Why All Listing Platforms are Not Created Equal

Why All Listing Platforms are Not Created Equal




Over the last several years, there have been a number of listing platforms that have come out of the woodwork in response to the disruption that occurs when a monopoly is formed through the strategic efforts of public companies aimed at disrupting an industry.  We saw this happen with Uber, Rocket Mortgage and Amazon, looking to gain market share initially through trust, and then through disintermediation of those trusted partners.

When you evaluate a platform to market your listings on and through, three important considerations should be made.  First, how does my listing information reach end-users?  Are there a variety of means within a single dashboard to spread the word about my listings?  Second, what features are included that make my life easier?  Am I going to have to purchase add-ons to enable this to market my listings pro-actively?  And finally, what is the goal of the platform?  Are there investors to satisfy and is the plan to sell it off to another public company or is the platform sustainable and built to serve and support the industry? 


Data entry is the most despised activity among most brokers, especially in the commercial realm, where there are 7-10 different platforms to consider, and unlike residential where there is one local MLS platform to populate that then gets pushed to Zillow or Realtor.com.  How does your platform address data management, and who owns the data?  Since the broker is the primary responsible party for marketing, it only makes sense that broker upload is the only logical model, and unfortunately, all platforms are competing for market share, and are therefore unlikely to syndicate.  RealtyZapp is the only platform however, that enables the user to upload all listings in bulk, greatly reducing the initial workload.  And thereafter, adding a listing takes under 5 minutes, thanks to an intuitive process.  With a user-interface that works on any device, you can make changes to your listings on the fly, with your smartphone.  And since our system is broker driven, we believe they own the data. 


On the issue of online listing visibility relevant to a prospect’s search, RealtyZapp starts with broker-directed SEO (or Search Engine Optimization), which means that you can enter keywords and phrases that enhance online visibility by calling out the unique qualities or attributes of a property and a location that you feel people would search for to find your listing in that market.  We enhance this by offering a “Quick-Connect” reciprocal marketing feature that matches listings with brokers and prospects in much the same way a dating app works, with far better results than your average pitch session.  We also support local commercial associations through showcasing member listings on the organization’s website, to enhance membership and drive deal velocity between members.


Keeping on top of your prospect follow up and activity tracking is hard enough, but of the agents we speak with, less than 20% actually track their expected revenue from their anticipated deals with any kind of pipeline tracking system.  Therefore, we have embedded the world’s easiest, mobile-enabled CRM in the industry; And it is included with our Super-Agent subscription.  Open your mobile app and send links with full listing information to a prospect as you are on the phone with them or immediately after the call.  Then, completing just seven fields, which you can populate with your voice, the prospect is automatically included in your next broadcast e-mail about the listing they inquired about.  If your CRM requires repetitive training to get value from it, if you have to subscribe to an add-on e-mail campaigner, or if your listings aren’t integrated into a template that builds and reinforces your brand, you may be back-peddling or at the very least, over-spending. 


Another indispensable tool that brokers require is placing their listings on their firm’s website.  Many firms pay thousands per month to facilitate this, or they attempt to keep a free word-press version updated as they continue to update all the other listing platforms they subscribe to.  We realize this can be tedious or quite expensive, so that is why we have included this website-adaptive convenience feature as part of our basic Power-Agent subscription.  Keep your firm’s website updated as you update RealtyZapp in a way that again, reinforces your brand. 


And lastly, creating marketing materials is essential, yet tedious, and most brokers have not the patience or design flair to create professional looking flyers, postcards or brochures, so they hire marketing assistants to help with this.  Our Super-Agent subscription includes an automated flyer generator that produces professional marketing materials from a branded template we design for you, from which you can create other variations.  This can be used to generate multiple page flyers, horizontal or vertical, postcards of any size, offering memorandums, and property specific websites.  You can even create landing pages to be used in lead generating E-Mail campaigns.  All very powerful tools included for less than $60/month.  The bottom line is, any tools that can reduce time spent on tedious activities so that you can focus on research, prospecting and deal-related activities while not breaking the bank, helps your bottom line; and for those of us who eat what they kill as they say, this is imperative.



RealtyZapp was founded on the principle that brokers should have control over their data, their marketing budget, and their process, enabling them to be ultra-responsive to prospects and super-efficient in performing the required marketing tasks, while developing strategies that help differentiate themselves from the competition.  The days of passive marketing are over if we choose to add value to an industry under siege by tech that seeks to replace agents rather than empower them.  We envisioned a pro-active, cost-effective and sustainable platform, growing organically so as to be free from influence that may be contrary to the interests of its constituents or the brokerage industry as a whole.  And we hope that you join us in the fight to preserve an integral component of the real estate industry… The Brokerage business.


Thomas Bible

Over the past 5 years, RealtyZapp has been helping brokers become more pro-active in their marketing and increase their income by streamlining their process while improving engagement and follow up. 

Feel free to contact RealtyZapp on how to increase deal velocity through a number of free or dirt-cheap methods to help you market smarter.  support@realtyzapp.com


For more information on increasing efficiency and deal velocity, visit our YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcpBCpFngpQLs9tFBwxHmnQ

Or learn, share and network on our community site, TalkRealtyZapp.com: 

https://talk.realtyzapp.com/portal/en/home