Updated May 2020
You’re short on time, so we’ll make this quick: we’ve found some really helpful real estate sales tools that will make your life a lot easier.
Let’s face it. You’re rushing from one property to the next. Dream homes don’t just fall into clients’ laps. You’re fighting for every deal, spending your weekends sitting in open houses, booking viewings… You don’t have time to waste on things like repetitive manual work and waiting on emails.
But in an industry like real estate where time and productivity are everything, even the slightest gaps in communication can slow down deals—or worse, put them in jeopardy.
Luckily, there are tons of cloud-based tools at the ready, and we’ve rounded up 10 of our favorites for you. Want to get a leg up on the competition in your market, stay organized, and close deals in a flash? You’ll want to read through this list.
Today, we’ll show you:
- The 3 benefits of using real estate software
- The 10 best apps for real estate agents (for things like staying on top of multiple showings, tracking leads, communicating from anywhere, and more)
Download your free real estate prospecting playbook, featuring 9 prospecting letter/message templates! 🚀
3 benefits of using real estate software
1. Get your life back
You’re slammed, running from showing to open house to closing walk-throughs every (and weekend, let’s be honest). A lot of these apps for real estate agents can help cut down on some of the more manual, repetitive tasks and help you find some time in the day for the little things… like eating a meal that’s not in your car, or going to the bathroom.
2. Stay on your game
“I’ll have to get back to you on that.”
“I’ll send that once I get to the office.”
“I’m not in front of my computer, can you give me 10 minutes?”
Every time you say one of these sentences to a client, an angel loses its wings. Okay, that’s a stretch. But making clients wait slows down the whole buying or selling process… and your check at the end of the rainbow.
The real estate agent software we’ve highlighted in this post will help put more critical info at your fingertips, so you have to tell your customers to wait a lot less.
3. Happy homeowners = more referrals
Referrals are the lifeblood of the real estate game. No one wants to trawl the Internet looking for a real estate agent based on reviews from randoms. They trust the happy friends and family who have recently bought and sold, and that’s where these apps can help you.
The real estate software we’re sharing today should help make home transactions more of a breeze for your clients. Anything you can do to simplify the complicated process of buying or selling property should earn you major brownie points, and hopefully lots of referrals in the future.
Making a ton of calls? See how Fidelity Resales, one of the biggest resale timeshare brokers in the world (and Disney’s preferred broker), saved an incredible 50% on its phone bill—by doing one thing.
10 of the best apps for real estate agents
1. Contactually: Track leads and streamline referrals
Price: Starts at $69 per month
Contactually is a customer relationship management (CRM) software specifically designed for real estate agents. That means you won’t have to spend time customizing a more generic CRM to your unique process, and you can hit the ground running:
Like most CRMs, Contactually helps you track and nurture potential clients throughout your funnel. But Contactually adds a cool thing to the mix: referral nurturing, thanks to the ability to prioritize past customers based on potential referral strength and automated reminders to stay top of mind with them. If you want to start automating some of your tasks, this is a good place to start.
2. RingCentral Office®: Work together, from anywhere
Price: Starts at $19.99 per user per month
In a recent survey, more than 90% of real estate agents included phone, email, and texting in their top communication channels.1 That’s why an omnichannel communications platform could really make your life easier. Here’s a quick look at how Ringcentral’s desktop and mobile app works:
Imagine being able to:
- Walk a client through their future home via video chat
- Call and text selling agents to confirm property viewings
- Message your team about a new For Sale sign you just saw in a hot neighborhood
- Read your voicemails in your inbox instead of having to listen to each one
- Automatically forward phone calls to any extension, phone number, group, or department simultaneously or sequentially—yep, you’ll never miss an important call again
… all from one app.
That’s what RingCentral does. It simplifies communications by centralizing message, video, and phone capabilities in one app so that agents and clients can contact each other on any device and from any location. RingCentral also integrates with DocuSign and drops into Outlook and Gmail to make setting up virtual meetings with your clients and team a breeze… and these integrations are just the tip of the iceberg. (See all the apps that RingCentral plays nice with.)
Is it any wonder that real estate agents are using RingCentral to turn their agencies into lean, mean, house-selling machines?
🕹️ Get a hands-on look at how RingCentral works by booking a product tour:
💰 You can also use this calculator to see roughly how much your business could save by using RingCentral to support your team’s communications with clients, customers, and each other.
