The Complete Guide To A Real Estate Technology Audit

As a broker, you carry a large responsibility on your shoulders. 

From ensuring compliance and data security to secure document storage within your business, you’re juggling a lot.

The technology you use plays a significant role in how you comply with various regulations and laws.

If there’s a blind spot in your tech, you could be breaking the law and you may face serious consequences.

Equally detrimental, if your IT systems are slow and difficult to use, they may affect your team’s productivity.

Real estate technology is rather expensive, with brokerages of one to 49 agents spending $22,542 per year and those with 50 to 299 agents spending $47,307 annually on tech. You need to be using tools that are affordable while serving their purpose.

In this article, we’ll take you through the entire technology audit process to ensure your business has the right tools in 2024 and beyond. We’ll also provide you with a helpful technology audit checklist to get you started. 

8 Steps to Complete a Real Estate Tech Audit

Here’s everything you need to know about auditing your real estate technology:

1. Evaluate your current tech stack

The first thing you need to do is get an overview of your IT environment. This includes all your software and tools. 

Let’s take a look at some important systems and tools in your stack:

Operations

Your operational tech stack consists of all the tools you need to run day-to-day operations within your brokerage. They’re the backbone of your business, so it’s important to ensure these technologies perform as they should.

This includes:

• Office suite: The basics you need to get work done, such as a word processor, spreadsheets, presentations, and cloud storage. Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace are common choices. Is your office suite reliable? And does it enhance or slow down productivity?

• Compliance: A real estate compliance tool will help you review and approve documents and create transaction tracklists to show regulators you’ve completed all the necessary steps. Check that this software works effectively and adheres to compliance regulations in your state.

• Accounting: This tech should give you a complete overview of your business’s finances. If it can’t do so, you might want to consider an alternative. Common choices are QuickBooks and Xero, which both have options for real estate brokerages.

• Transaction management: A tool that helps you ensure every step in the transaction process is completed correctly and on time. Transaction management software ensures everything runs smoothly. Check that yours can protect sensitive data and support data backups.

• Commission management: This tool is used when you have multiple agents to pay. Your commission management system should help you calculate how much you should pay each agent based on whichever type of commission split you work with.

Marketing

Your marketing software stack includes your:

• Website: A good real estate website is essential to your business. You’ll need to take inventory of how your site is performing and whether the platforms you’re using, such as Squarespace or Wix, are right for you.

• SEO and analytics platforms: These are tools that help you measure your marketing efforts, such as Google Analytics, Google Search Console, SEMrush, or Surfer SEO. Are they effective in helping you implement and monitor your marketing campaigns?

• Email marketing tools: This is the tool you use to send promotional emails to potential and existing clients. Check that the system you’re using meets your needs, accommodates the number of emails you need to send out, and reliably sends them. Examples include Mailchimp, Sendinblue, and Active Campaign.

• Social media management tools: Whether you’re using Hootsuite, Sprout Social, or some other platform to manage your social media, you need to check that this system is working at its best so that you have an optimal online presence.

• Virtual tours: This is software that allows you to create 3D virtual models of the properties you’re selling for potential buyers to view. These need to be done professionally, so check that the tool you’re using produces high quality results. 

Agent tech

These are the systems and tools that your agents use to get their job done effectively, which may include:

• Customer relationship management (CRM): This platform helps build relationships with leads, prospects, and existing clients, so it has to be robust. Common options are Pipedrive and Follow Up Boss. Check that this tool is supporting your agents sufficiently.

• E-sign tools: The right e-sign technology should help to speed up the sales process and be easy for your clients to navigate. Check that this is the case with the tool you’ve chosen.

• Form generators: Check that your form generator software, such as zipLogix, makes it easy for you and your agents to handle all the paperwork related to sales. It should have templates and the ability to autopopulate information. If not, it might be time to consider another tool.

2. Define your business objectives for 2024

The second step of your audit is to take some time to map out your business goals for 2024 and look into how the right technology can help you achieve these.

Align your vision with your tech

Setting goals will help you align your tech with the overall strategic objectives of your business. 

For example, if one of your goals is to streamline your processes more efficiently, you may want to consider using transaction management software.

