Real Estate Market Data Is An Effective Way For Brokers To Dazzle Top Talent

Real estate market data plug-ins are a a sure-fire way to impress and entice agents you might want to bring into your brokerage.

Why? Because in this digital day and age, providing advanced online assets is a surefire way to win the talent game.

We’re not just telling you this. Agents are saying this.

According to a survey by the National Association of Realtors, a number of agents were asked this question: Do you want your broker to expand the amount of technology they offer you?

A whopping 45% said yes. About 24% said no. Another 32% said they had no opinion which probably means they don’t really know how technological advancements can make them more effective.

Some of the hi-tech those agents wanted were CRM databases, better computers, faster internet, more professional websites, etc.

Here’s one key item they also requested: cutting edge technology.

The ability to offer real estate market data is empowering

The savvy broker will know this request doesn’t just mean providing an agent with a clunky new desktop computer.

Sure, there are plenty of devices out there that can make an agent more productive.

And just like other business, that technology can give a brokerage firm an edge in the marketplace – not just with attracting agents – but also giving agents the means to generate more listings and buyers.

Agents can now show homes on their iPads. Drones can shoot aerial photos of properties from overhead. Listings can be updated by an agent sitting in a car with a smartphone.

But there’s more to real estate technology than just fancy gadgets.

There’s also the ability to disseminate massive amounts of data.

With advances in “Big data” technology, real estate market data providers such as Home Junction have the capabilities to aggregate an incredible amount of local information from sources all over the country.

They can gather school information, property sales data, the location of boundaries, geo-spatial distances between properties and key amenities in a community, demographic information, cost of living indices, crime statistics and much more.

Not only can companies like Home Junction harvest and store this data, with just a few lines of code, they can also feed this valuable information to a brokerage firm. And they can cater that feed to just their local marketplace.

That real estate market data can be broken into small datasets not just on a county level, but on a city level, by zip code and more incredibly, by individual neighborhoods and subdivisions.

Use data to attract agents

So imagine a broker is talking to an agent about joining their firm.

Imagine if that agent says they have developed quite a few contacts and knowledge about “Most Desirable Community.”

Now imagine a broker saying, “This is how we are going to support you. We are going to provide a feed on our website for consumers with the following information:

• School demographics
• Boundaries for taxes, school attendance, etc.
• Demographics for that area – ages, income, education of residents there
• Cost of living indices – how this area compares to other areas for prices of goods, etc.
• Crime statistics
• Recent property sales data – charts and graphs on home sales, prices, etc.
• Business data – the type of businesses, eg, coffee shops, yoga studios, grocery stores in that marketplace
• And much more.”

Then the broker can throw in these juicy nuggets:

1. a) We’ll tie all of this data into a map, using our geo-spatial plug-in. That plug-in will be integrated with the local MLS listings so you can show buyers (and sellers) where a certain home is located (by a distance calculator) in relation to key amenities such as schools, roads, train stations, etc.
2. b) We also have a Home Value Estimator tool that can be promoted for certain communities so that potential sellers can regularly check estimates on the potential price of their home and eventually become listings.

How’s that for technological support?

This is the type of “cutting edge technology” these agents are requesting.

Certainly more impressive than a $200 tablet.

It’s a tough world out there.

Businesses are demanding more from their employees than ever before.

But a business also needs to equip their employees (or agents) with the most advanced tools in the marketplace to be competitive.

It’s not just the old days of burning up shoe leather. It’s a new age of marketing through entities such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter.

This is an era when prospects can be reached instantaneously by email instead of snail mail.

The challenge is, everybody can have access to these consumer channels.

Arm your agents with valuable, relevant, hyper-local content so they have something to promote.

Give them the edge they need to succeed.

Because when they are successful, other agents will notice,

And that’s how you can use real estate market data technology to attract (and retain) the best talent in the marketplace.