How to be a Tech-Savvy Agent by Using Real Estate Plugins

Real estate plugins are a strategy that agents in the 21st century might want to consider to target today’s home buyers and sellers. We are all familiar with the surveys that show people want to see these attributes in an agent:

• Honest
• Responsive
• Local Expert
• Networker
• Negotiator
• Friendly Personality

But here’s one more to add to that list – tech-savviness. The reason should be obvious. More and more consumers are plugged in when they search for or sell a home. In fact, the largest demographic of home buyers are now Millennials. We all know how plugged in they are. They were practically born with an iPhone attached to their ears. But certainly don’t discount the value of technology with Gen X and Baby Boomers. After all, Steve Jobs was a Boomer himself.

So, what can an agent do to establish themselves as “tech-savvy” in addition to displaying all those other attributes people want to see? The proof is in the plugins.

Real Estate Plugins Instantly Add Hi-Tech Features

Real estate plugins (also known as  widgets) are easy to add to a website. Plugins are a big part of WordPress websites and why this is the No. 1 content management platform in the world. There are an estimated 30,000 plugins available that people can use to enhance their websites and blogs.

Used to be some real estate agents would go deep on their own into high-tech. They would teach themselves programming to be able to add different features to their websites. But for most agents, “Whose got time for that?” The fantastic state of tech in 2020 is that many features have already been programmed by professionals with knowledge of the real estate business. In essence, all an agent has to do is pick them off the shelf.

But choosing the right plugins from the right providers is a skill required of any tech-savvy agent. Let’s face it. There are plenty of real estate software products out there. Choosing the right programs can be challenging. Consider Home Junction, where we have been creating real estate websites, software and plugins for the past two decades.

Below are just some of the plugins created by Home Junction that an agent can instantly add to their website:

School Data

Every home buyer is interested in this information…and as you know, school data is not just important to families, but to show buyers and sellers the enhanced value of a property in a popular school district and school attendance zone.

Recent Home Sales

Buyers and sellers also want to see what else is selling in the neighborhoods they are targeting.

Home Value Estimator

This is an incredible tool for generating traffic and leads. Sellers, for example, will constantly use this tool to see pricing trends in their neighborhood. For example in 2018, Home Junction clients with an home value estimator plugin on their websites experienced more than ONE MILLION requests for estimates. That’s a powerful magnet.

Geo Farms

Use a plugin to provide specific market data for the specific neighborhoods you are geo-farming, not just zip codes.

New Homes

A large segment of home buyers are interested in new construction. Provide it to them.

Pocket Listings

Offer a feature that shows those non-MLS properties for sale.

The great benefit of working with a reliable provider is that an agent can instantly add these features to a website with very little effort. Once they are added, be sure to promote these features continually with all marketing materials, on your About Us page, social media posts, email campaigns and even direct mail campaigns.

How Tech-Savvy Real Estate Plugins Help

Don’t just say you know about local schools, show them the plugin with the data. Let prospects know you have a tool, the Home Value Estimator plugin, that can give them an instant estimate on the value of their property after pulling data from several different sources. Homeowners can use this tool to constantly check how property values are trending in their neighborhood.

And, those machine-generated calculations are a draw to let consumers know, if you want a formal CMA with more detail, just give the agent a call. Promoting these plugins will establish in the minds of clients that “this agent is tech-savvy.”

Use Tech to Keep in Touch via Email on a Regular Basis

Here’s another tool to use to reinforce that tech-savvy image. As we mentioned, real estate buyers and sellers want an agent who is “Responsive.” But let’s face it, agents are busy. Why not use an automated marketing tool that sends out market updates by email on a regular basis and keeps you in contact with prospects?

That automated real estate marketing program can send out new listings that meet the criteria the buyers want. The program can also automatically send out  market updates on home sales and pricing trends in the specific neighborhoods they are interested in. Those constant, continual messages will create top-of-mind awareness, and again, impress prospects.

Speaking of responsiveness, one more note. More and more consumers, especially those Millennials, now use their mobile devices to search for homes. So be super sure your website is mobile-ready. On different devices, not just iPhones, but Androids and tablets as well. An experienced real estate website design firm can help you with that).

Bottom line: show off those high-tech tools.

Let prospects know that you are open to communicating with them via email or text. Ask them to connect with you on Facebook and LinkedIn. Be sure to show your social media followers plenty of interesting posts, with market data and updates, so you are posting something of value, not fluff (e.g., photos of cats playing the piano). Tech tools impress today’s prospects.

For agents, those tools are already created, sitting there on the shelf waiting for you to pick them up. Implementation literally only takes inserting a few lines of code on a page. Real estate data providers and technology companies, such as Home Junction, perform all the back-end work aggregating the data, maintaining and updating the software, etc.

This is the digital age. Make a digital move. Real estate plugins can instantly give agents the tools that show they are that modern, tech-savvy agent that today’s consumers prefer.