Latest Posts

Why All Listing Platforms are Not Created Equal

2021-02-11T15:16:15-05:00

Over the last several years, there have been a number of listing platforms that have come out of the woodwork in response to the disruption that occurs when a monopoly is formed through the strategic efforts of public companies aimed at disrupting an industry. We saw this happen with Uber, Rocket Mortgage and Amazon, looking to gain market share initially through trust, and then through disintermediation of those trusted partners.

When you evaluate a platform to market your listings on and through, three important considerations should be made. First, how does my listing information reach end-users? Are there a variety of means within a single dashboard to spread the word about my listings? Second, what features are included that make my life easier? Am I going to have to purchase add-ons to enable this to market my listings pro-actively? And finally, what is the goal of the platform? Are there investors to satisfy and is the plan to sell it off to another public company or is the platform sustainable and built to serve and support the industry?

Data entry is the most despised activity among most brokers, especially in the commercial realm, where there are 7-10 different platforms to consider, and unlike residential where there is one local MLS platform to populate that then gets pushed to Zillow or Realtor.com. How does your platform address data management, and who owns the data? Since the broker is the primary responsible party for marketing, it only makes sense that broker upload is the only logical model, and unfortunately, all platforms are competing for market share, and are therefore unlikely to syndicate. RealtyZapp is the only platform however, that enables the user to upload all listings in bulk, greatly reducing the initial workload. And thereafter, adding a listing takes under 5 minutes, thanks to an intuitive process. With a user-interface that works on any device, you can make changes to your listings on the fly, with your smartphone. And since our system is broker driven, we believe they own the data.

On the issue of online listing visibility relevant to a prospect’s search, RealtyZapp starts with broker-directed SEO (or Search Engine Optimization), which means that you can enter keywords and phrases that enhance online visibility by calling out the unique qualities or attributes of a property and a location that you feel people would search for to find your listing in that market. We enhance this by offering a “Quick-Connect” reciprocal marketing feature that matches listings with brokers and prospects in much the same way a dating app works, with far better results than your average pitch session. We also support local commercial associations through showcasing member listings on the organization’s website, to enhance membership and drive deal velocity between members.

Keeping on top of your prospect follow up and activity tracking is hard enough, but of the agents we speak with, less than 20% actually track their expected revenue from their anticipated deals with any kind of pipeline tracking system. Therefore, we have embedded the world’s easiest, mobile-enabled CRM in the industry; And it is included with our Super-Agent subscription. Open your mobile app and send links with full listing information to a prospect as you are on the phone with them or immediately after the call. Then, completing just seven fields, which you can populate with your voice, the prospect is automatically included in your next broadcast e-mail about the listing they inquired about. If your CRM requires repetitive training to get value from it, if you have to subscribe to an add-on e-mail campaigner, or if your listings aren’t integrated into a template that builds and reinforces your brand, you may be back-peddling or at the very least, over-spending.

Another indispensable tool that brokers require is placing their listings on their firm’s website. Many firms pay thousands per month to facilitate this, or they attempt to keep a free word-press version updated as they continue to update all the other listing platforms they subscribe to. We realize this can be tedious or quite expensive, so that is why we have included this website-adaptive convenience feature as part of our basic Power-Agent subscription. Keep your firm’s website updated as you update RealtyZapp in a way that again, reinforces your brand.

And lastly, creating marketing materials is essential, yet tedious, and most brokers have not the patience or design flair to create professional looking flyers, postcards or brochures, so they hire marketing assistants to help with this. Our Super-Agent subscription includes an automated flyer generator that produces professional marketing materials from a branded template we design for you, from which you can create other variations. This can be used to generate multiple page flyers, horizontal or vertical, postcards of any size, offering memorandums, and property specific websites. You can even create landing pages to be used in lead generating E-Mail campaigns. All very powerful tools included for less than $60/month. The bottom line is, any tools that can reduce time spent on tedious activities so that you can focus on research, prospecting and deal-related activities while not breaking the bank, helps your bottom line; and for those of us who eat what they kill as they say, this is imperative.

