Has Your Real Estate Database Become An Angry Monster?

I'll let you in on a secret: Every agent, no matter how successful or organized they are, has problems with their database. It's a matter of fact.

What are the common problems, you ask? Sometimes it's just that agents are combining databases from many different technology platforms that do not sync, things don't get updated across all those platforms, and all the sudden the agent has no idea which is the correct info and which is the out-of-date info.

Other times, it has to do with a connected piece of technology that is messing things up. For instance, anybody that knows me knows I am the biggest Apple fanboy ever. That said, the iPhone sync agent is THE WORST I have ever seen. It truly does not matter if you use iCloud or don't, if you've got your iTunes syncing with Outlook, Mac Address Book, or even Gmail. I guarantee you have multiple duplicate contacts in your address book. Even if you have been SUPER careful not to let this happen, it will happen.

When your database is out of whack, you cannot do your job effectively. When you cannot do your job effectively, you risk losing business. If you lose enough business, you risk running yourself out of business all together. Surely you can see the problem with this. Your database is your net worth as a real estate professional. If that is out of whack, you have nothing.

So assuming we are all in agreement on these facts, the question becomes, "What do I do?"

The great news is that the fix can be easier than you think, provided you take the right steps to right this wrong. Namely, you need to partner with some sort of technology platform that will unify these databases, sync them, merge them, and make sure that they never get out of sync again.

Sound impossible? It's not. However you have to closely investigate who you are getting into business with to make sure they are covering all the needs you have. Here are some things you should ask any technology provider before you sign on the dotted line:

• Do you have a contact, calendar and task sync with Outlook or Google?
• Do you have the option to pull leads from your website into this system?
• Do you have the option to pull leads from outside lead providers, such as Zillow.com, Trulia.com, Realtor.com, etc. into this system?
• Does their system sync with whatever mobile device you may have?
• In the event that there are duplicates somehow, is there a tried and true way to merge the duplicates? (NOTE: I said merge. You NEVER want to delete contacts, as there may most likely be critical pieces of data you are going to lose in the record you delete.)

I know this sounds like a long list, and I know that many potential software providers may explain away a few of these in the hopes you will sign up with their service. The reality though is that if they don't do ALL these things, it's frankly not worth your time.

So do your homework and make sure these bare minimums are at least met. If you do, you will be the master of your data and reap the rewards.

To view the original article, visit the Leading Agent blog.