How tech tools are transforming the real estate industry |️ Real Talk with Andres & Heather

[00:00:01] Speaker A: And we are live. Hi, guys. I am Heather with Head in the Clouds, and this is Andres with Cherles and C. Yes. [00:00:08] Speaker B: Welcome to Real Talk with her and Andres. [00:00:13] Speaker A: Yeah, we have real talk, real conversations, and real solutions to real realtor problems. [00:00:21] Speaker B: Yeah, primarily some. Some of it in the real estate space, but also, you know, as an entrepreneur, if you're having some challenges in your business, I think we can talk about it and hopefully help you find a solution. I think there's many ways what we do here applies into other businesses as well. So we're happy to have a chat and help you out or direct you to the right sources to be able to get things going. Right. [00:00:51] Speaker A: Definitely my mic the wrong way today because I was recording, so it's backwards, so I have to fix that. There we go. All right, now we're ready. Right. And if you're listening, you're like, what are they talking about? It's because we do a lot of things live and we do a lot of demonstrations. So if you're listening, make sure that you click over onto YouTube and watch the video so you can actually see what's going on live in. Well, not live, but in person instead of just hearing it Today. Andres, let's talk about real estate agents and how tools and technology have really shaped the way you can be an agent today as opposed to like 30 years ago when things were not so advanced. [00:01:33] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And, and, and we're following on last week's as well, where we talk about some decisions as real estate agent on whether you're starting and you're looking to joining a team. Right. The pros and cons of joining a team and also the pros and cons of getting your broker license. These are things that are normally not taken into consideration, but are things that you have to do your due diligence. If you're looking to getting into the real estate space, figure it out what works best for you or there's joining a team or going solo. And the same, once you're in the business for a number of years, the pros and cons of obtaining a license or joining a brokerage or team that that could help you reduce some of the cost and things that are. That come along with having your broker license. So we dove into that last week and this week we're diving into, like you said, all the different tools and things that are out there in today's industry that will make compared to how it used to be 5, 10, 15, 20 years ago. Right. [00:02:44] Speaker A: Speaking of that long ago, I've had an agent friend of mine back when I was at a different brokerage and she was telling me that when she first started as an agent, and I may have said this on here before, I don't remember when she first started as an agent. If you wanted to show a house, there were no super lock boxes, there are no contractor boxes. All the keys were actual like hard keys hanging in your brokerage office for all the houses that were listed with that brokerage. And if you wanted to show a house, you had to drive to your brokerage, check out the key manually, drive to the house, use the key, drive back to the brokerage office and hang it back up because somebody else might want to also show that house. So you couldn't go show like five houses in one afternoon without going back to your office each time to drop off and exchange the key. I thought that was crazy. Think how long it would take you now to show and how easy we have it and have always had it. Because all I've ever known is using a Supra key. For those of you don't fit, don't know what a super key is, it's a little lock box that's electronic and you have an app on your phone and you can open that lockbox out on the front door of the house that you're showing with a code from your phone and it opens over Bluetooth. And then you get the key, you show the house, you put it back in the box and you lock it. And that's how easy it is with Supra. [00:04:01] Speaker B: Seriously, just imagine, like you said, you have to share property an hour and a half away. You want to travel for your clients and be able to show them the properties that they want at all times. But situations like that, that's limiting yourself to maybe one property, one show on a date. I saw it. Three hour, just travel. And these are expenses that are often not considered in the real estate space from, from any outside, you know, source. Looking in, it's like, oh, it's just, you just got to show a house. Yeah, but the house is an hour and a half away. Three hours, maybe four hour round trip with traffic. You know, these are expensive that are added on and not taken into account. Not sometimes not even by the agent themselves, let's be honest. So it's, it's, it's a lot. So definitely grateful that we have super key and have the accessibility to, to be able to move on to the next property and have the keys accessible and ready to go. And along with that, I'm taking a class and one of the trainers there mentioned exactly that years ago. I can recall exactly the time frame because he's going into the time frame and kind of depicts to the age that they were, that they are. Right. So it mentioned that before, back, back in his time, he used to go with his dad to, to look at properties and it was a matter of, of going to the brokerage office, you know, looking at the ads on the paper, going to the brokerage office and, and say, hey, I'm interested in seeing this house. And then they'll take you to the house. So just imagine then as a real estate agent, you were not going out for to look for business or prospecting. People were coming to the office with the interest, ready to go and say, hey, I want to see this house list. I like the house. Let's make something happen. So if you were the Loki agents on the office, you're getting that business right? Compared to nowadays on prospecting and be able to generate the business that a lot of must be. A lot of agents don't want to make the phone call to prospect and get the new business. [00:06:28] Speaker A: Why is it phone calls are always the thing, they're always the hang up. Nobody wants to make the phone calls, nobody wants to answer the phone, nobody wants to check their voicemail. Crazy. [00:06:38] Speaker B: And yet everybody's on their phone all day. Figure that one out. They don't