The current market’s rising mortgage rates and property prices mean “a housing slowdown.” However, though demand is less rigorous than last year, for brokers, there is still quite a bit of movement and opportunity to increase income.
“Despite weaker sales, multiple offers are still occurring with more than a quarter of homes selling above list price due to limited inventory,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at NAR.
With these challenges, it’s more important than ever for brokers to work as efficiently as possible to submit offers fast and close quickly.
Common pain points for brokers
One thing brokers struggle with, according to Tricia Stamper, director of Technology Products at Florida Realtors, is “efficiency – streamlining the transaction process to get to closing faster and securely because happy clients and office productivity are critical to the sustainability of their business.”
Additionally, over the last few years, primarily due to the pandemic, much of the way business is conducted has transformed into digital processes. Agents were always on the go, but now, remote work influences how people buy. “According to NAR, 12% of buyers are purchasing homes virtually.
“Each broker, each brokerage, each office, each agent is unique and different in their workflow and their preferred work style,” said Zola Sam, product development coordinator for Florida Realtors. “And finding digital tools that help them stay organized, efficient and secure in whatever way is most convenient for their workflow individually and as a team is paramount.”
Efficiency is why brokers need to find a tool or resource that is customizable and adaptable to help themselves and their agents. They need a solution that can help them organize their workflow and manage their transactions from start to finish online, making the process simple, smooth and secure.
So with efficiency in mind, what should brokers look to digitize?
“As much as they can, in a manner that will help them minimize risk and keep their clients happy,” Stamper said. “Everything that has to do with the transaction process is becoming digitized. It is becoming the expectation.”
A trusted transaction management solution for brokers
For brokers who want to increase efficiency in their business, Form Simplicity is a SaaS for paperwork management that benefits brokers, their agents, their staff and their clients.
Form Simplicity is a robust transaction management solution created, owned and operated by Florida Realtors. It allows brokers and agents to manage transactions from start to finish from any device and it is available nationwide to brokers, associations and MLSs.
Using Form Simplicity, brokers have various customization tools to organize their workflows, such as setting up templates for the transaction’s forms, tasks and a broker review process.
Brokers can do a little work on the front end and set up an entire workflow, so the agent can come into Form Simplicity, start a transaction and have all the forms and tasks that need to get done in that transaction quickly loaded for them.
With a few clicks, agents then import the property listing data, which automatically populates MLS, tax and agent information through the forms and the transaction, cutting down on the time they have to spend manually filling out forms.
“That’s our main goal, and what we’re always striving toward – making the process as automated as possible and as customizable as possible so that brokers can set their agents up for success by streamlining their whole process,” Sam said. “It doesn’t take half a day to fill out a contract and get an offer in – you can do it within minutes from Form Simplicity.”
And because Form Simplicity is cloud-based, it employs redundant data center backups to ensure vital information is never lost.
Additionally, brokers who need assistance can call Form Simplicity’s tech support. Analysts from Tech Helpline, the No. 1 tech support service in real estate, will walk them through the customizations they may want to implement. Form Simplicity also offers monthly live training webinars and an online Help Center with step-by-step articles and video tutorials. These options allow users to receive the assistance they need to adopt the platform quickly.
Form Simplicity takes feedback from its users, implementing feature requests based on how they use the systems and what’s working or not working. Its goal is to enhance the program and make it work for the users’ situations.
According to Sasha Fedoroff, office/transaction manager at The Atlas Group Real Estate Services, the benefit of using Form Simplicity is “huge.” It’s a solution “which truly listens and adjusts its technology to the ever-changing times through constant agent/broker interaction and feedback,” she said.
How does Form Simplicity help brokers succeed?
Digital workflows like those that the brokers can create with Form Simplicity are more convenient for brokers, their agents, staff and clients. For example, clients can review their contracts online on their schedule, office staff can support the brokers and agents are also able to work on things on their schedule and location.
As for brokers, it creates a trail of all the movement. It is “the broker dashboard and submission checklists and the ability to have pre-filled custom form packages ready to use at the start of each transaction that truly make a real difference in efficiency and productivity,” Fedoroff said.
Brokers looking to expand their business need to be able to work quickly, organizing and processing transactions as efficiently as possible while knowing that their data is secure. That will help improve their reputation and give them more opportunities.
“Real estate is a word-of-mouth business; it’s very client-based and referral-based,” Stamper said. “A solid reputation is important. Using digital tools – Form Simplicity being one of those tools – to get things done on time increases their credibility with clients, business stability and ability to attract more agents, clients and business as a whole.”
“With new and improved features around the corner every month and the unbeatable pricing structure, Form Simplicity is indeed a long-term, reliable and secure system that is crucially important for any successful real estate office,” Fedoroff said.
To learn more about Form Simplicity for Brokers, click here.