7 Tech Tools to Make Brokers’ Lives Easier

Technology is becoming more efficient, more affordable, and more useful for real estate professionals and their clients every day. But figuring out what's worth the time and money can be overwhelming.

To help make those decisions a little easier, a panel of brokers shared their go-to apps and tech tools for managing their business and connecting with clients and agents during the Emerging Business Issues & Technology Forum at the REALTORS® Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo in Washington, D.C., last week. Here are seven of their recommendations:

Periscope: This is Twitter's web streaming app, which gives users the ability to share live video. When your broadcast is over, you can make it available to viewers for later replay. If you want to broadcast to specific people, you can make it invite-only. Free.

Broadcasting ideas for brokers:

• Panel or keynote presentations: Do you do a lot of public speaking engagements? Share your presentations live with your agents and followers.
• Company updates/major announcements: Introduce new hires or new agents, celebrate accomplishments, and announce expansions and other newsy events at your brokerage.
• Q&As and interviews: Get one of your top producers to sit down and do an education interview that potential clients would find useful, or talk to community leaders about local issues and events.
• Speakers and training sessions: Be a resource for agents on the go by live streaming speaking events or in-house coaching sessions. Invite just your agents to view the live stream or make it public. Sure, agents from other brokerages might see it, but what better way to recruit?

Waze: You and your agents are probably on the road all day driving between offices or showing homes. If you're in a congested metro area, Waze is a helpful app that gives you real-time traffic and navigation information with live updates from other users. It's also a great way to coordinate arrival times. You can see friends en route to their destination when you connect via Facebook. It's a great tool for agents to coordinate with clients, too. Free.

Glympse: Similar to Waze, Glympse is a real-time location sharing app that allows other people to track your travel route and estimated arrival time. But the app isn't required for route sharing: Simply text or e-mail the link to your route to a contact, client, or agent, and they can follow along online. Glympse can also be used as a safety tool to track agents' whereabouts. Free.

Reflector 2: This tool makes it possible to mirror or stream what you're doing on your smartphone or tablet onto a larger screen (think projected screen in sales meetings). It's a great way to make listing presentations, share videos, and do demos or trainings for agents. It works with the device you already have, so you simply need to install Reflector on your Mac or Windows computer to receive the mirror/stream from your mobile device. Single license: $14.99; five-computer license: $62.99; 20-74 licenses: $12 each. Higher volume pricing available.

Join.me: If you or your agents often work remotely, join.me is a great way to conduct a meeting where you need to share your computer screen. It's a great training or sales meeting tool to connect with agents, and it allows up to 250 participants with the pro account. You can also record your meetings for later reference or playback. Basic account: free; pro: $15/month; enterprise: $19/month.

Timebridge: Whether you're trying to coordinate large groups or one-on-one meetings, Timebridge is a way to schedule and keep them on track. For example, share agendas and notes for sales meetings, and send reminders via text to your agents. Compatible with Google and Outlook. Free.

BetterVoice: It's hard for you and your agents to answer every call when it comes through, especially if you're in an important meeting or with clients. BetterVoice gives you the option to set a voicemail greeting based on who is calling. Set it up by area code, first-time callers, or other call group designations you choose. It's also a way to give the human touch in voicemail greetings. You can send callers an automatic text message with a website URL. It makes brokers' lives easier by automatically creating a new CRM contact, too. Get voicemail transcribed and sent to you via text or e-mail, which provides a discrete way to get your messages during meetings. $20 per user, per month. Bulk pricing available.

To view the original article, visit REALTOR®Mag.