want to make the phone call that matters, but they want to be on TikTok and scrolling all day. You know how much time people spend on their screen time nowadays. But when it comes to their business and growing their business, it's so hard to make the phone call. [00:07:02] Speaker A: And think about how easy it is now too, because we have text messaging. We didn't have text messaging before and so now that we have text messaging, there's that kind of step before the phone call. You can text somebody and kind of avoid that phone call if you're that afraid of the phones. And with texting, what I really like about it is that now there's a record of what you spoke with about that other agent. So you can keep track of everything that happened with all the different agent age agents that you're either working with or showing property of. And that's nice too, to be able to have that record in writing. [00:07:36] Speaker B: Oh, definitely. You never know, right? You always. It's good to have that record on hand because even with clients sometimes. Hey, you didn't mention this. You didn't tell me it was at this time. So you always want to protect your clients best interests and you also have to protect yourself in the same capacity because there's too much stuff happening out there nowadays and anything can be turned against you. So it's great to have that documentation on hand so you never know when you're gonna need it. [00:08:13] Speaker A: So let's dive into tools that can't talk, tools that makes agents work smarter, close faster and serve their clients better. As just kind of go down a list and talk about all the different technologies there are. I need to go back to bed. All the different technology features there are and how those features help agents really scale and grow their business and produce to a level that they wouldn't have been able to without those added technology features. [00:08:40] Speaker B: Absolutely. One of the first things that comes to mind for me, and we talk about this on previous episodes, the CRM, right. Having a CRM and actually using the CRM, right. It's two different things because you just about every brokerage provides you a CRM but a lot of agents don't use it to its capacity which, which is there to help you facilitate the communication with all your clients and be consistent. And it also helps with that behavior understanding, you know, setting up the follow ups, prioritize the tasks, the prospects, who's hired, who's ready to go. You can create different stages to, to hopefully hope you nurture those leads and, and move them along in the process of buying or selling or pertaining to the business that you're in. I think it's a CRM is important to have. [00:09:43] Speaker A: With a CRM. Different CRMs do different things, right? You have some CRMs that people really love, other CRMs that people aren't so crazy about. I have my favorites and ones I don't really like. The main features that I love in a CRM is tracking, reporting and textability. If the CRM doesn't have texting capabilities, I'm not a huge fan and I know a lot of them have ways to kind of piece it in there, but it's not a set core of the CRM. So I really like that feature where everything's in the CRM, everything's recorded, everything's in one place and especially a social media calendar and scheduler. If you guys come to our one o' clock training today with cloud, I'm going to be going over how to bulk post 30 posts in 30 minutes and we've. This is a three week series now that we've been doing but this week is going to be on videos. So if you want to upload A reel or a story. That's a video. Tune in today and I've actually already attached the templates in the notes of this video. So you have all of the information and you have a template. You can join us at1meetcloudrealty.com and get yourself 30 posts in 30 minutes. So there's just another little tidbit that you can use with technology. [00:10:55] Speaker B: Absolutely. And along with that is also AI. Right. Integrating into CRM, whether it's AI to system, something we talked about as well, answering the phone calls for you, live transferring, creating more content like you said, text messages, emails, these are all tools that are accessible and help you, you make your job a lot easier. So take advantage of it. I was talking to Sean yesterday, went to a conference two years ago where they were talking about AI and people were thinking that it was farther out than it was anticipated, not realizing that AI is already in place in so many areas and it just exploded afterwards. And we see it everywhere nowadays. So it's going to continue to bring more, more tools, make things a lot easier. So use it, use it to your advantage. So it's not something that is trying to take away a few steps. It's trying to enhance in some areas to take advantage of it. [00:12:07] Speaker A: I think people are a little reluctant to use AI because they're scared of the technology. [00:12:13] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Well, that takes us into one other thing which is also the virtual transaction management like the top loop, sky slope transaction desk to get some a lot of these documents done a lot faster than it used to. Right. I think this is so important because I had a client where every time I needed a signature, and mind you, this is a few months ago. So I'm not talking about 10 years ago. Right. This is just a few months ago where every time I needed a document sign, I have to meet with them and go through the process getting the documents. And let's be honest, some people are not simply familiar or tech savvy. So I go above and beyond for my clients. But it's just one of those examples that there's going to be people that are not familiar or comfortable in using that technology that there is today. Although this technology helps us in so many ways, it's still going to happen and we have to be able to educate them in the process if necessary, they're open to using that technology, simply just get it done right for the transaction. So yeah, every time I had to drive about 30 minutes to get a. [00:13:36] Speaker A: Signature, oh my gosh, I've had clients like that before. It's been a couple of years. They were an elderly couple and they didn't have a smartphone. They had like one of the old fashioned like flip phones that just makes the phone calls. It was definitely interesting because I think that's my only