Epiphanies come at the strangest times. I had one on the way to work. It used to be a one-hour drive from Toronto to Cambridge; I’d leave around 6 a.m. and hit Cambridge by 7:00 a.m.
It wasn't the worst drive. The highway would move well enough in the morning. I'd turn on some music and clear my thoughts, think about my day, week, month. The ride would be kind of relaxing—until the last stretch before the office.
And then it would just drag.
"...there's a constant motion on the road that wasn't there before."
On some days, when there was a fender-bender, or a flat tire, or a police car in the right-hand lane—traffic would shut down altogether. The 18-wheelers and flatbeds would clog both lanes and it'd take an extra half-hour to travel the short stretch (maybe 1.2 miles/2 km) from the highway to the office.
And then, all those great feelings I'd have on the drive would just disappear, gone in a haze of brake lights and diesel fumes.
But then the city installed roundabouts at every intersection. Now the traffic isn't so bad. Sure, cars slow down a bit at the roundabouts, and there's the occasional newbie stuck mid-circle, but overall there's a constant motion on the road that wasn't there before.
And here's my epiphany.
Running a business is like getting stuck in traffic. It's great until one little fluke sends everything spiraling.
This is especially true in real estate, where an agent’s workload, a broker's job, and an admin’s daily grind, is never easy.
There's a constant ebb and flow in real estate, a daily onslaught of work, and a host of things that make life harder for agents, brokers, and staff. It's all too easy to find yourself and your business at a standstill, as though stuck in traffic.
What agents and brokers need is their own version of a roundabout—a way to keep their real estate business moving forward.
That's where we can help.
We build software to make real estate simpler for all. So our customers—and their customers—can focus less on tasks that slow them down and more on things that really matter.
For an agent, this means spending less time fiddling around with DIY advertising, filling out contact details again and again, searching for the right forms.
For an administrator, this means spending less time on manual data entry, and more on helping consumers, agents, and the broker.
And for a broker, this means spending less time working in their business and more on working on their business. It means worrying less about things like bad data or compliance and damage control and putting the spotlight back on recruiting agents, strategizing, and growing the bottom line.
That may sound like a utopia. But it's very real. And here's how we help you do it.
Transactions are the key to it all. This is where traffic jams occur most often in real estate. This is where people, data, and systems converge.
Agents are beholden to their clients and must work around their schedule and preferences, while the office is beholden to agents and must work around their schedule and preferences. One change in one system, the agent’s CRM for example, initiates an avalanche of changes in other places, requiring updates with multiple parties, in multiple systems, with multiple deadlines.
And the workload gets heavier when you consider all the other touch points in the typical homebuying or selling process. Search, listing, social, email, CMA, open house, showing, contract, signing, lawyers, warranty, title, commission and so on. If you’re entering data into a different system for each of these touch points, then that is a whole lot of traffic in your day.
"One change in one place, the agent's CRM for example, initiates an avalanche of changes in other places, requiring updates with multiple parties, in multiple systems, with multiple deadlines."
Imagine the impact on your entire business if you could make this process simpler and avoid all the roadblocks.
Marketing, CRM, and transactions—together at last.
When connected to digital marketing and CRM, our transaction software works just like a roundabout for the entire real estate experience. From your social ads to your client communications, from your contact details to your contracts and signings—each tool is connected to automate and speed up essential front office tasks that slow every agent and brokerage down. Things like:
By turning the entire real estate experience into one stream from lead to contact, contract to close, we create a constant flow of data through which broker, agents, and staff can move efficiently through marketing, client relationship management, and transactions, and improve their speed, accuracy, and communication along the way.
Giving buyers and sellers a complete experience
Our software doesn’t just help agents and brokers. It’s deeply embedded in the buyer and seller experience, too:
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Facebook ad impressions a day with Boost
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Conversations started with LionDesk
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Real estate websites powered by Propertybase GO
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Transactions a year
Connected to these solutions as well as our tools for comparative market analysis (CMA), eSignature, and back office/accounting, Transactions makes it possible for agents and brokers to guide the entire real estate experience for themselves—and their clients—in one place.
Change is never easy. But it helps you take control.
I understand the feelings toward changing technology in an unpredictable market. The status quo is comfortable, even if it’s difficult to manage and not achieving the results you’d like.
"...when you take the time to set up your brokerage with the right real estate technology—a single, cohesive system that manages the entire transaction—you put the infrastructure in place that will always be there for you, working away in the background, while you go out and succeed at your job."
But think about this. When construction crews take to the roads to make changes, no one is ever happy about it. We grumble about slowdowns, detours, and learning how to use the roundabouts.
But once it’s all said and done, we never want to go back.
Updating your current software setup is the same. When you take the time to set up your business with the right real estate technology—a single, cohesive platform that manages the entire real estate experience from lead to contact, contract to close—you take control. You put an infrastructure in place that will always be there for you, working away in the background, while you go out and succeed at your job.
Just like building a roundabout to improve traffic, putting the right real estate technology in today can dramatically improve the way your business works for good.
My hope for your business
Whether you’re new or established, franchise or independent, team or brokerage, my hope is that you choose Lone Wolf to be your technology provider and break up the traffic jams in your business.
Trust us to be your technology provider and keep your business moving forward.
Thanks for reading.
