Great leaders share many traits, one of them being an openness and enthusiasm for new technology. They adopt new technologies that help them grow and optimize their operations.
For example, Ransom E. Olds (of Oldsmobile fame) invented the assembly line, an innovation that helped quintuple his factory’s output, from 425 cars in 1901 to 2,500 in 1902. Henry Ford soon came after and improved upon the design, slashing final assembly time from over twelve hours to less than three hours with a model that could scale exponentially.
Not only did this innovation benefit the Ford Motor Company, but set the stage for hundreds of new manufacturers to enter the space.
Honda, Chrysler, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, BMW all use some variation of Ford’s method to this day. But variation is the key word here. Each has continued to iterate and optimize upon Ford’s assembly line, just as Ford himself built upon the original Oldsmobile model.
These growth stories illustrate technology’s power to drive production and efficiency, which in turn spurs more technological innovation. It’s a positive feedback loop.
We are beginning to see the same thing happen in the real estate industry.
As the technology space matures, brokers, teams and agents are beginning to adopt new tools that facilitate rapid growth. For example, various breakthroughs in lead-gen and other tech played a big part in the number of real estate teams blossoming from 10,000 to over 40,000 in just the last few years.
It’s clear technology provides the real estate industry with an enormous potential for growth.
Unfortunately, most current real estate technology still operate as first-iteration systems — stuck in Olds’ assembly line — with short-sighted goals. Many solutions that support small teams abound, but bog down when users’ businesses grow.
Overall, real estate suffers from a lack of solutions that can scale as real estate brokerages and teams do.
However, some companies offer flexible, effective systems that accommodate growth, and even support and facilitate the jump from small real estate team to big brokerage. They’ve taken the best components of first-generation technology, optimized them, and built a system that efficiently fits any size team or brokerage.
As you look to take advantage of the real estate technology revolution, make sure the system you purchase offers modern, flexible and powerful agent- and team-centric tools in an enterprise-ready platform that’s flexible, scalable and constantly improving.
The technology that soothes your current pain may turn out to be a barrier a year from now. Keep abreast of trends and keep your eyes open for what’s next. Jump on the technology that’s built for the future. It sure worked well for Henry Ford.
Inside Real Estate and Kunversion have come together to bring a smart, flexible enterprise-level CRM solution with a team- and broker-focused lead-gen and marketing platform to give real estate brokers, teams and agents a cutting-edge system they can use to grow their businesses. Find out how to grow your business with the integrated Inside Real Estate platform here.