experience of actually having to go to somewhere and having them sign like a wet document instead of digital. [00:14:07] Speaker B: Yeah, I had plenty of those. But it's, it's fun because that's, that's the type of community of niche that I want to work with. I want to relate and be able to help people that are in a situation where they're, they don't know they can purchase a home because they're not indicating the process. And for them to go from not knowing that they could purchase and now having a home, you know, I'm happy to walk, walk with them in that process. So it's a challenge sometimes because we have time restraint things that need to get done in a timely manner. But it just gotta happen my cab, you know. So another thing which also brings us to, to a very important aspect of the transaction is the smart the title in classing platforms. You know we have titles like a company like Propy which by the way I'm excited we're gonna introduce Propy into on the episode here next week, next Tuesday. So stay tuned into that conversation. A lot of exciting things are happening within that space. So happy excited we're having a conversation next week. Qualia yet closing. Those are some new platforms that are using end to end digital closings, blockchain to secure records, cryptocurrency for payments. So there's a number of ways that things are happening to help expand the region, facilitate this transaction for real estate agents and for consumers. Because nowadays you have to make the adjustment, right? Things are happening around us, we have to grow with it. So it's great to see this company coming to fruition and helping the clients overall experience that matter. [00:16:15] Speaker A: When you have all these different companies you're working with when you're doing a transaction, right? So you have your home inspector, you have your transaction coordinator. If you have a transaction coordinator, you have your closing company, your title company different, you know, the appraiser, you've got so many different people working this transaction that touch this transaction and they all have their own systems and they all have their own tools. I know I have certain home inspectors that have an app that you can download and you can see where you are in the home inspection process and like all of the things that they flagged which is really cool and Then you have your lender. Some lenders have apps where you can see exactly where you are in the loan process and what's going on with being an agent, when we're doing showings, we have, which we're going to get into in a little bit, Showing time, which is an app where you can request showings, see what showings you've requested when they've been approved. You can have a little map that you send to your people. On the other side of that, the listing side, you have homes with showing time where they would be able to manage that listing, manage the showing requests. There's just so many apps, it can be a little overwhelming sometimes when you've got app after app after app after app that you're going through to understand all this stuff. How do you suggest agents and buyers and sellers keep up with all this different technology if they're not technology savvy and then suddenly they're told they have to download like 20 apps to sell their house? [00:17:41] Speaker B: Well, in, in my situation, for, let's say for the, with the clients I was working with, they were not tech savvy at all. Soho. So when it came to the lending part aspect of things, I think especially there's a language barrier. It's important to have a, a lender that speaks the language to help him facilitate some of the communication. But when it comes to the app, as much as I could take on my end, I would handle and just, just present them with the information. For example, all the showings, right. Anything for communication from, from title in the process, from the lending team. Once we went and got the contract in place, I requested all that information to come to me so that I can condense it and pass it over to her over a phone call. And again, if they needed a document sign, I can go over there and go over the details for them. When it came to specific information for the lending or things like that, and I will have a family member that is close to them, you know, help them out with the app and explain to them what the process is. Because there will be times where I could not make it over there and they needed certain things done, then someone that could show them how to, you know, use the app if necessary. Otherwise I will make my way over there to, to go through every line and make it happen for them. That's just me in my nature, right. Part of what I do, I try to be there 100% of the time. But if something that could be passed on to somebody because of the, of what it was Then I could, you know, work with a family member that could show them what that particular aspect of things was. But it's a challenge because if you have to take the trip and maybe make it happen, you know, not. Not every, you know, if I was caught up at a meeting somewhere, then we'll make the adjustment. But I'll try to be there 100%. But it. But it's great. I understand, like every. With so many apps, access to so many things, as a homeowner, as a consumer probably wonder, like, okay, do I need to really download all these things? I'm only gonna use the one. I'm only gonna buy the cells once. Do I really need all of these to. If it's necessary, you have to emphasize the importance, at least for the next 45 days into that transaction, close and say, hey, you can delete it afterwards. You don't need it. [00:20:32] Speaker A: That's what I was just gonna say. It's always deletable afterwards. So if you're like, I don't want this on my phone. Okay, put in a little file in our little folder and keep it there until the transaction closes and delete off your phone. You don't have to worry about it anymore. But if it is important information, if it is stuff that's going to help the process, it's probably necessary to have it. [00:20:51] Speaker B: Yeah, we want this to go smoothly as possible. Let's get it done for the next 45 days or so. 30 days, 45 days at most. And once you have the keys to your home, you can go ahead and do it. So let's make it happen. How about on your end? Have you experienced anything like that? [00:21:16] Speaker A: I haven't really had anybody not want to download the app. I