Technology is infiltrating, disrupting, and reinventing just about every aspect of our lives. The real estate industry has been categorically reinvented by technology, but there has never been a platform or technology that encompasses the needs of all facets of the industry.
A couple of months back I covered the merger of Inside Real Estate and Kunversion documenting their vision of a technological powerhouse for the real estate industry. This article here is a follow up; a “progress report” of sorts.
Since we last checked in, a lot more players have emerged. A race to build the first all-in-one real estate technology has begun, and there are a lot of solid competitors vying for the gold. Boomtown, CINC, Brevity, Placester and many others have all tossed their hats (and their wallets) in the ring. From the outside looking in, it may be tough to choose who to put your money on. Let’s take a deeper look and see if we can make the decision easier.
Built for David and Goliath
I’ll admit the folks at Inside Real Estate and Kunversion have had my vote for some time now, but I’ll do my best to be as unbiased as possible. Soon you’ll get to judge for yourself firsthand when they release their beta version of their newest product, the KV Core Platform, scheduled to debut mid July.
Ned Stringham, CEO & Chairman of Inside Real Estate and Kunversion talked with me on how this platform disrupts the current industry offerings, and why it will revolutionize the way technology and real estate communicate:
“One of the most powerful features of this next generation platform is the ability, within a single system, to manage agents, multiple teams, offices and regions. Most systems have been built for individual agents and teams. That causes real problems when you try to scale to multiple teams. You have to buy a new system or multiple systems to integrate. This is the gaping hole we filled and built upon with Kunversion.”
The architecture of this platform has all the features agents need, but also the more sophisticated infrastructure brokers rely on. The multi-team, multi-office scalability is revolutionary and is just as functional for a five man team as it is for a massive 5000 agent brokerage.
What “Your Business, on Autopilot” actually looks like
Communicating with leads in exactly the way the prefer, and taking the right action at precisely the right time is essential in real estate. Until recently however, this task has been strictly manual, and quite stressful. Now, with Kunversion’s built in behavioral automation, the Smart CRM learns about leads, predicts their next action/inaction, and initiates next steps. This intelligent automation tracks customers, engages, and responds without the agent having to lift a finger.
I asked Ned what feature he was most excited; which one he thought would make the biggest impact:
“For individual agents and small teams, definitely the autopilot automation layer. This feature allows agents to spend more time where they really shine, face-to-face with clients. That’s where the magic is for agents, engaging with people and getting away from the time consuming process of administrative duties. The more we can automate the process, the more intelligent and intuitive the technology will be.”
This intelligence threads all the way through the sales and transactions process into your business analytics. Insights on performance, ROI, and marketing sources are automatically pulled and displayed for easy consumption and quick implementation.
“For brokers, the business analytics and metrics are going to be the most beneficial. Now brokers can track, manage and project ROI and marketing efforts based on the detailed business analytics within the system. In a glance, you can see where leads are coming from, how far along in the process they get, when and why they drop off and how to improve for the future.”
A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats
This mad-dash to the “single platform solution” is raising the standards for real estate technology in general. Regardless of the actual winner, the industry as a whole is already being benefitted. Soon it will be impossible for agents and brokers to justify using a series of point solutions, no matter how good each tool is independently.
Again, there are a handful of noteworthy companies developing their version of an all-in-one-platform. It will interesting to gauge reactions upon KV Core’s beta release in July. We may see many competitors head back to the drawing board. But that’s ok, this is just beginning. What we’re witnessing is the real estate industry coming of age and finally developing technology on par with other industries.
And when this happens, we all win.
Ned and his team will be at two of the biggest real estate events of the year; Inman and NAR. This article referenced only a handful of components (expansion enabled architecture, autopilot features, business analytics), but the new KV Core Platform also offers unrivaled lead-gen, web/idx, and an ecosystem of add-on tools and vetted services within their platform marketplace. Find their booth at these upcoming events and check out the technology first hand to really see everything it contains. The platform is currently being tested by select users, but the full beta version of KV Core will be released to the public at the middle of July 2017.