RealtyZapp was founded on the principle that brokers should have control over their data, their marketing budget, and their process, enabling them to be ultra-responsive to prospects and super-efficient in performing the required marketing tasks, while developing strategies that help differentiate themselves from the competition. The days of passive marketing are over if we choose to add value to an industry under siege by tech that seeks to replace agents rather than empower them. We envisioned a pro-active, cost-effective and sustainable platform, growing organically so as to be free from influence that may be contrary to the interests of its constituents or the brokerage industry as a whole. And we hope that you join us in the fight to preserve an integral component of the real estate industry… The Brokerage business.

Thomas Bible

Over the past 5 years, RealtyZapp has been helping brokers become more pro-active in their marketing and increase their income by streamlining their process while improving engagement and follow up.

Feel free to contact RealtyZapp on how to increase deal velocity through a number of free or dirt-cheap methods to help you market smarter. support@realtyzapp.com

For more information on increasing efficiency and deal velocity, visit our YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcpBCpFngpQLs9tFBwxHmnQ

Or learn, share and network on our community site, TalkRealtyZapp.com:

https://talk.realtyzapp.com/portal/en/home

Commercial Real Estate David VS Goliath - Interview with Startup.info

2020-12-18T03:40:36-05:00

Interview with Thomas Bible, RealtyZapp Founder.

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times?

We are fine. We have followed recommendations of wearing a mask in places where social distancing is not likely, we carry sanitizer everywhere, keep it in our cars for each time we exit a public area, and limit our in-person meetings with more than 3 or 4 people. We are not letting fear dictate our actions, but rather common sense. It has always been a good idea to wash your hands several times a day, distance from anyone who shows signs of an illness and clean your surroundings on a regular basis. Anyone who has had kids will tell you that. The only new thing is the mask ritual, which is a pain no matter who you ask, and we look forward to a time where that is not an inconvenient necessity.

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded or joined this company

My career began in marketing, where I helped many companies grow their customer base by showing the importance of brand awareness and a multi-faceted approach to marketing, employing various short-term tactics as part of a well-defined long-term strategy. I never considered myself a salesperson, but rather a business consultant, often helping clients with initiatives outside of the scope of what served my interests, as I knew it best served my clients’ interests. This built relationships that lasted years, and friendships that remain to this day.

I entered the commercial real estate field in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks, as I predicted there would be much uncertainty in the market for some time to follow, but I knew there was relative stability in Commercial Real Estate, and this was a place where I could help others with my marketing skills. I was the first in my market for example, to send out a monthly broadcast e-mail cataloging all my firm’s listings in a single, indexed multi-page PDF, that caught the attention of several other brokers. I was among the first to create interior 360 virtual tours of office, retail and industrial spaces before Matterport existed. And I have helped many of my real estate clients realize greater returns through creative solutions to common problems. I’ve always been an early adopter of technology, and have enjoyed teaching those around me how to best use it to benefit their business.

I launched RealtyZapp a little over 5 years ago to bring much of the proactive methodologies that served me so well in marketing and commercial real estate to help other brokers accomplish more with less. I saw the potential of Wall Street monopolies placing pressure on the main street brokerage community and thought “Someone has to step up and offer marketing solutions that provide a cost-effective, sustainable option for CRE professionals who simply can’t afford thousands per month for online marketing, that honestly, shouldn’t be that expensive”. To this day, I help individual commercial agents realize the importance of personal branding through vehicles like YouTube channels, social media and professional collateral materials and help to automate these things so that brokers can focus on a more pro-active and productive marketing strategy.

How does your company innovate?