had the couple that I worked with that, I mean, they didn't have the capability to download it because they didn't have a phone that supported that. They didn't have a computer. And even if they did have a computer, I don't think they would have been able to maneuver what needed to be done with DocuSign. But as far as downloading the app, I haven't had an experience where anybody didn't want to. Most people have been very open to the technology and wanting to know what's going on every step of the way. So that's been a good thing. I don't feel like you can over communicate with people. I feel like you can under communicate with people. And that's something I always tell new agents is if you're doing all this stuff but you're not telling your client you're doing it, how do they know you did it? How do they know anything got done? Because it just looks to them like you've done nothing all day, when in reality you probably spent all day doing stuff for them, but they have no clue. So with these apps, it also helps track and monitor the stuff that you're doing and so that they can see that, hey, you are working for them. And it gets rid of that myth that agents don't do anything. We just show up to closing for a big fact check. [00:22:18] Speaker B: Absolutely. You have to let them know everything that goes on. It goes on notice unless you tell them. And it's important to have that transaction run smoothly. [00:22:31] Speaker A: And technology is also something that is great. There's a product called Forewarn, which real estate agents have access to through our MLS and we can use. I don't know if you guys have that or not. And what it does is you can enter a phone number in and it does a background check on that person and you can see any criminal activity that they have on them. So before I meet somebody, if I'm meeting somebody off the Internet, well, I don't really do that anymore. And if I have somebody that wants to work with me, Tony normally meets them, but it runs them. And you can see their background and you can see any type of criminal history they have. So, you know, walking into this appointment, what to expect or decide, hey, I don't want to work with this person. And you're not going to because of their, their record. Now, it's not 100%. Just because they don't have a record doesn't mean they didn't do anything. It just means they didn't get caught. So always still use precaution and be careful and know your surroundings, know what you're doing. But it is a great tool to give you just a little bit more information going into that situation. [00:23:31] Speaker B: Absolutely. Definitely. I honestly haven't checked on mine, but most likely there is something like that. With how things are and, you know, everything that happened recent years, then it's always to, you know, take precautionary measures to, to be safe. That's the first and foremost. [00:23:49] Speaker A: I got a phone call the other day last week actually, and it was this guy and he was like, hey, I got your. Or he's like, hey, I have 15 properties I want to sell. If you're, if you're an agent, you're like, 15 properties you want to sell. Woohoo. I hit the jackpot today, right, with this person that calls in. So right away, that kind of raised a red flag. Most investors, most people that have a portfolio of 15 properties, they're not going to work with some agent that they've never met before that they just found on the Internet. They probably have somebody. If they've acquired 15 properties, they probably have agents that they already work with or people that know really good agents. It's really hard to break into the investor business. Typically, they don't just call you up off the Internet. So already I was kind of like, red flag. Then as we proceeded to talk, it got weirder and weirder and weirder. So as I was talking to him, I put his number in forewarm, and it came back and it said, no results, so there's no search. So I couldn't see what was going on with him. But through the conversation, first he said he had to go get. He didn't know the addresses. He had to go get them. Then he didn't want to give me the address because I was on speakerphone so I could take notes because he said it was his personal address, which didn't make sense with what he said earlier. I kept trying to push to have a meeting at my office, and he was like, no, no, no, I don't want to do that. I need I should show you the properties. And when I pushed further for his driver's license, for a copy of his driver's license, he hung up on me. [00:25:19] Speaker B: Oh, wow. [00:25:20] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:25:20] Speaker B: Just tells you, nowadays information is so accessible. [00:25:25] Speaker A: And not only that, Andres, when I asked him, I said, how did you get my information? He goes, oh, a referral. And I'm like, oh, awesome. Who referred you. His exact words, and I quote, one of your fucking systems. [00:25:40] Speaker B: Oh, wow. [00:25:41] Speaker A: Yeah. I was like, okay. And when I was telling Tony about it, Tony was like, well, probably somebody that saw you guys online, because we say that all the time. We talk about our systems, you know, and everything like that. So that's a phrase that a person wouldn't really come up with unless they've heard us say it. So what I think happened is somebody saw me on social media and was like, let me call and see if I can get her to come out here, or whatever. So be aware of scams and just be careful. If you're a real estate agent, male or female, just be careful. [00:26:10] Speaker B: Absolutely. You never know people. People. What people are capable of. Right. And there's people that have really bad intentions out there, so be safe. First and foremost is. [00:26:27] Speaker A: Right now, it's not me who's going to meet you. If, if you're looking to work with me. I definitely work with you. I'll meet with you eventually. But I am not the first person that you're going to meet with. So just so everybody knows. [00:26:40] Speaker B: Like, don't get too excited. They're going to see Tony. You have a picture of 20 there. I know. Keep it like that. So that way. [00:26:51] Speaker A: That's not right. Well, no, we have, we have. And it goes the other way too. Like, people won't just work with Tony and then it'll be me and they'll be like, oh, we thought it was going to be Tony. Like, sorry, it's not. It's. It's just