favorite technology is, and what technology best helps their business.
Ilsa Conover
Real Estate Broker, Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty
Favorite technology: “I really like Snapchat. It’s really fun because you can do short little videos and send them to people. I have clients that are on Snapchat, so I can send them a ‘Congratulations on your closing!’ type of thing.”
What tech helps your business most: “DocuSign is probably number one. You can upload any kind of documents that need a signature, and you can write over it. Before I would need around 24 hours to get a document signed from my clients. It makes their lives easier as well, since they don’t have to take time out of their workday to print something out, sign it and then fax it back to me.”
Charles Potter
Real Estate Broker
@properties
Favorite technology: “Pointdrive. It’s one of the things we’re using at @properties that I like a lot. It allows me to see the metrics and analytics that I’m using in real estate, which I can put into Excel and share with others.”
What tech helps your business most: “Facebook and Facebook advertising. From a social media perspective, getting the word out there and sharing stuff with my clients is very important. The analytics engine can tell me what I’m getting out of the advertisement. It’s very user friendly, and very helpful.”
Stephany Oliveros
Owner and Managing Broker CHI Properties
Favorite technology: “My Samsung Galaxy S5. A majority of what I do is done on my phone. We also subscribe to a website called ConvertIt, where we’re able to target potential sellers and buyers. I can use the site through an app on my phone.”
What tech helps your business most: “We’re doing heavy Facebook marketing right now to boost our listings. Everything we do we post on Facebook, whether it’s a recent posting, a new listing, recognizing one of our team members or even just sharing some of the articles we have on our website. We want them to go back to our website, so we’re capturing people interested in real estate that way.”
Michael LaFido
Realtor
CONLON/Christie’s International
Favorite technology: “My Samsung Galaxy. Real estate is still a people business, and sometimes you need voice to better articulate your message.”
What tech helps your business most: “Bombbomb for video emails with images and links. It helps to show body language, and helps differentiate me from other Realtors.”
Stephanie LoVerde
Realtor
Baird & Warner
Favorite technology: “Social media, like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. It allows you to stay in contact with people that you don’t normally connect with on a day-to-day basis.”
What tech helps your business most: “The Google platform in general. Before I take a listing, I have a Google Doc that I’ve created with an information request. I send that to the seller so they have a pre-created form, and they can go into the document and tell me specific details about the property. I put that data back into my Google Spreadsheet, and use that to create both the listing in the MLS and speaking points for myself and other agents. Sometimes I use Bitly to link back to the Google Doc from the MLS if the property has a lot to offer.”