CRE Tech Hits the Tipping Point

It’s been a generation coming, and in the past five years we’ve seen the pace accelerate.  Now, it’s crystal clear: for commercial real estate technology, including automation across a variety of applications, we’re past the tipping point.  The era of adoption is upon us.  The effects are acutely apparent, though the industry continues to grapple with vexing but surmountable challenges including a lack of consistent data standards.

In our business — productivity software for commercial real estate brokers — we’ve seen the signs everywhere.  In 2017, according to a Buildout survey, 48% of brokers had adopted customer relationship management (CRM) software.  By the end of last year, according to the same source, 64% of commercial brokers were using some form of CRM.  No longer is the application a nice-to-have; it’s become a must-have.

Adoption of CRM and deal management software is highest among the real estate industry’s top producers.  According to the same Buildout survey, 71% of brokers with gross annual commission income of more than $100,000 were using a CRM at the end of 2018.  A surprise/?  Not really.  Top producers in general tend to be tech forward, and now others are following suit.  (The Buildout survey indicates that virtually all brokers not using a CRM intend to adopt one.)

Email marketing also hit a new high last year, with 77% of brokers surveyed saying they use software on a regular basis to help market sale and lease properties.  As with CRMs, the percentage of brokers who use email marketing is higher among earners with gross commissions in excess of $100,000.

More proof we’re past the tipping point of CRE technology appreciation and adoption: 51% of respondents in a recent CREtech-SIOR survey say the investments they’ve made in technology have impacted them “a great deal.”

What explains the impact?  Perhaps it’s the #1 lesson I’ve learned since founding Apto in 2012: It’s not about the technology.  Rather, it’s about enabling the people who use the technology to perform even better.  I can’t overemphasize that point.  I’m reminded when customers tell me: “Thank you for building purpose-driven software.”  There is no higher compliment.

Other lessons we’ve learned on the road to building Apto:

• Make technology easy to adopt and implement, and people will.
• Make technology conform to real-world workflows, so learning by users becomes virtually intuitive and the benefits of efficiency and speed are apparent right away.
• Make technology customizable — if only in small ways that are important to individual users. (One example: With process tracking software, make it so the steps and tasks can be rearranged by an individual user.)
• Make technology integrate with other applications that people use. (Apto software, for example, integrates with real estate specific applications including Real Capital Markets and Buildout and also more widely used applications like Mailchimp and Outlook.)
• Make technology dynamic so its form and functionality evolve to fit users as they evolve.
• Make technology shareable so teams can use it with ease in order to know what the others know and eliminate duplicative, redundant tasks.
• Listen to your customers: you’ll learn from them what you need to know to help them do their jobs better.
• And finally, as with any company, hire great talent who are responsive, think differently and are able to scale the business. Our new CEO, a software industry veteran, is a perfect example.  She makes our company, and our customers, better every day.

Yes, CRE tech is past the tipping point. It’s about time!

Tanner McGraw is the founder of Apto, which provides commercial real estate software for managing contacts, properties, listings and deals. Before Apto, McGraw served as vice president of Healthcare Advisory Services at Transwestern and as a senior associate at Marcus & Millichap. The views expressed here are the author’s own and not those of ALM’s real estate media group.