The Untold Benefits Of Mobile Apps In Real Estate Marketing

Nowadays, there’s a lot you can do on your smartphone, a situation that has made a larger population of the world mobile-dependent.

Some of the functions came up recently, and while others have been in existence, those were limited to computers. For examples, things like online shopping or booking a place to stay at existed before but can now be done even better and faster with the help of apps. Others, like ridesharing, booking a taxi cab, and food delivery gained prominence recently, largely due to the development of mobile apps.

Come 2019, it’s estimated that the world will have about 2.5 billion smartphone users. Given the many opportunities this trend presents, is that something you want to miss out on as a realtor?

I believe your answer is a ‘no’.

In real estate marketing, mobile apps can be used to optimize several processes and make it possible for you to easily achieve numerous business goals. Here are some of the benefits you should expect.

Improved Customer Relation Management

There are a number of Customer Relation Management (CRM) apps today designed to help nurture your relationship with prospects and customers and more importantly boost sales or sustain long-term profitability.

Apps like Premier agent and Chime CRM are an ideal choice for the realtor looking to use their mobile phones to schedule and send emails, manage leads, check lead score rankings, and so on.

Also, the majority of them are able to keep track of your communication and will remind you when you need to reach out. Those with a chat feature will allow you to communicate directly with prospects and customers.

Generally, CRM apps will help you to manage your real estate business without delay, get insights from the incoming leads, and even integrate them from other sources, and also help you receive real-time notifications of different processes in your business.

High Discoverability

In their report about real estate in a digital age, the National Association of Realtors found out that 33% of young boomers, 46% of Generation X, and 58% of millennials found their home with the help of a mobile device.

Generally, a huge percentage of internet users use their cell phones as the primary means for looking up information, surfing, communicating, and so on.

As a realtor, if you develop an app complete with all the features and information your existing clients and prospects need, that would definitely make their search for properties to rent and buy way easier and better.

Initially, property listing was a reserve of websites. But with an app, you can still have all the listings together with the details organized in a simpler way. You can customize the interface to display the properties based on location, type, and other related factors.

It would be great if you add pricing information, property photos, size, floor type, and the rest of the features potential homeowners or renters are interested in. Incorporate recent trends as well. Examples include 360 virtual tour videos and images.

If the user can gather all the information they need about a property, they are more likely to make a decision to contact you, reuse the app again when the need arises, and even recommend it to their friends or family looking for a home to buy or rent.

Improved Credibility

In real estate, credibility matters a lot. Given the fact that buying a home is one of the largest investments one can ever make, any slight possibility of your business being less credible will more likely draw away potential clients.

Now, in addition to checking your credentials and the legitimacy of your business, more prospects will also look through any online reviews about your business.

We are all probably aware just how powerful word-of-mouth marketing is, and apps are among the platforms where this can be optimized.

If you don’t have an app yet for your real estate business, this may be the time to invest in one. And in order to develop an app that meets the expectations of users, first understand the psychological underpinnings and behavioral patterns of your target audience.

After that, prompt users who’ve interacted with your app to rate and review it. In order for this to work to your advantage, stay committed to offering value to your clients and ensure all their concerns are addressed in a timely manner.

When a prospect is looking for reassurance on whether they are making the right choice and they stumble on the positive testimonials by those who’ve used your app and services, chances are high they’ll be convinced to do business with you.

Simplifies and Speeds Up The Sales Process

Generally, mobile apps are faster and more easily accessible compared to websites and other platforms. The reason why this should be good news to a realtor is that mobile apps can help to avoid delays that can cause loss of momentum and eventually lead to loss of a sale.

Consider this situation. When renting or selling property, some of the processes involved, like calculating the equated monthly installment (EMI) or mortgage payments, can delay the transaction, particularly if one has to do the math manually or access special sites to do the calculations.

But thanks to apps, this can all be done with a cell phone. All it takes is to open an app (most of which have a frequently asked question section with answers to common questions), access the mortgage calculator, fill in the details, and the results will be out in seconds.

In Summary

As we’ve seen, there’s a great deal of real estate processes that can be done via mobile apps, and as a realtor looking to make their real estate business better, this is an opportunity one cannot afford to pass up.

In addition to making you have a competitive advantage, there’s no doubt that, in future, mobile apps will evolve and continue to change the way realtors go about marketing. This means there will be more to gain beyond better customer relations, improved credibility, higher discoverability, and an enhanced sales process.

But that doesn’t mean that you should completely ignore your website and only focus on mobile apps. There’s still a reasonable percentage of internet users who prefer websites for one reason or the other. So, ensure you’ve catered to their needs as well. Where possible, let the two platforms complement each other.