A real estate broker has to manage dozens to potentially hundreds of real estate agents while maintaining customer experience and compliance — not an easy task! Technology has made it easier for brokers to build bigger and bigger businesses, expand to new markets while maintaining quality, and more.
What can brokerage software do for your business? These are tools that can help you manage agents and scale your business.
While real estate agents are busy working with clients to close deals, real estate brokers are tasked with ensuring that those agents are operating within the bounds of state regulations, within the guidelines of the brokerage (in terms of branding and so on), and sometimes even providing leads for those agents.
As a result, real estate broker software services typically will offer some or several of the following services:
It's essential to recognize that while most back-office brokerage solutions do one (or a handful) of things very well, you'll likely be investing in two or three products that offer overlapping services or tools. For example, many marketing platforms (like Placester's web-builder) offer basic CRM solutions, but a lead routing and transaction management platform will likely have a more robust and integrative CRM that makes more sense for a scaling brokerage.
Before investing in broker software, take some time to look up a handful (or all) of the names you're considering and read the reviews that pop up on Google. G2 is a good source for product reviews, with star ratings and examples from users about what they like (and don't like) about the software.
Client testimonials can also be illuminating. If a platform has satisfied clients, look at the testimonials and ask yourself if the needs align with what you need. (And what's missing from the testimonials? Anything glaring?) And if a platform can't provide glowing client testimonials, that says a lot by itself!
Online reviews can be a good jumping-off point, but you should also talk to your colleagues and competitors in the brokerage space. What are they using? What do they like? What challenges have they encountered around adoption or execution, if any? Asking a group of brokers what they think about a specific piece of software will elicit some response; this population loves to try new things!
Real estate agents have different needs than brokers when it comes to software. They aren't managing a group (or a mob) of agents, but they are probably managing at least two big things for their side of the business:
An agent's marketing needs will be different from a brokerage's; perhaps they're super-active on social media and therefore want to invest in additional tools, like Buffer, to schedule posts across multiple platforms.
If you can give your agents support where they need it with your brokerage tools, that can be a significant advantage — for example, perhaps your agent is an active blogger who needs occasional writing support. Choosing a brokerage website platform that allows agents to hire a writer directly from the platform can be a massive time-saver for agents (and make you look like a rock star, too!).
In addition, agents will typically be handling their own leads alongside any leads they're getting from the brokerage. To nurture and appropriately keep in touch with those leads while they're getting ready to make the big decision to buy or sell a house, agents should also be using a CRM solution. Most brokerages prefer that agents use their CRM software so that brokers can keep track of leads and ensure that agents are caring for clients to the brokerage's standards.
As the managing broker, you are the best person to determine your needs and whether you already have a solution that works or require an additional tool to close the gaps.
Ask about trial accounts when you're sitting through software demos so that you can determine whether you'll have some free time to assess how the platform will work in your business — and then make a plan for testing it with stakeholder input so that you can make sure you fully understand how (and whether) it works.
Depending on what you need to get done, here are some of the most popular (and reliable) brokerage management software platforms in real estate in 2024.
BoomTown is a CRM and lead generation and management platform that offers websites with agent subdomains, email, and text message campaign options, predictive analytics that surface the people most likely to buy or sell in a CRM, and an expanded product for multiple offices that can incorporate feeds from more than one MLS (for example).
Pros: Users love the training available from BoomTown.
Cons: G2 reviews say that the website themes could offer more flexibility for users.
Agent Image offers website design and other affiliated services for real estate agents, such as SEO and content development packages. The company will create designs for existing website providers (you can order a WordPress package, for example) or build a custom design if that's what you need.
Pros: You can get a one-of-a-kind website designed just for you.
Cons: No lead management or CRM included - just a website.
For a back-office brokerage system that encompasses both accounting and lead management, LoneWolf is an excellent option. It offers websites, comparative market analysis (CMA) tools, transaction management, e-signatures, back office management, company analytics, and more.
Pros: As a comprehensive system, there's little that Lone Wolf needs to do.
Cons: As opposed to one standalone product, Lone Wolf is a suite of different solutions (LionDesk, Cloud CMA, and so on). You might have other solutions to clear those business hurdles.
Another all-in-one (or as close to it as you can get) solution for brokerage back offices, MoxiWorks includes a CMA, a CRM, recruiting and retention tools for brokerages, a website builder, a brokerage intranet, and other tools, including an accounting system.
Pros: MoxiWorks launched within a real estate brokerage (Windermere, specifically) and provides a full suite of services for brokers.
Cons: Like with Lone Wolf, if there are single standalone products that you already love, MoxiWorks might or might not integrate with them.
It is one of the few products on the market tailor-made for the Real Estate Industry and caters to the demand of hyper local Agents and Brokers. Whether the platform is set up to give agents, an administrator, or beyond complete control of the platform, brokerages can create or use pre-existing themes that ensure brand consistency, and the entire experience couldn't be easier to use.
Pros: Placester is a very flexible solution that scales its features, expanding the number of features with higher subscription plans. First of all, you do not need to be an online marketing expert, developer, or graphic designer. Placester Team can create professional, eye-catchy with fundamental SEO works done, ready to go after a couple of days of cooperation with their On-Demand Team! Moreover, it's possible to integrate Placester with more than 4000 applications or software. So by choosing Placester, you do not need to resign from other valuable tools. It's worth mentioning that, Placester provides a comprehensive tutorial video library to guide you through every step of website customization. So at the end of the day, you can always watch the video and have control to change something. Check out their video guides from mapping the NAR domain to the website customization options.
Cons: While the CRM works beautifully with Placester's product, it's pretty basic; you'll want something more robust as your business grows. To meet your expectations soon, Placester will have native integration with The Cloze.
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