We are Broker driven rather than investor driven, so innovation comes from my experience as a broker, collaboration with professionals in our field, as well as feedback from our clients, which we often act on in short order. Many of our features have come directly from client requests and feedback. I look to see where inefficiencies exist in a broker’s business process, then we integrate features that are easy to set up, modify and employ to lessen the time spent on redundant tasks, while improving the brand consistency across their website, marketing materials and online profiles. Our primary concern is empowering agents to get their individual listings ranked in prospect Google searches, helping them connect faster with these buyers and tenants when they call, and to ease the process of follow up, activity and pipeline tracking. If it relates to marketing, which is a broker’s primary role in this business, we want to be the leader in providing the most cost-effective and simple solutions in one platform, so we look for ways to improve upon this by constantly improving and optimizing elements of our site to enhance speed and functionality.

How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business and how are you coping?

Covid only effects our ability to meet with the entire brokerage. We are looking forward to doing that again soon, but in the meantime, we use Zoom to conduct on-screen demos with the firm’s decision makers, then again for training and on-boarding with the team. We have been Zoom clients since our launch, so we were doing this before, but now just use it on a larger scale.

Did you have to make difficult choices and what are the lessons learned?

We have not really had to make any difficult choices as a result of Covid. We are happy that we have been able to provide firms with a better, more cost-effective solution during times when they have all had to make some difficult choices. In doing so, we have also extended our 25% firm discount rate to all, regardless of whether the entire firm signs up or not. This was an easy decision, and people are very thankful. My biggest lesson learned though this pandemic is that the power of the entrepreneurial spirit is strong enough to turn any adversity into an opportunity for growth, and if we just help one more broker each day realize what can be done to overcome the obstacles that are sometimes placed in our path to be able to focus on the bigger picture and emerge better for it, then word of mouth will spread among brokerage communities to enable entire markets to better collaborate through the tools we provide and drive their business further. If we help enough brokers improve their marketing and business process, we will reach our goals as well.

How do you deal with stress and anxiety?

Since I am inspired by helping others succeed, speaking with a broker who understands marketing and wants to step up their game puts me in the best frame of mind, so I usually block off time each week to cold call and spread the good news about RealtyZapp. Those who take the time to sit for a brief demo usually thank me for it and are amazed at all that we do for so little. This usually results in a new client who soon enough sends us a testimonial to use on our site. For me, this is the best stress therapy.

Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?

If you are in the commercial real estate business, you know of LoopNet, Crexi and Brevitas. These are our primary competitors, but since we offer solutions for all things marketing, I would include MailChimp or Constant Contact, ACT or Apto on the CRM front and a few others on the design side. There have been several platforms that have emerged in the last 5 years, but none that do as much as we do for so little. We intend on being the sustainable option, keeping our rates affordable, and locking in a client’s book rate for as long as they are with us, when others come into a market, get a following by offering free listings, and then leverage lead information to force the agents to sign up to receive any value from the platform. We believe that if you continually bring value to your clients, and treat them honestly and fairly, they will be with you long-term. Also, our platform is strictly a broker-upload model, which means that listings are more accurate, and photos come directly from the broker, insulating us from copyright infringement issues. We plan on being around a long time, to be able to serve the brokerage community through bull and bear markets.

Your final thoughts

I endeavored to build RealtyZapp.com after learning that investor-driven platforms cannot effectively serve two masters, and as a result, we have accepted the challenge of growing organically. It is a tougher road, but we are committed to serving our client’s best interests above all else. We have been approached by several investment firms and realize that the process of exponential growth would be greatly accelerated, but the result would be higher fees for our clients and an eventual forced exit strategy that would jeopardize the trust we have built and potentially disenfranchise those who supported us. This is happening now with other Goliaths in the industry, and my commitment is to the industry we serve. As I truly enjoy helping others, I can’t see myself doing anything else, so I encourage any broker reading this to register on our site for your free trial, take a look at our YouTube channel linked below, add your listings, and take advantage of all that we have built to improve your business. And will continue to listen, respond and innovate to support and empower the brokerage community like no other firm, while allowing you to keep more of what you make.

