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Agent Inbox is an enterprise messaging platform for MLSs (member brokers and their agents).
Platforms: Browser-based; iOS, Android apps
Ideal For: Any size MLS wanting to offer members advanced communication tools
Top selling points
- Complete transaction communication
- Detailed team collaboration
- Auditable, archived conversations
- Internal team, brokerage communication
Top concerns
- Cynical agent members, lack of adoption slowing growth
Rating: 4/5
1 = Not ready to improve business
2 = Functional; Lacking features to better business
3 = Good; Features will appeal to some
4 = Excellent; Wide appeal, minor concerns
5 = Superior; Best of breed features
What you should know
Real estate agents don’t have a problem talking with one another; they’re just not doing it in the same venue.
Agent Inbox wants to fix the industry’s glaring lack of communication standards and unaccountable conversations between players.
By adding a dense but intuitive layer of messaging tools to any MLS, Agent Inbox offers agents a single place to chat, discuss, schedule and negotiate.
MLS member agents can register to use the platform, find a colleague across town via its “People” search and kickstart a deal.
Agents who haven’t registered can still communicate, but things will flow more smoothly if everyone signs up. If your MLS has an account, which 20 around the country already do, getting onboard is simple.
Search, track, attach, converse
By eliminating disjointed workflows that stem from a menagerie of voicemails, emails and texts, Agent Inbox can make an entire market more productive.
Inside Agent Inbox, every registered member has a viewable profile and access to the chat mechanisms. It’s easy to communicate interest in a member’s listing.
Every conversation is tracked and searchable, and team members can hold private conversations within discussions between opposing party representatives.
Users can send attachments, schedule showings, take notes and and create drive-time routes for those busy multiple-tour days.
Agent Inbox has its own lightweight search functionality, but most agents will launch it from an MLS’s native interface.
Collecting every discussion about a transaction in a single place offers tremendous value. It’s more secure, at the very least, and also keeps everything in context.
The interface is all about messaging. The same goes for its mobile versions, which directly reflect the functionality of its desktop platform. Individual brokerages can use Agent Inbox for internal means, as well, like they would collaborate on Slack.
Future partnerships?
Developers are looking to expand Agent Inbox’s reach to include regional service partnerships with closing gift providers, inspectors and general home services vendors.
I hope it doesn’t veer too far off course. I’d like to see it stay an agent-to-agent communication venue, not a transaction oversight or business management tool. (Stay in your lane — because you can win the race.)
I really believe the industry should develop official best practices for transaction communications. Allowing buyer and seller information to infiltrate different digital platforms with a dizzying array of security protocols and user access is just too risky.
After all, isn’t it about the consumer’s best interests?
Solutions like Agent Inbox could well be the start of such a movement. The company estimates more than 100,000 licensees are already onboard.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe.