RingCentral is a PCMag’s Editors’ Choice Award winner because of its reliable service and easy-to-use app (among other reasons)!
3. OpenOpen.io: Stay on top of multiple showings
Price: 30-day free trial—contact OpenOpen for monthly pricing
If you’re trying to sell a bunch of properties at once, you know how complicated viewings can get, especially when you’re juggling everyone’s availability. OpenOpen is a handy piece of tech that helps you stay on top of all the details and avoid those pesky double-bookings and forgotten appointments.
Just input all of the properties you’re selling (and we mean all—OpenOpen is unlimited) along with your availability. From there, your trusted buyers’ agents can choose the right dates and times for them and their clients. Think of the time you’ll save without the usual back-and-forth, checking and rechecking calendars for everyone’s availability.
4. Spacio: Eliminate sign-in sheets
Price: Starts at $25 a month for individual agents
Here’s to having one fewer thing to lug to open houses.
Spacio turns your computer or tablet into a polished, professional check-in kiosk for open house visitors that syncs directly to your chosen CRM. That’s right: you’ll never have to crack the code of someone’s chicken-scratch email address again, even though you could probably work for the FBI at this point. With Spacio, you can put that badge of honor to rest.
Bonus: Customizable forms can help you learn which sources of advertisements are working best and who’s really ready to buy.
5. Zillow Premier Agent: Personalize your service
Price: Free for a standard account with no advertising included
Your clients might think you’re a mind reader once you start using Zillow Premier Agent. That’s because the My Agent feature keeps you in the loop about the types of properties your clients search on their own, so you can send them the best possible listings. This could really cut down on dead-end viewings and shorten the time between first contact and handing over the keys, which makes everyone happy.
Zillow Premier Agent also includes ways to make your sellers’ profile stand out in the crowd on Zillow listings, so you should see more outreach from potential buyers.
6. AreaPulse: Give your clients the data they need
Price: Starts at $49 a month for individual agents
What kind of market research are your clients clamoring for? With AreaPulse, you can build custom reports for them that are beautiful and easy for non-agents to understand, with high-level data about property values, houses on the market, and more.
And when the market’s hot for buying or selling? You can share reports with your social networks to get people thinking. When they’re ready to make a move, you and your helpful data will be top of mind.
7. RPR Mobile: Get REALTOR®-exclusive market data
Price: Free, exclusive to REALTORS®
If you’re a REALTOR®, take advantage of this free market data app from RPR before shelling out for a paid service. You might be pleasantly surprised by the data you’re able to access and reports you can run without another monthly bill.
8. CamScanner: Scan and send contracts from your phone
Price: Free for the basic account
CamScanner turns your phone or tablet into a scanner for all kinds of real estate documents. That means you can access and send important forms and other information to your clients while away from your desk, which will hopefully help move those sales along more quickly. You can even edit or make notes on the documents you scan before sending them off.
9. Dotloop: Sign and track e-documents
Price: Starts at $29 a month for individuals
We know you know this one, but it bears repeating: the more painless you can make things for buyers and sellers, the more likely they are to sing your praises when their friends and family members are looking to make a move. Here’s one more way to make that happen.
Dotloop is an e-signature and contract management software that’s specifically designed for real estate agents and brokers. You can edit forms and other transactions on the go and have your customers review and sign off on important documents from anywhere.
10. Expensify mobile app: Make reimbursements less painful
Price: Free for the basic plan, with in-app purchases for upgrades
Put all of those receipts in one place… and we don’t mean your glove box. Expensify is a handy mobile app that lets you keep track of purchases on the go, for reimbursement and write-offs. All you do is take a photo of your receipts, and Expensify does the rest to transcribe and organize them. You can even integrate other apps to sync with Expensify so you don’t have to manually input those spends.
With the upgraded version, Expensify uses GPS to automatically keep track of your mileage, too. This is a powerful little tool for getting those financial ducks in a row ahead of tax season.
The best software for real estate agents: what are you waiting for?
It’s a great time to be a real estate agent or REALTOR®, with all of the helpful software at your fingertips. Take some time to try a few of these tools, and you might be able to close deals a lot more quickly while holding onto happy customers… and your sanity!
Which tool will you try first? If you need help staying on top of your calls and texts, RingCentral Office might be the place to start. Grab the brief to learn more about the product.
Originally published Mar 31, 2020, updated Jun 17, 2022
