Top Lessons about Real Estate Professionals

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Many startups have taken on the old guard--multi-stakeholder, status-quo-loving, billion-dollar industries like education, healthcare, housing and financial services. However, when designing a new product for a complex system, you don't always start with the wisdom of a seasoned expert (nor should you). It takes time, patience, and a lot of missteps to truly understand what works--and what doesn't--for your audience. After years of working with real estate professionals, here are my 10 tips for designing products with agents in mind.




1. AGENTS ARE THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE



Despite a variety of perceptions about real estate agents, they still have the buyer's attention and serve as the sun to which all parties revolve around. The best ones reposition themselves as valued expert consultants rather than transaction managers. Even as a central figure in the homebuying scenario, an agent's true needs are still largely underserved by the market (despite the hundreds of products that exist today). The best products are ones that evolve the agent's role, take a look at their real needs, and design with them in mind, rather than leave them behind.



2. SET THE STAGE FOR SUCCESS



There is a performance paradox that continues to frustrate agents as many find themselves in difficult-to-win situations. When transactions go smoothly, an agent's value is easily overlooked. When things go wrong, they are the first to be blamed, despite significant investments of their time and effort. Transparency around responsibilities and roles is becoming increasingly more important. Agents are often holding the real estate process together with popsicle sticks, and do not get the credit they deserve because they sit within a disjointed and troubled system. Products that set agents up to succeed from the start and clarify roles and responsibilities throughout the process are the ones that will win hearts and minds.



3. INCUBATE EDUCATED, LOYAL, AND READY BUYERS



It's difficult to know when buyers are ready, willing, and able to purchase a home.That is why it's important to design a way for agents to be "kept in the loop" until the moment people are ready to buy. Any tool that provides an inherent "qualification" mechanism will allow agents to educate buyers through the process and monitor their progression at completing key tasks.



4. DESIGNING FOR REPETITION IS KEY



Real estate professionals often find themselves providing the same information over and over. Educating a buyer on every single item can be time consuming. Making it simple for agents to provide information in context and in the moment is important. Real estate agents love the idea of a central place that not only highlights the expert insights they've learned over the years, but also saves the tools they use on a daily basis.



5. SHOWCASE A BETTER WAY



Agents are extremely pragmatic and focused. They understand the broader vision of your tools, but ultimately, they want to be more organized, disciplined, and streamlined in their interactions with buyers. Any tool that can reduce this administrative load and any logistical headaches for them is warmly received. Show them a better way to work.



6. APPEAL TO SIMPLICITY



A tool that lives outside the proprietary brokerage CRM is often seen as a good thing. Agents are generally not brokerage-loyal, and the average one changes brokerages several times in his or her career. A product that doesn't require agents to learn another (often archaic) CRM tool or leave behind client information is extremely appealing.



7. STAND OUT WITH GREAT DESIGN



Agents feel the pressure to adopt new technologies, but struggle to both learn them and incorporate them appropriately into their business. An intuitive online product that gives them a tech-savvy halo in a more user-friendly and progressive way, rather than merely jumping on the Twitter bandwagon is a big win.



8. BE A TEAM PLAYER



Agents are increasingly working in teams - design for this. A system that allows an agent (and a loan officer, not necessarily and agent and another agent) to service the same client from anywhere -- always with a clear understanding of the last communication and the current task at hand -- is seen as a difficult-to-duplicate benefit. This is becoming more of a reality for investment buyers.



9. STAY ON POINT



Homebuying deserves great design, especially if you believe it ought to be a great experience. At its heart, homebuying wants to be celebratory, but somehow the tools that exist are clumsy, unwieldy, and often unwelcoming experiences. Take these three words and paint them on the walls of your office: clarify, reassure, and delight. Then, question any of your touchpoints that do not achieve that goal.



10. DESIGN WITH OTHERS IN MIND



Kathy Sierra, an incredibly inspiring, well-known writer and programmer in the software development community stresses an important but subtle shift in design. Instead of asking "How can I get my app to be badass?", ask "How can your app make your users more badass at what they do?" At the end of the day, real estate professionals do not care about your product -- they care about what your product enables them to do. Agents will be more badass at selling houses if buyers are more badass at buying them. So, stop focusing your energy on how great you are, but instead look at how great you can make them.



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