Budget for your goals

Defining your goals for the year can also help you determine how you’re going to allocate your budget and resources. 

If your 2024 goal is to enhance your client’s experience with virtual tours, you know investing in a tool to create these is where you should allocate your budget.

Keep your clients happy

One goal you shouldn’t ignore is how you’re going to satisfy your clients. 

The technology you use should align with your aim to improve your clients’ experience. 

Is your customer relationship management (CRM) platform capable of helping you keep your clients informed of every step of the buying or selling process? Does your e-sign software make it easy for clients to sign important documents?

3. Collect feedback from all your departments

An important part of the IT audit process that is often neglected is to speak to the people who use your technology every day.

The people who use your accounting software, those who use your property management tools, those who coordinate your social media—you need to hear from all of them.

Find out from them what isn’t working (and what is) and what they’d need to do their job better. 

4. Analyze performance metrics related to your technology

Now, you need to check that all your tech is supporting your staff the way it should and that it performs well.

There’s nothing worse than software that slows down your team’s ability to work efficiently. 

You need to assess the speed and performance of all your tech and how reliable it is for your team to use.

For example, is your email marketing platform slow? Does it make sending large chunks of emails a problem?

After speaking to your team and doing your own analysis, you might want to consider doing away with any tech that isn’t performing as well as it should and look into other options, which leads us to our next point.

5. Conduct a cost-benefit analysis for each system or tool

An important part of your audit is the financial aspect of the tools you’ve invested in. 

Real estate software is expensive, and without even realizing it, you may be spending far more on technology than you need to.

Take the list you created earlier and check what each tool or system currently costs you.

You might find that certain tools are well worth the investment because they streamline your brokerage effectively and improve overall compliance.

On the other hand, you may want to find out whether there are more affordable options available if you’re not happy with the performance of a particular system in your tech stack.

6. Check integration and compatibility between systems

You should be able to integrate all your tech so that each system can speak to one another and information can be shared effectively throughout your business. 

For example, your accounting software should be able to integrate with your record-keeping tools.

Find out whether the software you are using has integration capabilities and, if so, request the vendor to set this up for you. 

Integration helps establish seamless real estate operations, so it’s important that your tech supports this. For example, Paperless Pipeline includes integrations with over 1,500 of your favorite apps and tools.

7. Consider scalability and future needs

Does your current tech stack support the direction your business is taking? Your software and tools should be able to grow along with your business, not hold you back.

Find out whether the tech you’re using allows you to scale your operations if and when it’s needed.

For example, our transaction and commission management software allows unlimited users, which gives you the space to grow your business.

8. Develop a plan to address gaps and weaknesses

If you’ve found any gaps or weaknesses in your tech, it’s important that you take action right away. A simple issue with one tool could result in your entire brokerage facing serious consequences for noncompliance.

For example, if your critical data isn’t protected by multi-factor authentication, you face the risk of being hacked.

Decide how you’re going to address outdated software and manage tech that isn’t secure enough for your business.

Download Your Free Technology Audit Checklist

We’ve put together a comprehensive tech audit checklist for you to use as you go through the process of evaluating your tools and systems. 

This checklist covers practically every type of tool or technology you could possibly be using in your real estate business so that you don’t skip anything as you do your audit.

Choose the Best Real Estate Software for Compliance and Security

If you’re looking for real estate software that will support your 2024 goals, help you remain fully compliant, and keep your data secure, Paperless Pipeline is the answer.

Our robust transaction and commission management software is designed with your brokerage in mind and will support your entire operation through automation.

Paperless Pipeline keeps all your documents secure, and you can manage permissions to ensure only the right staff can see certain information. The tool also allows you to keep a full audit trail with regular backups so that you’re always prepared for a real estate audit.

Better yet, our system is so easy to use that you’ll have your staff and agents set up and ready in minutes. Paperless Pipeline is reliable, which means you won’t have to worry about costly downtime. And, we pride ourselves on excellent technical support for our clients.

You can try Paperless Pipeline for free—without even having to provide your credit card information—by visiting our website. We’re excited to show you how our tool can take the headache out of tech.