Your website and link to online video if any

https://realtyzapp.com/

Video Overview Commercial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG3mpXwas3c

Our YouTube channel has a few more commercials as well as a full line of tutorials.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcpBCpFngpQLs9tFBwxHmnQ

Commercial Real Estate Advice for Rookies

2020-12-04T17:41:31-05:00

In today's commercial real estate market, there have been a flood of new agents, drawn by the allure of easy money due to heightened buyer demand. But there are no short cuts to long term success in this business. With every recession, there is a mass exodus from the business, led by those who never learned the basics. A broker's primary responsibility is marketing backed by market research, and too many agents delegate those important functions to others. You cannot outsource your core competencies in any profession.

My advice would be to learn how to research your market to predict trends so that you may better advise clients. Seek opportunities to gain market knowledge by attending conferences and speaking to economic development council members about their initiatives and challenges. Talk to CPAs and financial advisors about their continuing education, client experiences and success stories. You will soon find that with ongoing investment in your own professional development, your clients will perceive you as a trusted advisor rather than simply a salesperson.

Once you improve your research skills, you will notice that your marketing skills will naturally evolve. You will begin to include more detail about the listing's compelling advantages as the property relates to the surrounding market, rather than simply a list of its obvious features.

Seek opportunities to develop true strategies for marketing a property rather than handing the responsibility over to administrative assistants who employ random tactics that are virtually the same for all your firm’s listings. Every listing is unique and has a different position, advantage, and solution from a marketing perspective. Every owner has in the back of their mind the perfect prospective buyer or tenant for their property. Explore this and identify these target verticals. Tailor your strategy and campaign around these and you will experience greater success. Seek tools that simplify the entire process for you as well as for the admin staff so that you remain engaged in the marketing process. Learn how to do what it is you are asking your assistant to do so that you can direct them more effectively. From editing photos to enhance visual appeal, to creating aerial maps that tell a story and clearly depict a property’s boundaries, much can be learned in one afternoon on YouTube. And there are free online tools that enable all of this.

The time invested in improving these skills will yield exponential results in increasing deal flow and improving your personal brand. RealtyZapp is here to help, and we hope to see you on the other side of the next recession.

Feel free to contact RealtyZapp on how to increase deal velocity through a number of free or dirt-cheap methods to help you market smarter. support@realtyzapp.com

Over the past 5 years, RealtyZapp has been helping brokers become more pro-active in their marketing and increase their income by streamlining their process while improving engagement and follow up.

For more information on increasing efficiency and deal velocity, visit our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcpBCpFngpQLs9tFBwxHmnQ

Or learn, share and network on our community site, TalkRealtyZapp.com: https://talk.realtyzapp.com/portal/en/home

Increase Admin Value-Add

2020-10-18T15:14:09-04:00

Administrative Assistants are a valuable asset to Commercial real estate firms. Assisting with marketing materials, property research and Prospecting are some of the important activities that occupy their time. Whether family members are recruited to assist sole practitioners, or as a small firm grows, administrative staff are added to free up some of a Brokers time, where should the focus be to maximize value to the agents they serve?

Technology has evolved to make all of these functions easier, but where is the greatest return on that investment? The answer is that there are some things that can be automated and some things that you simply cannot. Many firms spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars per month automating listing management on their website and listing flyer creation, when this has actually become very inexpensive to do. For example, RealtyZapp includes both of these tools for free when a broker or agent markets all of their listings to the public for as low as $45 a month.

True value-add from an administrative assistant comes from research that drives deal velocity. For example, an assistant could load public record information how about a Target listing into RealtyZapp, and when the broker arrives at the listing appointment early enough to take some photos and convert the draft listing to live, the marketing materials as well as the prospect's listing showing on the Brokers website and social media will already be complete as they speak to the owner about how Proactive their firm is.

Another administrative activity that could actually drive revenue is researching the prime prospects for particular listings based on target verticals that the broker and owner identify. We recently had a client who hired a college intern to catalog all businesses in their market and code them by industry so that through RealtyZapp's e-mail campaign builder, they can target them directly with relevant opportunities for growth or relocation rather than passively hoping someone sees their sign or relying on other brokers who may at that time be working with a prospect of that type. Proactive direct marketing helps win both sides of more deals.

