Loft47 Technologies’ broker product gives tech-forward number crunchers a sharp, simple way to run their real estate business and integrate with popular third-party data providers.
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Loft47 is web application for managing back-office brokerage business.
Platforms: Browser; mobile-responsive
Ideal for: Brokers in independent and mid-size offices (50-200 agents); those looking to transition from manual systems or enterprise solutions.
Top selling points
- Streamlined user experience; no feature-bloat
- Designed for hands-on broker
- Integrations with popular transaction/accounting systems
- Simple pricing models
Top concerns
Brokers looking for end-to-end back-office automation that comes with a CRM, staffing features, etc., might want to look elsewhere. This is for the business-minded broker.
What you should know
Loft47 Technologies’s broker solution CRO and Partner Tracy Simmons calls her a product a competitor with Brokermint, Lone Wolf and Emphasys.
I lightly disagree.
Her software exists for another type of customer. Aimed at fingers-in-the-mud brokers who love to get dirty with numbers, Loft47 does a superb job of laundering the proverbial feature fluff, leaving a clean, unblemished solution for tightly run, high-performing shops. It deftly handles complex transaction structures.
It even eschews its own accounting modules and chooses instead to tightly hold hands with Xero, a sharp cloud accounting tool that competes with Quickbooks, but it comes with the advantage of accepting 700-plus bank and credit card feeds to reduce bank reconciliation time by 75 percent. Payouts are handled via Routable.
The deals page is a two-column dashboard layout that defines transactions by property address, clearly listing price, agent names, dates, seller names, buyer names and color-coded status tags that show dollar amounts to payout, deposit, etc. It’s all right there.
Agents are provided accounts for permission-based views of performance history, projected commissions, marketing spends, expense reports and can set up bank connections. They’re also given automatic income-statements and self-fill 1099s. Agent logins come with every account under the same tax ID.
Relative to data, Simmons knows the importance of limiting manual input and that moving data is always better than entering. Loft47 then works with transaction managers dotloop, Skyslope and DocuSign Transaction Rooms to ensure consistency from contract to close.
Brokers are given clean looks at trust ledgers, can chat with agents within the system per deal and are able to produce rich reports for each officer, agent and team.
Migrating back-office systems is about as entertaining as a botched colonoscopy. Loft47 knows that the onboarding process should factor into a broker’s due diligence, so it manages most of it for you.
“It depends on where they’re coming from, of course,” Simmons said in our demo. “We’ll provide them with a list of needs, ask commission structures and accounting practices … we’re very hands-on.”
The company advertises a regular cycle of four different webinars to get up to speed on its features and using Xero.
This is tight software meant to help you run a brokerage and help your agents understand how they’re doing.
I envision brokers who have one-on-ones with their agents and like to point at screens with pens getting a lot out of Loft47.
Summarized, this product is designed to support a real estate business, not run it for you.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe
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