Technology Plan for Nextage Lone Star Realty

Mary Miner

Realtor University

Advanced Real Estate Principles

Professor Dani Babb

December 16, 2013

A Full Service Residential and Commercial Real Estate Company.

Located in Austin, TexasOpened in November of 2010

Currently have 32 agents and in growing.

The office is located on the line of Williamson County and Travis County. We serve the Williamson, Travis, Hays and Bastrop Counties.

Specialties with our firm● REO Division – This division handles all the REO’s and Short Sales

● Commercial Division- This division handles leasing and sales of commercial properties.

● Residential Division- This division handles the leasing and sales of residential

Properties

● International Division – Due to the international relocation to Austin area this division is comprised of agents that speak more than one language.

Demographics of Austin Area2012

• Total Population of Williamson, Travis, Bastrop and Hays Counties – 1,778,603

• Austin Population - 842,592 • Pflugerville Population - 51,894 • Cedar Park Population - 57,957• Leander Population - 29,620 • Hutto Population- 18,765 • Manor Population - 5,869 • Kyle Population - 30,875 • Buda Population - 9,381 • Lakeway Population - 12,459

Demographics

• Round Rock Population- 106,573 • Georgetown Population - 52,303• Elgin Population - 8,232 • Taylor Population - 16,080• Liberty Hill Population - 1,012• Bastrop Population - 7,394

Total Land coverage of Bastrop, Travis, Hays and Williamson County

• 3,674.63 Square Miles

The city reports 115 people are moving to the Austin area every day; 45 into the city limits.

That is 41,975 people @ year to Austin Area

Median Income $49,987

Median Cost of Homes $217,700

Existing Technology

Transaction Management

Websites/Marketing

REO Management System

Hud HomeStore

Board Association

Electronic Signature

Twitter

Existing Technology

Cloud StorageTAR Forms for offers/Contracts

Database Management

PowerpointSyndication

Valuation

Existing Technology

Franchise Transaction Management

Commercial Database

Wordpress Websites

Point2-SyndicationMLSCommercial Data MLS

For training the agents

Facebook

Useful Technologies• Marketing

– Agent Marketing• Single address websites- Every listing can have their own address

and website• Just Listed Cards – Marketing Templates for the agents to Brand

themselves• Just Sold Cards – Marketing Templates for agents to Brand

themselves.• 8*8 Marketing Program – Marketing program to touch you SOI or

Farm 8 times in 8 weeks. This program has designed templates for each touch and different each week.

• Sign Riders – Riders with the sign website address to add to your yard sign

• Business Cards – Templates for your business cards that comply with franchise guidelines.

• Flyers – Templates for flyers to be sent electronically or printed.– Virtual Tours

• Panoramic tours• Slide Show for listing or buyers

Useful Technologies

– Power Point• Listing Presentation – Created by Don Hobbs with Hobbs

Herder to personalize as needed• Recruiting Presentation – Created for Recruiting Purposes

for our franchises.– Cloud CMA

• Listing presentations• Buyers comparables to put a good offer together• BPO’s for the Banks

– Facebook• Personal Page• Business Page

Useful Technologies

• Marketing– Twitter

• Use for Community Impact Events• Housing Reports• Listings

– Linkedin• Join groups• Blog• Listings• Recruiting

– Website• Personal Brand• Current listings• IDX Systems for searches• Newsletters

Useful Technologies

• Sales– Doc-U-Sign- This is an Electronic Signature platform

– ZipForms – Texas Association of Realtors Library of Forms (Member Benefit)

– Cloud CMA – This platform is within our MLS to do a comprehensive CMA

– Actris MLS – Multiple Listing Service for Travis, Williamson, Bastrop and Hays Counties

– Hud Home Store – FHA Foreclosure platform for searching and bidding of homes

– Equator – REO platform for BOA, Chase, Wells Fargo and many other banks.

– ListHub – Syndication of your listing to 100’s of websites

– Point2NLS- Another syndication listing platform to 100’s of websites

Useful Technologies

• Office Automation and Productivity– Backagent – Office is paperless and all transactions are placed

in BAckagent and disbursement authorization is sent to title company so you are paid at the table.

– Doc-U-Sign – electronic signatures– Box.Net – Cloud Storage once files are complete. Files are held

for 4 years.– Realty Juggler or CRM – Contact management systems to

manage your data base– Transaction Management System- System used by offices and

corporate to report the volume each month and to keep track of agents volume since a cap program is in place.

Useful Technologies

• Commercial

– LoopNet – Commercial platform used by commercial division for listings and buyers

– CCIB Listserver – email group through out central Texas that advertises the needs of their clients or listing that are coming soon.

– CO-Star - Commercial platform used by commercial division for listings and buyers. Larger than LoopNet

Useful Technologies

• Real Estate Valuation– Cloud CMA – Detailed CMA for Listing Presentations]– MLS CMA – Basic CMA

• Brokerage Management– Backagent– Box.net– Powerpoint Presentation– Webinars– Websites

• Wordpress• Agent Marketing

Goals For Technology• To Decide if Syndication is right for the company. The Austin MLS is

deciding to cancel the syndication contract with ListHub due to no control of the listing once it is syndicated.– Once Listhub syndicates the other platforms such as Zillow,

Truilia, Backpage, Homes.com etc. have the control on the listing and it has been proven the listings are not the same even though they are sent out from the same MLS.