With the advent of free online tools that could replace the more costly tools you may currently be using, you could shift that budget to create a retargeting campaign that would boost market share like you wouldn't believe. Top residential agents have already identified this as their number one lead generation investment and are leveraging it to increase their client base. Commercial agents however have been slow to adopt this strategy, which could prove much more lucrative. And again, this would be a much more productive use of an administrative assistant's time.

Feel free to contact RealtyZapp on how to increase deal velocity through a number of free or dirt-cheap methods to help you market smarter. support@realtyzapp.com

Over the past 5 years, RealtyZapp has been helping brokers become more pro-active in their marketing and increase their income by streamlining their process while improving engagement and follow up.

For more information on increasing efficiency and deal velocity, visit our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcpBCpFngpQLs9tFBwxHmnQ

Or learn, share and network on our community site, TalkRealtyZapp.com: https://talk.realtyzapp.com/portal/en/home

For more tips on how to improve your firm’s marketing efforts, join our monthly CRE marketing call for insight from the industry’s most talented Commercial Real Estate Marketing Professionals. https://www.meetup.com/CREMarketing-Call/

CRE Marketing Post-Pandemic

2020-10-16T13:29:04-04:00

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, commercial real estate prospects were very hands-on touchy-feely about reviewing locations for their company’s relocation and expansion 0ptions. A typical property tour would consist of three to nine locations with multiple personal contacts lots of handshaking. Covid-19 has radically changed this behavior and created the addition an essential marketing element for brokers everywhere. In 2020 and beyond, video walk-throughs or 3-D virtual interior tours will be a mandatory addition to their marketing arsenals.

Keeping it real (cheap)

Short of a personal tour, nothing is more effective at conveying a property’s attributes and advantages than video, and what may come as a huge relief to many brokers is that the viewer isn’t at all concerned with the narrator’s talent. What may also come as a surprise is that there is little to no cost involved in producing a quality virtual tour video. Setting up a YouTube channel takes just minutes, and as the second most searched search engine, is a great place to reinforce your firm’s brand. If you are not a fan of YouTube’s format displaying other potential videos the user may find interesting, then Vimeo is a great option at a reasonable cost, allowing you to keep the viewers’ attention on you, your listings and your firm. Video walk-through tours can be done with your smart phone held horizontally as you walk through the space, narrating as if you were with a prospect. Buying a gimbal (under $100) might be useful as it helps to keep the camera steady as you walk so that the tour is more appealing. And there are numerous free or low-cost video editing software titles available to help you enhance or annotate the video for greater viewer engagement. (Please e-mail support@RealtyZapp.com for suggestions).

Virtual 3D is not Expensive

Most everyone in real estate has heard of Matterport by now, but what most don’t realize is that there are several far less expensive options available for creating 3-D interior virtual tours. This is a huge leap from a standard free smart phone walk-through as far as image goes, and takes a bit more time, but represents your firm in a much more professional manner If performed consistently and on every listing. 3-D Vista is a reasonably priced software (Around $100-$500) that is easy to use with many features tailored to real estate. And hosting of these videos starts at only $100 per year. The difference of having the viewer be able to control their own perspective and navigation through the space is significant. People are already very accustomed to Google Street view and so having the same capability with your listings delivers quick adoption and a pleasing experience among prospects.

Where am I standing?