me. [00:27:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm trying to get my wife into the real estate space. So. But that's something. The same thing. We'll do it together. Every showing, we open house sub. I host an open house. She's. She goes along with me, you know, and she has a. She's a very friendly person. It's easy to talk to her. She talks to anyone. So go to the open house and people think she's an agent. I'm like, what do you guys leave me at? So, but. But it's great to have it. But at the same time, you also have to be aware of your surrounding and what you do and things and who's around you. Right. I'm always keen on that. Everywhere we go, she sees me. Every. Everywhere we go, I'm just scanning the area. Habit of mine. And the service and the marine and the army and just, Just have to be aware. You never know. Ready to react to something, you know, so same thing in the process, I'm showing a property, allow people to walk through and I know where I'm at. I know where my ex's entries are. I know who's around me. And if they're making a move, they'll be surprised, you know, so that's how it is nowadays. But it's also, you know, in our society nowadays, you see things happening everywhere, shootings happening everywhere. It's. It's a matter of being consciously aware of where you at and what's around you. Of course, there's things that you cannot predict, but just being aware of what's happening will give you a better chance of avoiding certain things. Right. [00:28:54] Speaker A: And it's sad. It's sad that that's the world we live in today, but it, it is. And like you said, just know your surroundings and trust your gut, trust your instincts. And there's no house there's no sell, there's no deal, there's no closing worth your life, your safety in just. If you have that feel, if you, if you have an inkling of a bad feeling, don't do it. Just don't do it. [00:29:17] Speaker B: Yeah, just walk away, you know, just walk away from the property. You know what? Something come up? Not able to show you this property today. You know, get somebody else. If they're open to rescheduling and you bring somebody on board with you, by all means do so. But don't, don't take a chance. It's not necessary. [00:29:41] Speaker A: You know, I saw. It's funny, this is not the way I intended this conversation to go, but here we are. I saw a study that said it was this elevator study where a woman would, they would have like a scary looking dude inside an elevator and the elevator door would open and it would be a woman, and would she get in the elevator or would she, you know, wait for the next. And the women that got in the elevator, even though they didn't feel safe, when they were interviewed and they asked, why did you get in the elevator? If you didn't feel safe, why'd you get in? The number one response was they didn't want to hurt the feelings of the person inside the elevator or they felt, they said they felt bad, like they were judging the person inside the elevator. So they didn't want to do that. So they went ahead and got into a steel trap basically with somebody that they felt like might be a threat to them because I didn't want to hurt that person's feelings. It was inside if they were not intending on hurting them. And I, I get, I understand that, but not me, I'd be like, I don't care if I hurt your feelings. I'm not getting in that elevator. Like, I'll wait for the next one. So it's interesting the, the mind, how the mind works and how people willingly put their own safety at risk. [00:30:50] Speaker B: It. It's funny you say that because I, I got myself doing that in a similar situation. And if you come across a stop sign, a light, and you see someone in the corner approaching your car, you know, asking for money, and you have the windows down, are you rolling the windows up for your safety or are you keeping it down because you're concerned that they might be judging you? Because you put the window down and say, we're approaching you. I unconsciously caught myself doing that yesterday, right? I, I see this car, this, I'm getting into a light. I see this guy I think he's crossing the street, right? And all of a sudden he stops in between lanes and he just stopped to ask for money. And I'm blessed with my music. I'm. It's eight in the morning, I have my music full blast. That's me. No matter what time it is, it could be three in the morning, five in the morning. If I'm driving, I have my music full blast. So I'm listening to a, to a book, right? And I see this guy just up in the middle of the lane. I have my windows down. He falls back and then he start walking forward and I see him on the mirror and I have my windows down. And for a second I was gonna bring it up and I left it down. But I was watching his every step because you never know, it's one of those things, you never know who's out there on the street, right? That guy could react and try to attack me or things. Leaving the window open gives him a better chance, gives them an easy target, right? Compared to the guards, the other cars that have the window up. So it's one of those things that unconsciously I. Common self thinking, should I put it up? Should I put it down? I just left it down. He didn't approach me, but I was always watching what he was doing. But just like your elevator example, it happens. I see it happen. Sometimes I see other people bring their window up when they stop on a corner and somebody standing there asking for money, you know, so it's just being aware. And like I said, put the window up. If you're not giving him anything, you're not, you don't have the right to give him anything. For your safety, do what's right for you. Pay attention to others feelings, mom especially. They have nothing to do with it. [00:33:12] Speaker A: Have I look you dead in the eye and roll the window up. I'd just be like. [00:33:18] Speaker B: You better walk away. [00:33:21] Speaker A: You know, it's sad because I would like to be able to give somebody if they're, you know, collecting like you see the guys with the buckets and they're collecting money on the, you know, on the street. I'd like to be able to do that. I'd like to be able to help somebody out that is asking for donations. But because of everything that's gone on today, it's not safe to do that. It's not safe for you as a person to be able to be charitable in a lot of situations because you never know. You never know if that's going to be the time that that