• Determine the correct syndication for the company if any – Look at other forms of syndication and determine the control

aspect of your listing– Determine if Realtor.com, Zillow or Truila are valuable marketing

tools for Company

Goals for Technology

• Work with Agents to have On-Line Marketing brochures in place for Listings and buyers.– Teach agents to brand themselves to create a

following• Learn the Apps that are available on the I-Pad• Have agents 100% paperless in their business and

proficient.• Be proficient in U-Tube and create videos for the website

Goals for Technology• Create a more advance website for the company

– IDX for the custom searches for clients or customers– Capture the visitors information to create a valuable lead

• Work with all the Agents to have their personal websites up and current– Create the brand for the agent– Develop the professional look

• Upgrade Back agent to be able to track the volume of the agents on a monthly basis.– Track the cap for each agent. So Agents can see their progress

and know when they are close to 100%

Summary

Technology is always changing and to be that broker that agents want to join you need to stay on the edge of technology and willing to change with the times.

Being able to learn the different applications that integrate with the tablet, Droid, I-pad and I-phone are valuable and technology needs to stay current.

Even though technology is changing rapidly and the next generation answers tweets and text messages before answering the phone the personal touch is still important. As agents and brokerages we need to keep balanced since we are selling to baby boomers or those first time home buyers.

To improve our technology and stay on top we need to get the opinions of the agents and our clients and determine what works for them.

Summary

The future in real estate is bright if you as an agent remember that the data base you hold is your key. No matter what CRM you use to control the data base that does not matter. The thing that matters is if you use it.

Business planning is very important since we are teaching agents in a brokerage how to create and own their business. Scheduling the training for the agents is key.

As a brokerage we can offer the technology, training and coaching to our agents. It is up to the agent to determine what they want to utilize in their business.

Training on the new applications and the changes of current technologies are always key to the future growth.

Timeline for Implementation

• Enhance Company Website with U-Tube Videos – March 2014• Enhance Company Website with Webinars for agents – April 2014• Facebook Business pages for all Agents – June 2014• On-Line and printable brochures for all Agents – July 2014• On-going training for all Agents – Monthly 2014• Training the New HUD and GFE for all Agents January 2014• Proficient on the I-Pad – August 2014• Create greenroom for agents for U-Tube and other videos Feb

2014• Agents have U-Tube Videos on their website for branding of the

expertise – Sept 2014

ReferencesAustin board of Realtors (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.abor.com/Agent marketing (n.d.) Retrived from http://www.agentmarketing.com/Austin Texas Government (n.d.). Retrieved from http://austintexas.gov/demographicsAustin Texas (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.city-data.com/city/Austin-Texas.htmlAustin/Central Texas Realty Information Service (n.d.). Retrived from http://portal.austin.safemls.net/Backagent (n.d.). Retrieved from https://nextage.backagent.netBastrop Texas (n.d.) Retrived from http://www.city-data.com/city/Bastrop-Texas.htmlBastrop County (n.d.) From http://www.usa.com/bastrop-county-tx.htmBox (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.box.com/homeBuda Texas (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.city-data.com/city/Buda-Texas.htmlCedar Park Texas (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.city-data.com/city/Cedar-Park-Texas.htmlCo-Star Group (n.d.) Retrived from http://www.costar.com/DocUSign (n.d.) Retrived from http://www.docusign.com/Elgin Texas (n.d.) Retrived from http://www.city-data.com/city/Elgin-Texas.htmlEquator (n.d.). Retrived from https://www.equator.com/global/home?Facebook. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/Georgetown Texas (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.city-data.com/city/Georgetown-Texas.htmlGoogle maps (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.google.comHays County (n.d.) Retrived from http://www.usa.com/hays-county-tx.htm

ReferencesHUD Homestore. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.hudhomestore.com/mobile/HUDHomestoreMobileSearchiPhoneApp.html HuttoTexas (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.city-data.com/city/Hutto-Texas.htmKvue (n.d.) retrived from http://www.kvue.com/news/More-people-moving-to-Austin-locals-remember-

when-208726031.htmlLeander Texas (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.city-data.com/city/Leander-Texas.htmlLiberty Hill (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.city-data.com/city/Liberty-Hill-Texas.htmlListHub. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.listhub.net/home.htmlLoopNet. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.loopnet.com/ Manor Texas (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.city-data.com/city/Manor-Texas.htmlPoint2 (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.point2.com/Realty Juggler. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.realtyjuggler.com/main/ Round Rock Texas (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.city-data.com/city/Round-Rock-Texas.htmlTaylor Texas. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.city-data.com/city/Taylor-Texas.htmlTravis County (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.usa.com/travis-county-tx.htmTwitter. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://twitter.com/Williamson County (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.usa.com/williamson-county-tx.htmZipforms (n.d.) retrived from https://www.zipformonline.com