The final element of successfully adding a video component to your marketing strategy is having a decent floorplan for each available space attached to your listing along with the video. Prospects need to reference this as they watch the video or virtually navigate the space to understand how all their company’s departments will utilize the space. A floor plan should be a clean rendering of the space rather than a photo of a picture or sketch and should show dimensions. If one is not provided by the landlord, then a sketch can easily be made on grid paper and any marketing assistant with a base knowledge or Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop can render easily in short time. (classes available to RealtyZapp subscribers)

Shorten Response Time

When you combine these with all of the listing details a prospect may need to evaluate your property on a platform that allows you to deliver it to them while you’re on the initial call or immediately thereafter, your odds of closing a deal with that prospect increase significantly. Place your YouTube video or 3-D Virtual tour URL links at the bottom of their respective listings in RealtyZapp. Then attach your floorplans as PDF or include them as images to be used in automated flyers. Then while on the phone with a prospect, or just after the call, send a link with everything from your phone’s RealtyZapp mobile app, and beat the competition to the punch. Prospect demand immediate responsiveness in this mobile-enabled age, and RealtyZapp helps you deliver.

Over the past 5 years, RealtyZapp has been helping brokers become more pro-active in their marketing and increase their income by streamlining their process while improving engagement and follow up.

For more information on increasing deal velocity, visit our YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcpBCpFngpQLs9tFBwxHmnQ

Real Estate Agent Safety & Security During Tumultuous Times

2020-09-27T20:09:26-04:00

The last Six months has been quite a challenge for real estate agents, trying to stay connected with clients and continue marketing properties to an audience that is somewhat reluctant to make a decision on new space until they are confident regarding the potential utilization of any particular space moving forward. As if this has not been challenging enough, civil unrest in cities across the U.S. has put agents on edge, with concern over personal safety while showing or touring, unsure as to whether an embarrassing or potentially dangerous situation might arise. In dealing with COVID-19, there is at least a clear and acceptable solution to mitigate in wearing a mask. With the issue of personal security, the answer to the question of what to do is much more complex and daunting.

What would you do?

I was speaking with a broker in Wisconsin last week who said that one of his junior agents went downtown to visit with a client and while sitting outside during a simple business lunch, they were approached and accosted by several individuals who felt like their right to loudly voice and physically assert their general discontent superseded anyone else’s right to peaceful and private discourse. What would you do in that situation? This country was founded on a mutual respect of the rights of others, but what if those who may be ignorant of the definition of “peaceful protest” infringe on your right to be left alone and simply conduct business? During a time when even police officers are openly attacked, ambushed, and even murdered, how do we protect ourselves?

Judgement Call

For those of us who are former military, properly trained and confident in our ability to handle firearms, a concealed carry permit is as natural as a driver’s license. But a license should never replace your eyes, ears or brain. The Judgment call on when and how to exercise the right that it provides however is entirely owned by the individual and up for debate. The split-second decision to threaten or use any force can have life-changing consequences, so you must be entirely prepared both physically and mentally should you be forced to make such a decision. If you are not, then you should choose one of many other alternatives in personal protection.

Non-Lethal Means

Several inexpensive and non-lethal means are available to anyone looking to quell an unexpected heated exchange before it escalates. If you are pushed into a corner and feel threatened, then you have the God-given and constitutional right to push back on bully tactics in whatever way that allows you time to escape the situation. Mace, pepper spray and stun-guns are effective means against one or just a few attackers, but make sure that if they are followed by an angry mob, that you don’t simply poke the bear. Which reminds me that while in Alaska, we carried bear spray, so that also may be useful. And of course, taking a good old fashion martial arts class would boost your confidence and physical ability.

No Be There

The best solution of course is to avoid any potential encounter to begin with. Fighting is always the last solution to a problem. If it all possible, just look to avoid areas where you think or know there may be a possible run-in. But if it is unavoidable or you are surprised and threatened, then simply prepare in advance so that you are not caught off guard, potentially fumbling as you attempt to defend yourself. In the military, we remembered the 6 P’s; Proper Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance. Take a concealed weapons class. Go to the range. Periodically practice with your spray or your taser so that you are entirely adept when necessary.

God Bless

At RealtyZapp, we believe that Black, Brown, Yellow, Red White and Blue lives matter. We are one nation under God and stronger when we stand together against brutality, oppression or wanton aggression from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Take care of yourselves, Godspeed and God bless our nation as we look toward healing the unrest and move forward to a more perfect union.