person reaches in and grabs you or tries to steal your car and you got kids in the car. And it's sad, but there are other ways to help people. There are other ways to donate that are much safer than a random person coming up to your window. And you gotta be safe about yourself and your kids and your family first. [00:34:06] Speaker B: You never know. You never know what could trigger them to go after you. You know, some people, you, you're just minding your business walking by. These people get triggered and decided to attack. You never know. Just be consciously aware of what's around you and try to be safe. Make your own for it if you have to. You know, I would say, my wife always say, look man, if the day somebody approaches her like that, I feel bad for them. Like they don't know what they're getting in seven. Like I'm not a fighter. I don't, I don't. I avoid confrontation at all cost. But don't fight me either. I'm afraid either. It's a type thing. Like I'm. I'm most calm person, you know, the most patience. That's it. I'll keep it at that. [00:35:08] Speaker A: You know, we got way on a different topic. I don't say off topic. This was a good topic, but we got like way over here when we were over there. But no, I think it's a good conversation to have. Definitely something that people a conversation don't want to talk about because it's scary and you know, they don't want to hit hint on that subject. But it is safety is definitely something that needs to be talked about a lot. [00:35:30] Speaker B: Absolutely not. Just, just the other day I was talking to a friend of mine during a high school day. I used to take my bike and just ride after high school, drove my stuff at home, take my bike and ride about 25 miles to go visit my cousin. 25 miles, avoiding the freeways, going through town neighborhood that normally I, I don't, you know, that's where my high school was. But normally I don't hang out that areas. But you could just go everywhere freely, no concern. You know, it's 14, 15 years old, just taking your bike and riding 25 miles to go play around with your cousins. And then at night taking the same bike and riding another 25 miles back home. I could do that like nothing and had no worry about what's happening around me. Nowadays your kids can't even walk home from school? [00:36:24] Speaker A: No, they can't. [00:36:25] Speaker B: It's sad. No, it's sad, but it's the Reality we live in. Going back into our topic of tools and accessibility into our real estate business, the property marketing. You know, there's a number of tools and websites and companies out there to help you market your property. And whether it's creating videos, virtually staging the property. So there's a number of ways that that could be happening. You mentioned canva. Using Canva to create content for your social media, generating lists and descriptions, photos visually create brands in minutes. So there's a lot of tools to help you market and brand yourself out there compared to how it used to be even five years ago. Right. The accessibility to all these tools nowadays, it's incredible. [00:37:39] Speaker A: It's funny with marketing properties how many times we get catfished by the pictures, the listing pictures. Because some of these listing pictures don't be matching the house that you go to see. And you're like, so don't overdo your pictures, guys with. Just because you can edit them like crazy doesn't mean you have to. [00:38:01] Speaker B: Yeah. And I was gonna say even, even nowadays for buyer, you can essentially buy a home into if you're moving across the country, even internationally, without ever stepping foot in your on the property. Right. But like you said, sometimes the pictures don't match what the property actually looks like. So if you have an agent that you're working with, always ask for a virtual tour for a live tour of the call of the property. Right. I have the agent. I've done that multiple times to have a buyer coming from across the country. And hey, more than happy to go in there. We can jump on a conference call, walk you through the property. You can see exactly what it looks like. So make it happen. And as a consumer, ask for those things. Don't always go by what you see in the pictures. As an agent, honestly telling you, sometimes it doesn't happen intentionally that I know of. Right. But sometimes the picture done doesn't do justice to the actual property, let's be honest. [00:39:15] Speaker A: And then speaking of pictures, there's so many different. Like you said, the virtual tours, you've got drone footage. You can have drone footage of your property. It's amazing. You can have the virtual staging. You can even have. I can't remember the name of the app. I saw it one time. I've never used it, which is. I don't know why I should have. It's. You can take a picture of the room and then put your own stuff in there and kind of see what your furniture would look like in the room, which is pretty cool. I'm going to Find the app now so I can remember what it was, but that's pretty cool too. So it's like staging it with your own stuff so you can kind of picture your stuff in there. There's so many different pieces of technology and crazy how far we've come with it. [00:39:55] Speaker B: I was going to add the problem with that as well. Although we talk about pictures, not reflecting on the picture, what the actual property looks like, I also see lists and that don't do justice to the property itself. You see pictures where they're not professional pictures. Nah. You see clutter in the properties. If you have a listing, make sure that you make that property ready to go. You're not doing it justice to the, to the homeowners and presenting that property to the best of his capability. Right. Who's. If you see a property as a buyer that is clutters, it's not clean, doesn't look clean. If you see those images on Zillow, are you gonna want to go see that property? Can you envision your, can you envision your yourself living in that property? I'll be like, man, this looks amazing. Has a lot of potential. [00:40:59] Speaker A: Yeah. Most people aren't gonna say, oh, it's a mess, but it has a lot of potential. No, they're gonna say, oh, I don't want to clean that up. That looks like cluttered and dirty. [00:41:09] Speaker B: Yeah. So as you know as an agent, make sure you do right by your clients. Right. And. [00:41:17] Speaker A: Make it happen with people in them. Like