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Buyer's Guide: Office Management Solutions
Save time, increase your efficiency, and easily track all those vital business details to identify where your office's money is coming from and going. Office management software can help you do it all.
8 Tips for Choosing a Solution
Product Guide
“If I just had a little more time...”
Sound familiar? Then, maybe some form of office management system is for you. These systems come in software bundles and Web-based suites. They aim to minimize the tasks inherent in managing a real estate brokerage, agents, clients, and listings — and the associated accounting chores and calculations.
Add data search and report functions and you’ve got quick insight into productivity, profits, and how well performance measures up, individually and collectively, against goals.
With abundant choices, you’re likely to find a real estate management system with automated help in the front or back office — or both — that’s within your budget. Pricing starts at under $500 and can climb into the thousands, depending on the size of your operation and scope of the challenge; Web-based office management applications cost as little as $100 per month.
The return on investment: seamless integration of company data, management and financial responsibilities in one system, and a time saver and improved efficiency in your office to boot.
A Broker’s Friend
When Dale Morris, broker/owner of United Country, Moore Realty in Moberly, Mo., had his staff grow from three sales associates to six, keeping track of key business details became a major challenge.
“It got to the point where I just couldn’t keep up with all the listings, closings, and calculating commissions,” he recalls.
So, Moore turned to an office management solution — Classic Trak-It from Telluride Software.
“For around $300, it eliminated a lot of the headaches that go with managing the details in a small brokerage,” he says. “I enter information once, and it tracks everything from contract through closing, including commissions.”
Keep an Eye on the Franchise
The systems can help you manage beyond just your local office, too. At AllQuest Real Estate in Houston, operations manager Tiffany Markovsky found the Web-based solution Realty Broker Office was her answer to keeping up-to-date on the status of business in multiple locations. Each of the company’s 14 franchisees has its own account and everything entered is available to her at the corporate headquarters via the Internet.
“I can look in on any franchise and know exactly what’s going on there — just as well as the broker or owner,” she says. “Agents can use the system to manage prospects, contacts, and listings. Once they enter listing information, the system automatically keeps track of that, even figuring up the financials. We even use it as a selling tool for new franchises and when trying to recruit agents.”
It’s Got Your Back
How about all those details in the back office? Office management solutions can help there too. Michael Lendvay, chief financial officer and controller for Phoenix-based RE/MAX Achievers, says Lone Wolf Software’s Realty management system is a valuable tool to evaluate companywide listings and sales by office or agent, commission splits, and where business is coming from. Each of the firm’s 10 residential sales offices, with more than 500 sales associates, holds a license for the software, which resides on the company’s centralized server.
An administrator in each office enters listing and transaction data, which then becomes part of the companywide system for accounting, commission payment, and administrative expenses, Lendvay explains. Tracking and report functions built into the software also provide tools for nurturing sales associates.
“The broker can sit down with a new agent, use the system to set goals, and then monitor performance and work with them to identify where they can improve …. There’s a plethora of report functions that make it very simple to know whatever we want about our business,” Lendvay says. “With the number of transactions we handle, it just wouldn’t be possible any other way.”
8 Tips for Choosing a Solution
Is office management software right for you? Consider the following:
1. Evaluate your needs. Take a candid look at how you manage your real estate office and identify your organizational challenges and where you need immediate help. Are you looking for improvements in front or back office operations, or both? The better you define present strengths and weaknesses, the more likely you are to find the perfect fit for your business.
2. Look into the future. Office management solutions are sold as integrated suites, in modules, and as scalable solutions that can expand as your business grows. A system you and associates can adopt at a manageable pace, and grow as your business expands, offers the best approach. Make sure it addresses all your management needs, whether purchased wholly, or in pieces.
3. Focus on productive benefits. A single entry system eliminates the tedium of key stroking the same data again and again. Integrated databases for listings, contacts, and transactions organize relevant information so it’s easy to track and retrieve. Report functions and automated calculations take the chore out of necessary responsibilities. Customization is just as critical as standard features. You want a framework that easily adapts to how you run your office, and what you need to know.
4. Judgment day. Evaluate the company, training, and support for the software. If vendors don’t respond to your queries in a timely fashion, move on. If they aren’t responsive to potential new business, what’s to suggest they’ll get back once they have your dollar?
5. Run the demo. Every company offers a trial or demo version of its office management solution. Use it to compare the user interface, database, accounting system, component integration, management structure, search, sort, and report functions. But don’t buy based on this alone.
6. Seek feedback. You’ll get a more accurate idea of the worth of the solution, and company behind it, by actually talking to those who’ve used it and have an office comparable to yours. Request referrals not featured in a company’s testimonials. Get candid answers to questions and concerns.
7. Account for an adjustment period. The first challenge to automated office management is entering your data and setting up the system. Switch all operations over at once, and the transition could overwhelm you. Allow ample time to explore, learn, and master the nuances of the system.
8. Weigh the investment. These systems can get expensive, but rather then focus on cost, consider the possible returns: increased efficiency, centralized information, automated accounting, and timely reports on any aspect of the brokerage to help make you a more effective manager.
