Friday Freebie: Merge

Merge is a new technology built to help real estate professionals report listing activity to sellers. The company recently announced the release of Version 2, as well as a free 7-day trial.

Free 7-Day Trial of Merge
Real estate professionals can now try Merge for free for 7 days. No credit card is required in order to sign up for the trial, so you don’t need to worry about being automatically billed.

To sign up for the trial, click here.

About Merge
As Merge is relatively new on the scene, many of our readers may not be familiar with the technology. So, we’re going to republish their recent press release here:

Activity Reports for Sellers Made Easy with Merge
This exciting new platform has recently emerged from beta, launching Version 2 and gaining cross-industry buzz.

Lakewood Ranch, FL (June 2012) – Merge, released new software today to support the real estate agent in reporting listing activities to their seller. Real estate listing agents accomplish an astonishing array of tasks throughout  the process of representing a home seller; relaying all of these activities to the seller informs them of the valuable services being provided by their agent.

“Real estate agents are constantly having to justify their commission,” explains Joel Beasley, Merge Founder and Developer. “Yet, they’re not doing this effectively. In fact, research indicates that the typical agent communicates only 31% of what they actually do for their sellers. If you’re only explaining 31%, how can you justify 100% of your commission? That’s what I had in mind when I created Merge.”

Merge helps agents communicate the many actions they’re taking on behalf of sellers to their clients and, in that way, demonstrate their worth. All updates are visible on the “timeline” for each transaction and can be sent to clients on a daily, weekly, or bi-weekly basis. Timelines are built in several ways: 

• Directly by the agent, with the option of using convenient templates. Templates include boilerplate activities like taking property photos, posting on social media, placing property signs, etc. Users can schedule activities to repeat (with slick natural language processing). All activities are pending (not visible to the client) until they are approved by the agent.
  

• Using an innovative process that pulls data from a broker's real estate software, including accounting tools, showing systems, call centers, transaction management, document management, CRM and more.  

“Over more than a decade in the real estate technology space, I’ve developed a unique process that allows me to pull data from the numerous platforms used in most brokers’ offices,” Mr. Beasley explains. “This solves one of the problems that most real estate professionals face – multiple technology systems that don’t ‘talk’ to each other. And I can even accomplish all this in less than 3 days for any broker’s office.”

Brokers looking to define their service levels with every seller have successfully deployed Merge for all of their agents. Listing agents looking for a differentiator have also deployed Merge in their personal business. However, Merge isn’t just for REALTORS®. The platform has been immensely popular with mortgage, insurance, and title companies as well. In the near future, Merge will be rolling out a variety of industry-specific widgets to help each user with their unique needs. For instance, new widgets include: 

• Email Connector will allow users to attach their email account, then automatically pull in emails to the timeline based on keywords or email addresses.
• Requests are a better way to obtain files and information needed without the stigma of assigning a "to-do's" or "tasks" to a client.
• Collaboration will enable users to create permissions for other people to view timelines. These permissions can be customized so that the third parties will only have access to view specific widgets (updates, for example), but not others.

The new tools are added to an already-robust selection of widgets for adding, tracking, and sharing activities.

“I also recognized the highly mobile nature of today’s real estate professional,” says Mr. Beasley, “So I made it a priority for my platform to work seamlessly on mobile devices. For example, I’ve added a feature that allows users to ‘check-in’ at a property and have it appear on the timeline for that transaction.”

Merge is offering a 7-day free trial, so it is easy for interested professionals to create accounts and look inside the software. Visit our website today for a test drive.

About Merge
Merge is the answer for individuals and companies who want to provide a level of service and selective transparency that a “fully integrated platform” offers, yet still want to avoid the expense and hassle of more cumbersome software. The project was born on November 1, 2011 when Founder and Developer, Joel Beasley, decided “today is the day” to finally honor his brilliant idea for helping agents justify their commission. Initial development was completed in February of 2012. A private beta revealed that the concept had cross-industry appeal . . . and the funding followed. Emerging from beta and launching Version 2, Merge is ready to revolutionize the real estate industry.

To learn more about Merge, contact Joel Beasley at 650-308-8943 or email.