there's a one house that had a little boy on the bed. I'm like, you couldn't have had the kid get out of the picture before you took the picture. Like, come on. [00:41:26] Speaker B: Oh my God. See, it's easy to get off right on this, on these topics because there's so many things that happen consistently that just makes you wonder. Makes you wonder. So another key part of this is the automated showing of success. Showing time calendly the CRM integration to book calendars. So how important are these for your day to day business operations? [00:42:01] Speaker A: I would say as a buyer's agent, you would rely on things like showing time. Calendar CRM integrations are not used towards that. But I know a bunch of agents that don't have these kind of systems in place and they rely on, I guess, calling. Okay. I will say sometimes if you're having to manually call on properties, you do need to know how to do that. But with being able to just request with a button and then get that approval with like a code for the lockbox if there's a code for it. But otherwise it's amazing to be able to send all these requests out, get the confirmations back and be able to just send your client over a list of properties that you guys are going to go see and everything is already done for you. It'll even map out the best route to take to get to the properties and what order you should take them. [00:42:51] Speaker B: So I highly and to somebody within those listing are showing that your requested doesn't respond. Have you ever got one of those? [00:43:02] Speaker A: Oh my God. So yes, they don't respond or, or they'll respond way later. And then it's a no. And then it throws off the entire schedule because that house was like in the middle. And when you're like, oh my God, now I have to like reschedule everything, everything because now we have like a hole in our schedule. So what are we supposed to do now? So it's not a perfect system. There's obviously flaws. People don't update the mls, you'll get approved for a showing. Like a Show and go will be approved. A Show and Go is where it's just automatically approved because most of the time the house is vacant and you'll go show it and you'll call the agent and then the agent's like, oh yeah, it's no longer available. That's why I call. So I call the night before the showings to make sure that they're still available before we go the next morning. And even doing that, there's still been times where we've gone, Michonne. And in the time from the night before till now, they've gone under contract and didn't bother to cancel the showing, didn't bother to update the mls and so we wasted our time going there. [00:44:04] Speaker B: Oh, wow. So little things like that as an agent that not only it helps you stay organized, stay on top of things, but unconsciously it's passed on to the other agents. Right, because just like you said, responding to the appointment, confirming those appointments or updating their MLS just, you know, allow somebody else day to go more flow more, go more fluently and on time. So so little details like that that are so powerful in our day to day operations. And how about the, you know, any market insights powered by AI such as, you know, outsource research, rpr, local logic. I personally use RPR quite a bit. I think it provides great data and accessibility to that tool. Gives you a very, you know, clear perspective into how your market is doing. [00:45:10] Speaker A: I love RPR too. I use that one. A lot. [00:45:13] Speaker B: A lot of things that are accessible there that I see agents not take advantage of. Right. Like downloading, like if you're prospecting or if you want to, you know, farm a particular neighborhood, the data that is available there, it's free. You can download it, use it on a monthly basis. But not everyone takes advantage of that. That tool. [00:45:42] Speaker A: There's a lot of tools that people don't know that are there. They don't know how to use. They don't feel like they incorporate well into their plan or what they've got going on. But I love rpr. I love. I run reports all the time. I love their reports. I love that you can customize it to a. To an extent, you can customize them to your brand. I also like with fmls, we have it's. It's called cloud cma, which is funny because it's not the same cloud. It's a different cloud, but they had a really cool digital CMA that's pretty awesome. And it gives you this little slider with the comps and stuff. So I love doing that because it really looks like you made a little website for. For your buyers for each house that they're gonna go see. And you really just entered an address and like hit run report and it creates it for you. So there's a little bit more to it, but it. It's not as detailed as you would think it is. And it looks really awesome, looks really cool, and they really like it. [00:46:41] Speaker B: Nice. That's pretty cool. So, yeah, these are some of the things that a few are necessary in today's way of operating in the real estate space. Space. And. And there's a lot more tools out there that we haven't covered. Right. We could probably dive into two full episode. Into all the tools and details that are useful. So if you think. If you guys as an audience have anything that you feel we should cover on here, please let us know. We're more than happy to bring it up. Dive into that. And if you want to have a conversation about a particular tool that you have in place, hey, let us know. We're happy to have you here as a guest. And dive into that, and you're all about it. We have to continue to adjust and continue to use the things that are accessible to us nowadays and make life easier for everybody. Right. We're in the business of working with people and the process help facilitate their acquisition of a property. So let's make it happen. [00:47:44] Speaker A: You know, I don't know if it's Still, I haven't used it in a long time. But there was an app where if you needed a showing or you needed somebody to host an open house, you could put the information, you could put the house into this app and then agents that were in the surrounding areas could say, hey, I want to do it, I want to do it. And then you would put the amount that you're going to pay that person to do that showing. And it was really, really cool. It was kind of like Uber Eats for showings. It was really neat because a lot of times, you know, we're human. Things happen. You