Product Guide: Office Management Solutions
Fidelity Real Estate Solutions
800-996-6547
Price: $329
Windows software for agent and teams to manage real estate sales from initial contact with clients through closing. It handles front office functions, including contact/customer relationship management, listings and sales tracking, presentation designs and CMAs, word processing and e-mail. Integrates with Fidelity’s TransactionPoint Web-based transaction management platform and ZIPforms/WINforms electronic forms software.
Telluride Software
209-966-7731
Price: $375.95 single user license
Windows management software for agents and brokers. It creates a database system for managing contacts and listings, with a daily tickler file on scheduled events, and tasks. Tracks advertising expenditures for listings and agent ad expenses. Standard report functions are available — in PDF format — for agent and office productivity, commissions, commission disbursement, and transaction fees. Multi-user, network, and LITE versions also available.
Technology Mix
866-459-4597
Price: $97.99 per month, per company administrator and $34.99 per month for individual users; volume discounts available.
Web-based broker management solution for single or multiple offices. Creates integrated intranet and database for front and back office data and activity, accessible through a Web browser. Its comprehensive suite of tools supports an unlimited number of contacts, listings, transactions, forms, and contracts. The software has secure log-in for team members to enter or update info and check on status of listings or transactions, as allowed by a broker. It includes calendar and task scheduling with reminders, and calculates commissions and fees. Standard and customizable report functions available.
Borran Software
800-710-7650
Base price: approximately $750 set-up, $1,000 training and $110 per month licensing/support fee for 25-person office.
Scalable, integrated accounting and transaction management system for Windows for single or multi-office brokerages. Listing component imports data from MLS and tracks activity from contract through sale or expiration. Sales and transaction automates tasks associated with conveyance, monitors activity, calculates commissions and other fees, and payouts. Its accounting system handles office finances, including agent billing, payroll, budget analyses and financial statements. It includes standard and customizable reports, letters, and forms. Integrates with the company’s Connect office/communications management system and Pocket Real Estate products.
Lone Wolf Software
866-279-9653
Base price: $840 licensing fee and $112 a month for brokerage with up to 10 agents, includes eight hours of training.
Windows software for financial management of single office or multi-site brokerage. It includes modules for daily activity scheduling and monitoring; tracking listing status; trade records; trust accounting and reconciliation; accounts receivable and accounts payable; commission accounting; agent commissions/expenses, payroll, financial activity, budget analysis, and preparing financial statements. Standard and customizable report functions available.
Property Software International
866-493-2900
Base price: $1,200
Front and back office suite for Windows. Its integrated modules manage listings, agents, agent billing, contracts, advertising, referrals, and rentals. It handles call tracking, appointments, scheduling, and client follow-up. The software also includes tools for creating video home tours, company newsletters, Web site development, and site maintenance. Standard and customized reports available, as well as optional accounting module.
Software Tree, Inc.
800-365-1276
Price: Modules sold separately. Front Desk Manager for front office, $1,250; Accounting Transaction Manager for back office, $1,995
Windows suite of software solutions to create a fully integrated management system. Front Desk Manager handles contacts, listings, call logging, showing appointments, and client feedback with report functions. Accounting Transaction Manager handles accounting functions from contract through closing, including commission calculations, agent billing, check printing, escrow tracking, bank reconciliation, and financial and transaction reports.
800-862-8193
Base price: $2,760 for single office with up to 10 agents
Integrated suite of Windows applications for front and back office brokerage management. Front office solutions for contact and lead call management, appointment scheduling, floor duty scheduling, loan amortization, and virtual tour and flyer creation. Back Office components include accounting, commission calculations, task scheduling and managing advertising, referrals, and listings. Standard and customized reports are available, and it links with Quickbooks for writing commission checks.
Taro Systems
888-500-9315
Base price: $4,370
Integrated front and back office broker management solution for Windows. Front office functions for contact/CRM management, lead and referral tracking and assignment, appointment scheduling with reminders, ad tracking, and showing module. Back office modules for banking, accounting, payroll, invoicing, commission calculating and processing, and check writing. Customizable and standard report functions. It can integrate with franchise reporting systems and Taro’s ViewMyListing.com Web-based contact/lead/listings management solution.
Decisions, Inc.
800-397-0260
Price: $6,500 for base module
Windows software for back office management functions for multi-agent or multi-office brokerages. Base module provides databases for listings and transactions, cash accounting system, automated agent billing, integration with QuickBooks accounting system, and support for paperless transactions with eSign electronic document preparation and signing system. Standard and customizable report functions. Optional expansion modules for Trust Accounting, Agent Accounting, Property Management, Transaction Coordinator, and MLS Data Conversion. Broker Lite Web-hosted version also available.
Prices are the vendors’ suggested retail prices and are subject to change. This list isn’t comprehensive; NAR doesn’t evaluate or endorse these products and isn’t responsible for changes in product info.
Michael Antoniak is a journalist and technology expert with a focus on real estate applications. Antoniak also writes about real estate technology at his blog, RealTechTools. He can be contacted at antoniak@dtccom.net.