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An agent had an appointment to show a new state-of-the-art property, complete with all the modern perks of a smart home.
With a property this sleek, she thought, the property would practically sell itself.
But one feature the agent couldn’t wait to show off — a smart, internet-connected refrigerator that displays its contents from the outside and sounds an alert if something runs low — wasn’t working. Cue the panic!
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“The Realtor is frantic,” recalled Robert Calderon, director of Florida Realtors’ Tech Helpline, a tech support service covering more than 730,000 Realtors across dozens of associations in the U.S. and Canada. “The house has got electricity, the house has got water — [but] the house doesn’t have internet. So she’s trying to connect this refrigerator so that she can show it to people.”
“Not a big deal,” Calderon added. “We’re talking about a huge house, very expensive listing — but she’s stuck at the refrigerator!”
With technology, it can be impossible to predict what will go wrong, or when — especially for the technophobes among us. But since 2005, when the Tech Helpline launched as a service provided by Florida Realtors, real estate’s premier troubleshooters have coached thousands of agents through bugs big and small.
This month, the Tech Helpline is expanding to six new Realtor organizations representing more than 28,000 members. Inman touched base with members of the support service ahead of the push to learn more about the top tech troubles causing headaches for agents across markets where it operates.
The expansion will bring Tech Helpline to Connecticut Realtors; Pikes Peak Association of Realtors and Fort Collins Board of Realtors in Colorado; Anne Arundel County Association of Realtors in Maryland; Shasta Association of Realtors in California; and Westmoreland West Association of Realtors in Pennsylvania.
Members will now have free and unlimited access to Tech Helpline’s English- and Spanish-speaking analysts as a benefit of their Realtor association membership. Tech Helpline is available by phone, email or mobile app. The app is available for iPhones and iPads in the Apple App Store and for Android devices via Google Play.
“These Realtor organizations recognize that technology is at the center of an agent’s business today, and access to expert tech support has become one of the most valued benefits they can provide,” Florida Realtors CEO Margy Grant said in a statement. “As new technologies — from AI tools to digital transaction platforms — continue to shape our industry, Tech Helpline is here to help agents confidently navigate those changes.”
Below, take a look at the top technology issues Realtors have been stymied by across the markets Tech Helpline serves. And, for the record, the agent with the refrigerator problem was able to speak with a technician, who walked her through the steps to connect the appliance to her phone’s hot spot.
The crisis, at last, was averted.
Hardware issues dominate
By far, the majority of inquiries Tech Helpline workers receive involve hardware issues, the service line told Inman, with about 22 percent of all general tech questions devoted to the topic.
The reason is because hardware can take a beating over the course of its lifespan, particularly at a busy real estate office, Calderon said. Agents often tote laptops or tablets to and from listings across the city and could be printing hundreds of pages of contracts in a day. That takes a toll on equipment over time.
“If your hardware is with you all the time, that hardware is going to be subjected to being placed in a hot environment, being bumped against things, put on a counter, opened and closed 50, 60, 70 times per day,” Calderon said. “So that type of hardware takes a lot of abuse.”
He added that tablets generally last longer for agents because they’re less complex, and therefore, have fewer parts that can break. They also typically have more rugged, protective cases that can help them last longer.
And even though there are more paperless options all the time when completing a transaction, lots of agents and their clients still prefer to have paper copies of some contracts, Calderon said, which is why 48 percent of all hardware inquiries that come into Tech Helpline deal with printer issues.
Data courtesy of Florida Realtors and Tech Helpline
After questions revolving around hardware, the most frequent questions Tech Helpline receives are about email, at about 16 percent of all general tech questions. Just over 50 percent of those email questions are about Microsoft Outlook, Tech Helpline said, and the remainder are regarding a variety of different email providers.
The most frequent email-related questions are about how to add an email account, trouble shooting sending and receiving emails, and how to back up email data, Tech Helpline said.
About 13 percent of inquiries the support service line receives are regarding more general advice, which often involves purchasing advice for specific types of products. These types of questions also might include going over expected usage of a product and a Realtor’s budget.
Roughly 8 percent of questions Tech Helpline receives are regarding different software and applications, about 47 percent of which are related to desktop apps. There’s a lot of “how-to” guidance involved in these types of questions, Calderon said, from how to install programs on computers to how to use the program.
Rounding out the top categories of general tech questions are browser issues (6 percent) and photos and videos questions (5 percent), Tech Helpline said. Many browser issues are about how to set up browsers so that they allow MLSs to work properly, the service line said. Browser add-ons and passwords saved in browsers are also common questions in this category.
When it comes to photos and videos, about 70 percent of those questions involve issues with uploading photos and videos, according to the service line. Questions regarding camera settings and sizing and editing so that photos show up nicely on the MLS are also quite common.
The roughly remaining 30 percent of Tech Helpline’s general questions received cover a variety of miscellaneous topics, the service provider said. But at the end of the day, it’s all about eliminating obstacles for Realtors so they can get back to helping clients buy and sell homes.
“First and foremost, the most important thing that we do is customer service,” Calderon said. “We’re not in a hurry. We want to make sure that the Realtor can get whatever issues blocking them from doing their job fixed and get them back to doing the business that they do. And that’s at the forefront of everything that we do.”
