One Size Does Not Fit All: A Real Estate Story

How a Tailored Fix Brought MLS Data into Salesforce

The descriptor “tailor-made” inspires a vision of excellence. Custom-created clothes are far more durable – and expensive – compared to anything purchased off the rack. A personalized cake is likely to wow with over-the-top decoration. A sailboat made to order is sure to epitomize speed, comfort and elegance.

Not a lot of things are made to order nowadays. Thankfully, Salesforce is designed to be endlessly customizable. This opens the door to many tailored software solutions.

One such tailored solution pertains to the real estate industry. Synching MLS data into Salesforce saves agents time and effort. Keep reading to learn why this works so well.

A Made-to-Order Solution

Agents at real estate investment firms routinely research properties, then copy and paste relevant information from the MLS into a document or Excel spreadsheet. Keeping track of property data this way is tedious and error prone.

A custom Salesforce synching capability changes everything. Armed with this tool, all agents need to get started is an MLS ID from a site such as Zillow or a property address. Then, Salesforce will populate all the relevant property information, from the exact address to the number of bedrooms, listing agent and more. All the data is available in one place.

Beyond just synching data, the lead record is refreshed several times daily. This function catches whether a listing price changes over time or if a status changes from “active” to “under contract” to “sold,” so the firm gets nearly real-time updates.

Strategizing with this data at your fingertips is as simple as storing wine in a custom cooler.

Fits Like a Glove

Creating a tailored solution might seem like a hassle, but the benefits are hard to ignore.

First, agents save time that would otherwise be taken up copying and pasting. The automated data transfer also minimizes errors.

Salesforce reports are another useful perk; investment firms can survey and segment aggregated property data to gain a deeper understanding of the market. Merely pasting data into an Excel spreadsheet wouldn’t allow for this type of powerful analysis.
Lastly, real estate contracts won’t tolerate mistakes. Salesforce can integrate with document generation and e-signature tools such as DocuSign to automatically populate contracts, reducing the time required of agents and improving accuracy. Then, signatures can all be stored in a centralized database. No wonder this solution is crafted to the specifications of industry pros!

Custom Complications

Nothing is perfectly hassle-free. Tailored clothes bestow a flattering fit, but they require several trips to an alterations expert.

In the same way, complications can arise with this custom software solution. Most notably, unless your real estate investment firm has a savvy in-house development team, you must find that one partner that fits you like a glove.

As your team learns more about this integration, they’ll likely want additional enhancements to maximize the scope and efficiency of the solution. You’ll have to keep going back for extra alterations, which of course translates to an increased cost.

Finding the Right Craftsman

A custom solution must be crafted by a one-of-a-kind partner. Here are some points to consider:

Your partner’s experience becomes an asset at your disposal. The project lifecycle can be drastically reduced if the team you select has a strong background in the real estate market.  

Consider selecting a partner with expertise in document generation and e-signature programs such as DocuSign. This expertise will surely come in handy to a business that sends out multiple contracts daily.

A partner with specific industry experience understands best practices and has a well-developed sense for real estate scenarios. In addition to crafting a custom software fix, this team can think ahead to other needs you may have and ask questions designed to unearth those gaps.

Dare to Get Creative

Salesforce is a very robust system, but that doesn’t mean everything you need comes out-of-the-box. Instead of accepting those limitations, look at ways you can design your own solutions, tailored for your specific business practices.
Working in real estate, you need a partner who is both ingenious and familiar with the intricacies of this industry’s sales cycle. Here at Accelerize360, we pride ourselves on fitting that description to a tee. We’re constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in Salesforce and we’d be happy to do the same for you.