The 2020 DNA of #CRE survey asked brokers across the country what technology they feel is missing from CRE that would help them with their day-to-day work.
Here’s what brokers said.
Many brokers are not currently satisfied with their CRMs—unfortunately, this was the case in the previous DNA of #CRE responses as well.
Brokers want a CRM that is built for CRE—one that is geared toward broker relationships and their overall deal flow.
Many called for a CRM that’s easier to use, but still efficient for their process. Brokers also pointed out the need for shared database options—a limitation of most CRMs.
“I’m looking for a CRM that is smart. So if I prepare a proposal, it populates a leasing report automatically. None do this. Data has to be entered twice.”
Buildout’s CRM was built for CRE and solves these challenges.
Our CRM centralizes your contact and property data so it’s easy to search, organize, and share data in the way that’s most useful to you.
And we offer privacy options within your brokerage wide CRM so you can easily keep private notes about your activities, insights, properties, contacts, companies, and more.
Brokers are calling for an integrated system that allows them to manage their entire deal flow— everything from their CRM to their back-office function—in one end-to-end platform.
Some pointed out their need for too many disparate systems—many using the word ‘seamless’ to describe the experience they hope to attain.
Brokers reported trouble getting data between systems, saying it slows down their ability to do their job efficiently and effectively.
“CRE needs a more unified solution combining functions seamlessly.”
Buildout integrates your CRM, marketing, listing and deal management, and back office—bringing your entire deal into one tool.
You manage all of your data out of your CRM and can seamlessly share it with other members of your team when you’re ready to market or finalize the transaction. This prevents multiple rounds of data entry and reduces the risk of data entry errors.
And because everything is all in one tool, you have the ability to oversee real-time data about your pipeline, properties, and more at a personal or brokerage level.
Brokers want alternative ways to source properties and ownership—calling out that current systems in place are expensive and often out of date.
They want an affordable research platform that provides trend data, historical information, and verified market data.
Many brokers called out that they would like to see alternatives to CoStar and LoopNet, feeling like these tools don’t offer the solutions they need.
Brokers also point out the need for this data to be easy to access and manage internally, so it’s easy to reference in future deals.
“What’s missing is an affordable and reliable competitor to LoopNet/CoStar.”
While the industry continues to rely on large providers, Buildout can help you lend more power to the data you source yourself or within your brokerage.
It’s easy to centralize your research, comp, and property data in Buildout so you’re always working from the most up-to-date insights. Custom organization and sharing options help keep your market knowledge exactly where you need it.
You can instantly push your data to your shared comps database when you close a deal so you always have brokerage-wide access to historical comps. This reduces data entry and makes it easy to keep your data current.
Brokers need a tool that organizes and automates their tasks—many calling for a CRE specific project management tool.
Brokers want an organized, listing and deal management system that ensures they stay on top of all of the moving parts of each of their deals.
“We want better, integrated project management software for CRE.”
Buildout's Premium Marketing provides deal and listing project management—you can see everything in your pipeline from a high-level, what individual tasks need to be completed on each deal, and centralize communication and metrics by project.
Our checklist feature automatically creates an internal list of tasks that need to be completed with each listing to ensure you don’t miss any steps in your process.
You can read the full results of the Broker and Marketer reports here. And if you’re interested in seeing how Buildout can solve your brokerage’s challenges, contact us.
