2011 Budgeting and Business Management Tools: Specs That Matters for Real Estate

Successfully selling real estate involves several spheres of interrelated information and activity: details about prospects, sellers, and buyers; listings data; marketing services and property; guiding a transaction from initial offer through closing; forms, contracts, and support documents; and tracking all the related financial activity, from office income and expenses to commissions.

In every area, there’s a software application or Web-based service to provide the structure to help run a well-organized business. For budgeting, accounting, and financial management, the choices are pretty straightforward. When it comes to real estate business management solutions or suites, though, it’s not quite as clear. Vendors may describe their product as a “real estate management solution,” but there’s no standard for what that means.

Before you explore your options, decide where you most need help in your business. Use that as your guide to the right management solution. You may already have key pieces in place, like a contact-management or drip-marketing system, and want to build on that. Or you may decide it’s time to start over with an entirely new suite for managing all aspects of the business, from Web presence to finances to productivity reports.

In either case, you can choose to install software on your PC or network or sign up for Web-based software. Over the long term, the trend is definitely toward the latter, also called “cloud computing.” Web-based services, and the monthly or annual subscription fee, can also make the transition to a new system a more manageable expense if today’s market has left you in a sales lull.

When it comes to posting sensitive financial and business data online, though, you may be understandably reluctant. Don’t entrust the details of your real estate practice to a Web-based service without an absolute guarantee that your data will always be protected with encryption and redundant back-ups.

Whether it’s software or a Web service, you want some of the same things from budgeting and business management systems. System set-up and use should be intuitive and not overburden the individual, team member, or office manager with mastering entirely new methods.

The best solutions are single-entry systems, which tend to be easy to expand and update. With the same ease, you should be able to glean insights with predefined or customizable reports and graphs. Whatever your present company profile, you also want something “scalable” so you can add features or users as real estate activity picks up.

Also, be sure to evaluate the companies behind each solution, along with the features of their respective products. Since our last look at brokerage management systems, some vendors disappeared while others were acquired. Before you put part of your business on any system, you want reasonable confidence that company will be there with answers and support when you need it.

Get the full picture on pricing, too, before you make your decision. The prices quoted in the Shop by Budget section of this guide reflect companies’ base pricing for each system’s core components. Vendors may change their pricing structure as they develop new features or as your company grows. And additional software modules, new-user training, or long-term service may all be priced separately.

Once you buy into any business management tool, you’re committing the future of your real estate practice to that solution. Approach it with the same due diligence you advise clients to adopt when considering their next home, and this could be one of the smartest investments you’ll make in your career and your company.