A recruit told me last week that her brokerage had built her a great platform. I asked her what it was called. She couldn’t tell me. Not the name, not really what it did, just that it was “their system” and it was supposed to be good.
So we pulled up ours and walked through it. It wasn’t close. And here’s the part that stuck with me: She was paying a technology fee for the thing she couldn’t name.
That conversation is not rare anymore. The story is almost always the same. A firm says it built its agents something great, they can’t tell you what it is, it’s clunky when you finally see it, and there’s a line item for it on the statement.
Modern tools are part of the deal
Technology matters more than it ever has, and that is not a pitch for AI as the answer to everything. The best tools now use AI in ways that actually help, saving you time, organizing who to reach out to next, pulling you toward running your whole business in one place. Not every tool delivers on that promise, but the bar has moved, and a lot of agents are working below it without knowing it.
If a firm calls itself full service and says it adds value to its agents, then modern tools are part of that value, not a perk. You expect everything else in your life to be easy, your bank, your shopping, your dinner order, and so do your clients. A firm that digs in and tells its agents those systems aren’t worth having is missing where the business is already going. That is why I’d call it a duty.
You can’t build it cheaper and call it better
Here’s the part firms don’t want said out loud. The best tools out there were built by companies that poured hundreds of millions of dollars into them. A single brokerage cannot match that, and it shouldn’t have to pretend to.
So when a firm tells its agents it built something better in-house, for a fraction of what the real players spent, that isn’t a flex. It’s a lie. You don’t out-build a company that has spent years and a fortune getting one thing right by stitching a few cheaper pieces together and putting your name on it.
You have probably seen what that produces.
- A CRM that doesn’t talk to the transaction system, so you enter the same client twice.
- A dashboard that looks great in the demo and locks up the week you lean on it.
What agents end up with is usually slower and a step behind, while being told it’s the best thing going.
And the reason is almost always money. The best tools cost real money, every month, per agent. Building a cheaper version once is the way around that bill, and the agent is the one stuck with the lesser product.
This October, Inman turns its focus to AI and its rapid rise in real estate. During Artificial Intelligence Month, we’re digging into the startups shaking things up and the established players folding AI into their offerings.
This gets worse when the market slows. Technology becomes the easy line to cut, right when you need every edge you can get. That’s when “we built our own” starts doing a lot of heavy lifting, sometimes with a fee attached.
How to find out what’s actually out there
This part lands on you, not on them. Whether a recruiter is pitching you or you just want to know if your own tools are keeping up, you don’t have to take anyone’s word for it. Here are five ways to find out for yourself.
1. Find out what it’s called
Whether it’s your firm’s system or one a recruiter is pitching, if nobody can name the tools, that’s your answer. Real systems have names you can look up, compare and read reviews on. “Our proprietary platform” is not a name.
2. See it do real work, not a slide
Ask for a live login, and watch a basic task actually happen, not a screenshot in a deck. Count the steps. If it’s clunky in the demo, it’s worse on a Friday afternoon with a deal on the line.
3. Read the Facebook groups and the reviews
The real estate groups are full of agents comparing tools, the praise and the complaints both. Search a tool by name, read the threads, and check the reviews on the platform itself. The pile-ons tell you what you’d actually be signing up for.
4. Ask your friends at other firms
You know agents all over town at other brokerages. Call a few, and ask what they run their business on, what they love, and what drives them crazy. People are honest with a friend in a way they never are in a demo.
5. Follow the money
Is there a technology fee, and what exactly do you get for it? A firm spending real money on the best tools looks different from one that built a cheaper version and gave it a nicer name. Figure out which one you’re dealing with.
The good news is the tools have never been better. There is real technology that will give you back hours and make you sharper with your database. So expect it, and ask for it by name. If a firm is serious about you, the systems should prove it.
Kyle Crawford is VP of Strategy for Century 21 New Millennium. Get connected on LinkedIn and Instagram.
