Blog Post, by FUEL Enterprises
For those working in commercial real estate (CRE), the idea of adopting new technology sounds time-consuming and off-putting. The reality is that it may be a lot easier than you think. Often, new tech tools can make you more efficient and knowledgeable. When you’re an investment sales broker, the right technology can help you position yourself as as a true trusted advisor—far more than just a transaction agent. With the right technologies at your fingertips, you can quickly present clients with data-driven analyses for making informed and timely decisions. So, instead of viewing technology as a problem, consider it as a tool that potentially can accelerate your business growth.
Here are three ways CRE technology can be great for your business.
Boost Your Relationships
Forging relationships is a skill that brokers learn and perfect over time. Knowing how and when to communicate is an art that technology will never be able to replace. What technology can do, however, is make communication easier, enabling you to be more productive.
Consider something as basic as email. Decades ago, email was a novelty—and one that many CRE professionals hesitated to use until it was widely adopted across most industries. Today, it’s a standard business tool capable of providing automated responses and interacting with other applications, such as calendars, to streamline communications and improve productivity.
For investment sales brokers, constant communication between buyers, sellers, landlords and tenants is required throughout the lifecycle of a transaction. From smartphones to smartwatches, technology can help you stay connected while preserving your time for personal calls and meetings that can seal the deal.
Increase Your Market Knowledge
With today’s technology, an investment sales broker can do more comp analysis and financial modeling in less time while increasing industry expertise. Access to the right data at the right time can help you quickly generate a Broker Opinion of Value (BOV), Offering Memorandum (OM), rent survey, etc., in far less time than required to manually assemble the information.
Some technology platforms even incorporate predictive analytics and machine learning to analyze data, form conclusions and inform decision-making. To determine optimal rental rates or accurate building comps, for instance, an automated valuation platform will apply algorithms to weed out outlier data, spot unexpected trends, and analyze transactions far more quickly and accurately than could be achieved manually.
Support Your Fiduciary Role
As an investment sales broker, you play a key role in a transaction by serving as a fiduciary for the client and assuming the responsibility of representing the client’s best interests in the marketplace. In investment sales brokerage, that means providing clients with market data, insights and knowledge and securing the most favorable price and terms for a transaction. Technology can streamline the fiduciary role by automatically aggregating and analyzing data, generating insights and visualizations that bring the data-driven analysis to life.
Technology doesn’t always transform the way you work—but it can make your life a lot easier. For example, if you know that your clients are adopting new technology tools, then being thoughtful about the tech tools you adopt can help you provide superior service and professionalism. And, the right tech tools demonstrate that you are ahead of the curve in seeking ways to improve your services.
The Bottom Line
In today’s world of digital transformation, brokerage firms must evolve and incorporate new technology platforms—or risk being left behind by competitors able to provide faster, better service and more accurate market knowledge and transaction analyses. Tech tools for everything from CRM and marketing automation to analysis and valuation can help you accomplish more, win more business and close more deals. And, technology can give you more time to do what you do best—create and execute transactions backed by solid knowledge of the market and an accurate analysis of the deal.
FUEL Enterprises develops cloud-based, data-driven software for commercial real estate. Our flagship product, FUEL Valuation, is the leading next generation solution for valuation and cash flow forecasting.
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