How to Introduce New Real Estate Technology to the Office

Introducing new real estate technology to an established real estate brokerage can often seem like an overwhelming pursuit. In fact, for many brokers and admins who have tried introducing new technology to their agents more than once, it seems like an unending pursuit.

Every year there’s new real estate technology built. Every year offices are sold products with promises more grand than the outcomes. And every year, the real estate professionals struggle to successfully introduce and onboard their teams to new products they thought would be welcomed with open arms.

Before you begin the process of introducing agents, admins, or brokers to your new choice in real estate technology, ask these essential questions:

Is it time to upgrade our technology?
How much of my office’s workflow should I expect the new technology to handle?
Do I need tools or systems that connect with other systems we use?
Do you receive complaints from your team or contacts about the systems you use and what they produce?

Answering questions like these beforehand can help streamline your needs and identify whether it’s time for your real estate office to upgrade its technology. If it, there are some clear benefits to finding the best new tools to help supercharge your agents and grow your business.

Benefits of Introducing New Real Estate Technology:

Help attract and retain top talent. Agents and staff appreciate and often require tools that allow them to be successful. Having technology that supports their needs helps brokerages draw and keep the best talent.
Improve communication/flow of information – Today’s technology enables teams to connect and communicate instantly and seamlessly in nearly every professional scenario.
Allow team members to work remotely – Mobile devices, cloud computing and other connectivity technologies allow brokerage team members to connect from anywhere in the world at any time.
Eliminates barriers to completing work – Systems and technologies that don’t meet or support teams’ needs end up acting as barriers to team members completing work and being successful.
Allow teams to work faster and more efficiently – The right tools and technologies don’t just help, but are essential to fostering a productive work environment and team.
Reduces repetitiveness – Obsolete technology and systems can involve repetitive, unnecessary actions on a regular basis. Advanced technology seeks to minimize repetitive and redundant actions.
Streamlines department workflows – With the right real estate transaction management system in place, you can support each side of your business. Property managers can create and store files for owners and properties while residential sales teams can manage transactions in the same system, but with different workflows.

How to Decide Where to Introduce New Real Estate Technology

Real estate Technology is a broad term that can encompass your office’s email, chat and other communication systems; your system for managing real estate transactions; your network infrastructure, Internet, and other network connectivity; and all software and hardware utilized by your office.

Trends in real estate technology impact not only what physically exists at your office, but also what extends beyond your walls. You almost certainly already utilize the Internet, phone, cloud, and other remote, cloud, and offsite services. And your agents and other team members also utilize their own, separate accounts, connections, phones, devices, productivity tools, and a myriad of other items that fall under the umbrella of technology.

All these connections and potential connections should be considered when pondering whether it’s time to upgrade your office’s technology.

Taking on the entire spectrum of technology can be a large undertaking. So formulate a plan based on your office’s needs. Poll your team to identify pain points or areas of need then go from there. Start by asking about broad workflow needs, then drill down into each response to find deeper pain points and needs until they formulate into actionable items that can be resolved by improvements in technology.

Since most areas of technology are already in place in nearly all real estate offices (e.g., Internet, mobile devices, email, etc.), the area of technology which is most often newly introduced or changed for a brokerage is real estate transaction management software. Utilizing real estate transaction management software allows an office to be fully paperless which means better organization, remote access to paperwork 24/7, and higher productivity. Having a paperless system that meets the needs of your staff and agents is not just critical in today’s fast-moving, remote industry, it’s mandatory.

The transaction management software considered should support the way your office processes transactions, and improve your office’s productivity, agent and staff satisfaction, and profitability.

First Steps When Introducing New Real Estate Technology to the Office

Taking an objective look at your office’s needs, workflow, and pain points is the first step in determining whether how to introduce new real estate technology to your brokerage or company. Make sure you understand the following questions:

How comfortable are your agents and admins with technology?
How will new technology impact current pending transactions?
How will the new technology impact the workflow of all real estate professionals in the office?

If answers to these or other evaluating questions are not fully understood, introducing new technology may not be as seamless or as delightful as it could be. The goal is to understand how agents are likely to receive new technology, how they learn best, and what changes they can expect to see and when.

Methods for Introducing New Real Estate Technology:

When introducing new technology to a brokerage, consider every team member who will be exposed to the new technology. In some cases, offices may face resistance to new technology because agents or staff are used to the old method of processing. And in some cases, some people may naturally be resistant to or even fearful of change.

Depending on your office’s needs and makeup, the following methods may be considered as you develop your roll-out plans:

Method 1: Full Roll-out

Develop a plan that introduces the new technology to your entire team during one general timeframe. This method is useful for small teams or when your team needs to collaborate immediately using the new technology. It’s also most effective when releasing a single tool or system.

Method 2: Incremental Roll-out

This method involves rolling-out portions of your technology in increments. This method is most useful when you are implementing more than one tool, system or other technology, especially ones that work together. For example, if you’re implementing a new real estate transaction management system, you may start by only having agents upload their docs to a central area in the system, but later give them permissions to do more. This incremental method allows for optimal adoption and a smooth transition between each implementation.

Method 3: Strategic Roll-out

This method allows you to be flexible in how you roll-out your new technology. If, like most offices, you have agents and staff with a wide variety of technical skills, that may mean rolling your new technology out to tech-savvy team members first so they can become cheerleaders for later adopters. Or for brokerages that have offices spread out in different locations, it may mean rolling out new technology to select offices at a time. The strategic method allows you to base your roll-out plans on your resources, team, and needs.

Regardless of the method you choose, be sure to allow ample training time and resources to allow team members to be as receptive and successful as possible. Also be sure to consistently communicate and demonstrate the benefits each team member will gain from the new technology.

Final Thoughts:

Taking the proper steps to first evaluate whether it’s time to introduce new technology then executing your findings can take a bit of effort but can result in greater satisfaction, productivity, and profitability as a result. Approaching it with an open mind and objectives that serve your team will almost certainly lead you in the right direction.