Have suggestions for products that you’d like to see reviewed by our real estate technology expert? Email Craig Rowe.
I reviewed TotalBrokerage more than a year ago, giving it 4 stars for its broker-developed UX (user experience) and its people-first CRM (client relationship manager).
TotalBrokerage is aptly named, a robust install that can handle just about everything a brokerage needs to function in the age of tech-stacked real estate businesses. It adds some originality because it was conceived from the ground up by a broker and also in its proprietary forms feature.
The company has gained significant traction since our first review, creating an international footprint that reaches from Canada to three countries in South America. And it has managed to keep its pricing intact, which isn’t easy.
New to the latest version are a number of user experience upgrades, including a Google single-sign-on (SSO), text-based document signature requests and, perhaps most impressively, a full system translation into Spanish. (Also no easy feat.)
The importance of making access easy and features efficient to leverage is critical to enterprise systems such as this because of how many actions rely on one another to perform. You never want delays in the middle of the production line.
It’s clear that “mobility” or some synonym of it was scrawled across a whiteboard somewhere in the TotalBrokerage war room because it’s added several text-based tools.
Marketing materials can be mass-distributed across your network and all kinds of activity alerts and current deal milestones can be delivered in a mobile device’s native text functionality.
Brokers and business managers who are fans of QuickBooks will be happy to know they won’t have to give up their favorite accounting tool should they choose TotalBrokerage. The company has updated it to include full integration without the need for third-party linkages. And, the QuickBooks connection works in concert with a feature for monitoring current and future revenue performance.
There’s a new commission customization interface, too, that allows brokers to assemble a wide array of commission structures. Each can be saved as a template and edited per agent as needed, alleviating disbursement headaches or debates about who’s owed what. Brokers can add and track fees within this tool, as well.
Lead generation has been enhanced with a direct Facebook feed into the CRM, and a new action plan module can help agents customize everything that happens after said lead is verified.
Other updates include:
- A library of dashboard widgets to quickly execute actions, teleport into features, and offer windows into data that would otherwise be a few feature screens deep
- A vendor management tool to quickly add them to transactions, measure their impact and communicate
- A signature authenticity update that is compliant with all U.S. federal E-Sign Act and Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) standards
- CRM history tracker that permanently records and timestamps every action by every user
TotalBrokerage is without question a real estate business solution driven by what both brokers and agents need to compete. It’s carefully thought-out and user-oriented.
I admit: I’m worried the company might be heading down a path to release new features based on timeline instead of need. Although it has been a year since I’ve looked at it, it’s done a lot to enhance the product in that time.
New features can often mean less time on support, usability challenges, longer onboarding and more user demands. Remember, service is as important as functionality.
Still, given the overall quality of TotalBrokerage and its founders’ tenure, the benefit of the doubt is its to jeopardize.
Have suggestions for products that you’d like to see reviewed by our real estate technology expert? Email Craig Rowe.