can't always make every single showing or you're double booked. You have two people that want to go see houses that day and you're like, I can only show one person because I'm one person. So you need some assistance in that. And it was a great app for people to be able to just find someone quickly because just throw it out there. And they always got snatched up. Like every time I posted something, it always got snatched up really quick. So that was cool. [00:48:36] Speaker B: Nice. And that's no longer in place. [00:48:39] Speaker A: I'm not sure. I'll have to look and see if it's still in place. I know there was some talk when the whole lawsuit and the everything like that because of showing property that you don't have a BBA for. So I'll have to find out if that's still a thing and how they're working around that. [00:48:55] Speaker B: That's right. Huh. So in that case, you know what, I figured how they went around because you are required to have a, an agreement in place. Does it have to be the person that's showing the property? [00:49:09] Speaker A: That's why I was like, I don't know the fine print of their company. And so I don't want to say anyone. The company and everything. I'll just, I'll look into it. If it's still a thing and they're still doing it, I'll let you guys know. [00:49:19] Speaker B: Sounds good. Sounds like a plan. Nice, man. And we're coming up here at the top of the hour, so any last thoughts regarding the technology and tools that are accessible? [00:49:34] Speaker A: Just take advantage of them, learn them. If you go to your MLS and you look at your tools page, they should have a page where they have a bunch of tools listed for you. There's so many tools there that you can take advantage of, get to know. And they have training on all of them too. So I would definitely see what there is, see what you can incorporate into your business. Just to make your life easier. [00:49:56] Speaker B: Another thing is if you can show up to the meetcloudrealty.com every Tuesday, 12:00 clock central, 1:00 clock eastern. Tech Tuesday, we dive into the different technologies that is available through the CRM that we're using or ways that could help enhance what we're doing there. So login normally. Heather, leave our show and we dive into this particular detail on Tech Tuesday. So join us there and you're, you know, and you can live with some great insights and tools to help you in your business. [00:50:35] Speaker A: Be a good show and then don't forget, we have it every single day Monday through Friday. Every day is a different theme. We've got Monday Mindset Tuesday technology. We got what's working Wednesday, training Thursday and then CEO Friday. So every day come and do we are we doing a interview tomorrow or are we not doing an interview tomorrow? What are we doing tomorrow for what's working Wednesday? Because you're normally our what's working Wednesday guy. [00:51:01] Speaker B: Tomorrow we may not have an interview because every other week we're gonna try to plug in into a dive deeper into a training. Whether it's Tech Tuesday, whether it's Mindset Monday or our training Thursday, we're gonna use every other Wednesday to to run a hour long or two hour long class and dive deeper into one of those topics so that we can continue to help the agents in the community that's coming in. So. But every other Wednesday we're definitely gonna have somebody interviewing that is using the platform that is plugging in on a daily basis and, and using what they're learning. We've seen some incredible results from that and it's great to see the people are applying what they're taking in. [00:51:52] Speaker A: Awesome. So guys, make sure you tune in for those. Looking forward to that. I always really enjoy what's working Wednesdays and the call reviews on Thursdays, I enjoy those too. So don't forget, guys, you can scan the QR code to the far left to follow us on all of our channels. So you never miss a live show. If you want exclusive details, exclusive details, exclusive discounts, we have our QR code in the middle. If you're thinking about becoming an agent, a broker, or you need continuing education, scan those so that you can get our discount on all of those courses. And then as always, if you want to be a guest on a real trunk and bring what you offer to the community to our platform to share with everybody, we'd love to have you go ahead and scan the QR Code on the right and pick a day and then send in your application and we will be in touch shortly with you guys. [00:52:43] Speaker B: Outstanding. Yeah. Please follow us. Stay tuned for more content. And again, like I mentioned on the beginning of the show, next week on Tuesday, we will be interviewing Rappy, one of our agents, with propy who we're going to dive into the details, into the title and escrow and how their approach is helping the industry continue to scale and grow as well as facilitating the process for real estate agents and consumer alike. So next week we're going to have that interview and we want to take a different, a little of approach as a, as a real estate agent and as a consumer. So I want to be asking and learning into that from both angles. So I'm excited for that. I think they offer great, great tools to our real estate industry. That, that is a game changer. So I'm excited to learn more about it with you guys and provide you guys that information. So as an agent, stay tuned because there's definitely things you can plug in into that and help you in your business and most of all, help your clients. [00:54:00] Speaker A: Yep. [00:54:02] Speaker B: Well, excited for that. [00:54:07] Speaker A: All right, guys. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. [00:54:10] Speaker B: And I was going to say this Thursday, we also want to talk a little bit about what, as a real estate agent, if you're looking to grow your business, your branding, right, and you need leads, more business, right. We can dive into what we're doing here at Cloud Realty and how we can help you in that capacity. So, yeah, stay tuned. A lot of great tools and ways to help your business grow. So. [00:54:44] Speaker A: So I think that's gonna be it for us today, guys. Like Andre said, stay tuned for Thursday and then obviously next Tuesday is going to be amazing. And as always, don't forget to like, follow and subscribe and share and we will see you guys on the next one. [00:55:01] Speaker B: Bye. See you then.