How technology helps create personalized experiences and build meaningful connections

More than ever, it’s important to make meaningful connections. While some think digital tools make business less personal, I argue they actually improve one’s ability to deliver personalized experiences in less time.

I’ve designed my real estate company, Modern Properties, around tools that help my team and I provide strategic high-touch service. As agents, we act as clients’ trusted advisers, counselors, and friends throughout the property selling and buying process. Modern Properties’ one-stop app empowers us to fulfill all these roles and deliver convenient services, personalized experiences and targeted messaging — all from the palms of our hands.

Every realtor stands to benefit from upgrading their technology stack. By adopting a mobile app, you can reach customers where they are and offer higher quality, just-in-time client service that grows your business.

How technology gives realtors the advantage

Consumers are familiar with using an app to conveniently engage with high-touch service providers — like their bank — so why not real estate?

Real estate transactions involve managing many disparate, moving parts. If you get it right, you develop trust with clients and keep the process moving quickly. But without the right consolidated strategy, the homebuying process can place significant strain on your ability to serve your clients:

• Limited reach: There are many instances in which an in-person viewing may not be preferable or feasible for property buyers — perhaps they don’t live in the area, or have irregular work schedules. By only offering in-person tours, your ability to help home seekers find their perfect home and home sellers reach prospective buyers is more limited.

• Strained communication: Communicating via multiple channels (call, email, text) with multiple stakeholders makes it difficult to keep track of information and respond quickly. Timely, transparent communication is essential for building trust with your clients, keeping them happy and ensuring they are repeat clients in the future.

• Maintaining compliance: Large amounts of paperwork can be a major source of frustration and inefficiency. Sending documents, collecting signatures and closing a deal via mail or email is time-consuming and difficult to manage. More significantly, it can make it difficult to track down the right documents if there are ever issues with legal accountability.

While separate technologies exist to address each problem, adopting multiple solutions is costly, burdensome and time-consuming to manage. And making your clients sign up for multiple third-party services is a hassle.

Fortunately, having your own managed client-centric branded mobile app is easier than ever thanks to modern technology providers. I use a no-code platform called Moxtra which powers the My Modern Properties app. Our app brings together all aspects of the buying process, making it easy for my clients to do business with my company, and for me to manage the entire business process.

4 must-haves for your real estate app business

Having an app has improved the real estate game for me — and my clients. Not only does it streamline the experience for my customers, but it has helped me stay on top of a constant avalanche of communication. It’s also allowed me to grow my business with the ability to reach a wider client base and be more competitive in our mobile-first era.

The following are my favorite features we have built into the My Modern Properties app that I would recommend all real estate agencies consider:

• Virtual showings: I use my app to host live virtual tours, share pre-recorded videos and offer 3-D images of available properties so buyers can feel confident completing a transaction no matter where they are in the world. Considering that 39% of millennials feel comfortable buying a home that they’ve only ever seen online — and another 59% would be at least somewhat comfortable making an offer based on a virtual walkthrough — the ability to provide virtual tours will only continue to grow in importance.

• Communication hub: My app helps me provide just-in-time service to my clients, through every step of the buying process. It acts as a centralized communication hub, offering voice, text and video call options within a single, continuous thread. This prevents duplicate asks across different methods of communication and time lost searching for old messages. I also use the app to communicate internally with my employees, helping me conduct all my business in one place.

• Central document portal: The My Modern Properties app maintains a complete record of the documents that have been sent and signed, and the controls that are in place to protect these transactions. This single source of truth minimizes the burden of auditing and compliance. It also features electronic signing integrations so clients can sign documents within the app, helping get deals across the finish line faster and with less friction.

• Branded and secure: It’s important for clients to feel confident using the app to share personal information and execute financial transactions. To build trust, the My Modern Properties app is fully branded with our logo, colors and materials, and it contains everything in-app (without third-party intermediaries or redirects). The app also has features like encryption and multifactor authentication to protect transactions and the login process.

Real estate is both an exciting and stressful process that requires transparency and constant communication. My digital strategy enhances the client experience by improving accessibility, personalization and convenience. Even more, all-in-one apps are essential in helping real estate professionals serve clients, especially given the high-touch, fast-moving nature of our industry.

"By Kate Pawlicki Bourne, Founder & Broker, Modern Properties."