As the world adapts to a new way of transacting real estate, it’s time to revisit the long-standing belief that agents should try to hold onto a listing for as long as possible. Even though that seems like a good way to do business, it far too often drags down an agent’s energy and time. It can reach the point of diminishing returns since it takes away from other potential listings the agent could be going after. Of course, there is the obvious exception of vacation markets or other sub-pockets where homes don’t sell quickly due to the nature of the market. But beyond those smaller locales, if a listing nears its expiration date, agents may be better served by not renewing it.
This idea started to crystalize for me when I was designing DocuWalk. Besides making sure it was built on rock-solid blockchain security, I knew the software had to have a way to get more listings and a way to sell listings more quickly. In both cases, the path to success is the same: tailoring the marketing in a much more specific and finely honed way.
The standard brochure and one-page flyer that agents are so used to using take an excessive amount of time to recreate if we want to come up with different versions for each of the client profiles we want to advertise to. To overcome this, I designed our software so it was nimble enough to quickly change the different features an agent may want to highlight—whether it was the schools, entertaining features, outdoor spaces or other parts of a home that would appeal to different people.
Still, in today’s tech-savvy world, marketing starts long before telling someone about the features of a home. It starts with how we present ourselves as agents. The old saying, “the medium is the message,” is just as apt today as it was decades ago. When it comes to online marketing tools, the individual platforms themselves are the first impression we make with our clients. This became another major influence on the design of DocuWalk. Agents need something that can adapt to the expectations of their clients—ranging from communications that are more formal and businesslike to ones that embrace a casual tone, depending on the situation. All the products out there today for communicating with clients typically pigeonhole users into a specific flavor. But I kept DocuWalk “neutral and nimble” so an agent could change the tone of their messaging based on what fits the purpose of the communication.
What an agent needs most of all is an accurate pulse of the local market—and, even more importantly, an up-to-the-minute understanding of how their listings are performing. If we have more immediate feedback about our listings, we can make decisions earlier in the process about whether or not to keep a listing or let it go. In today’s market, shorter listing times could turn out to be your best friend.
Allen Alishahi is president of ShelterZoom, the technology company behind DocuWalk. For more information, please visit www.docuwalk.com.
