Real estate professionals often work long hours managing properties, negotiating deals, and handling paperwork. At first glance, it may seem like a career focused on property. However, it’s relationship-building with people that ultimately leads to success. Whether you’re an agent, broker, investor, or lender, you’re likely spending time fielding client questions and communicating with buyers, sellers, and other professionals so deals can come together.
In today’s video, ProcessDriven CEO and process management expert Layla Pomper shares some process and project management tips to help real estate professionals effectively and efficiently manage the details of successful real estate deals. By analyzing your workflow and putting systems in place for task management, you’ll have more time to network and tend to clients without skipping a beat in your daily operations.
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How to Achieve Better Real Estate Workflow with Process Mapping
Step 1: Define the Process (timestamp 01:30).
If you’re a regular visitor to the ProcessDriven YouTube channel, you already know step one, defining the process. Before we can build an efficient workflow, we need to have a starting and stopping point.
- When does a potential client become your client? Although this varies depending on your role, it could be upon a verbal agreement or when they sign a contract. Or maybe when they’ve completed an intake form or submitted a payment. Define the action that solidifies your relationship.
- When does the relationship end? This could be at financing, after close, at a 30-day check-in, or a transfer of ownership. Whatever event must take place to conclude your business is the end goal.
Once you have a beginning and end, map the steps to get from one to the other. So, if the relationship begins with a meeting, you might send a recap email with the next steps to the client, then create an MLS listing. Outline each action that moves your client toward the end of the process.
Pro Tip: Communicating with your clients about the next steps in a process is an excellent way to relieve anxiety, build trust, and cut down on excessive email and text questions. Don’t leave your customers wondering what happens next.
If you’re in real estate, you probably spend a lot of time repeating yourself for each new client. One way to reduce extensive typing and retyping is to use a productivity tool like our sponsor TextExpander. With TextExpander, you can easily standardize your client communications by creating content and inserting it anywhere you need it.
Are you answering the same questions about finance over and over? Simply type the answer once, save it to TextExpander, and then insert it with a simple shortcut into any document or email. This brings us to Step Two!
Step 2. Reuse your work (timestamp 06:15).
TextExpander is excellent for inserting frequently used content into emails, documents, and even Notepad. However, if your clients always have the same questions or concerns, a reusable resource can be a huge time saver.
These resources can take whatever form makes the most sense for your business. Some ideas include:
- Auto-generated emails
- Website FAQs
- How-to guides
- Digital or printable checklists
Creating a resource library adds value for all your clients and will save you from responding one on one to every question. Even better, you can often reuse and recycle these resources into new marketing content like onboarding and nurturing emails or social media and blog posts. In addition to helping your customers and saving time, they can provide significant SEO value for organic growth.
Step 3: Process your mistakes (timestamp 09:40).
A process map is a living document. Over time, new experiences, data, and technology create opportunities to evolve your system. If you make a mistake or something goes wrong, update your process to circumvent these issues in the future.
For example, maybe a deal fell apart because the lender dropped the ball and missed deadlines, or there were legal disputes or title problems. Identify proactive steps you can take to avoid or correct these potential roadblocks before they derail your next sale.
Ultimately, clients don’t care who is responsible when something goes wrong. Complications can reflect poorly on you and your business, even when they aren’t your fault. If including a step like “verify title availability” can prevent disaster, add it!
Once you solidify your process from start to finish, you can critically evaluate what areas need your attention and which tasks can be outsourced or automated.
Real estate professionals often place a high value on maintaining strong relationships with their clients to generate referrals. Systemizing your workflow can increase your reputation and credibility and lead to happy clients who are more likely to recommend you.
TL;DR: Streamlining your real estate process can increase sales so you can enjoy more substantial commissions.
Do you need help systematizing or documenting your business processes? Unsure where to start with workplace automation? Join the ProcessDriven Membership for all the tools, guidance, and support you need to develop a streamlined and efficient real estate workflow and take your business to the next level.
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ProcessDriven helps small teams turn chaos into process. The ProcessDriven Approach™ combines software expertise with practical process-first strategies that have helped 2,020+ teams build a scalable foundation of business systems.
