Showingly is an app for multiple listing services, brokerages, agents and consumers to use when searching for homes, scheduling showings and integrating listing activity into day-to-day business.
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Showingly is a mobile app for brokerages, agents and consumers for searching and showing listings.
Platforms: iOS, browser
Ideal for: MLS, brokerages, agents and consumers
Top selling points:
- Use in all levels of business
- Simplified feedback mechanism
- Sharp UI/UX
- Consumer-to-agent connectivity
- Seller-facing showing controls
Top concern:
One, getting home search-weary consumers to download another app for home search won’t be easy. And two, the inclusion of a CRM can lead to data and activity tracking redundancy if it isn’t connected directly to an existing in-house system.
What you should know
Showingly is an app for multiple listing services, brokerages, agents and consumers to use when searching for homes, scheduling showings and integrating listing activity into day-to-day business.
Companies seeking to organize and track consumer interest in their listings could realize benefits in using this app, as could MLSs seeking an alternative software in this category to offer members.
This is a very good-looking, comprehensive and useful app. There’s no arguing against its ability to help consumers and agents coordinate on when and how to see a home. All the staples are here, from seller approval tools and MLS data integrations to clear and easy multi-home tour coordination and controls to determine showing availability.
For an app that’s a little over a year old, it’s quite mature in its functionality. Thus, I have no issue with any of Showingly’s capabilities when it comes to what I thought was its core functionality: showing collaboration.
However, I feel this app could be even better by scaling back on its additional features — addition by subtraction, if you will — namely, its companion app for consumer search and the blossoming CRM functionality offered to brokers and agents.
Frankly, it’s too difficult to compete with the big names in home search, namely Zillow and Homesnap.
Regardless of how hard an agent tries, search-obsessed buyers will find homes in every app they can, so be OK with it. Stop trying to control how buyers find listings they want to see. These days, agents need to add value in other ways.
But I digress.
Thankfully, Showingly’s consumer app isn’t required for the solution to become whole, but it does make it easier to communicate with buyers through its in-app messaging tools. It’s also promoted as a more efficient way for consumers to request showings.
Buyers can use Showingly to find an agent or connect with their current representative, and setup was done in under a minute.
If there were listings in my market (Truckee, California, isn’t yet covered by the app), I could map-search what’s available, “favorite” a homes, view details and tap the door icon to schedule and stay on top of showings.
The calendar view page is cool, too, leveraging 15-minute increment showings in a bold, vertical display.
So again, these guys have app design down well, but I fear it still won’t help agents convince buyers to use it. They’re going to text and email links when they want to tour a house.
Agent by Showingly, the industry version, is where the meat of the programming lives. Buyer’s agents will see properties populated according to their MLS feed, or they can enter an address to start scheduling.
On the listing side, users have the ability to schedule “show & go” tours, who approves requests, or whether or not to allow showings for those not in your local MLS, a nice touch for markets with multiple associations.
Request notifications come as texts or emails, and there are lock-box identifiers with detailed instructions for each house. I like the use of scroll bars to easily adjust home availability per day of the week, and each day has an on/off toggle for when your sellers need a break. Simple.
I’m not super psyched on the feedback mechanism; it’s not very specific, eschewing a notes or text narrative for a star rating system indicating degree of satisfaction with Price Accuracy, Location and Interest Level.
I think more nuance is needed, and I think a buyer’s agent’s interpretation of their buyer’s reaction is critical to sales. We all know buyers speak in code. (“I don’t like this house” means “I will eventually make an offer on this house.”)
Nevertheless, this is an easy update, one that I expect to see in later editions of Showingly as result of user feedback.
An onboard CRM is in development, and for now, it consists of a seller listings and showing histories. Notes can be added per record, too.
The problem is that there isn’t any two-way linkage between Showingly and any existing database that a brokerage or agent would be using.
This is pretty critical, given that brokerages invest big money into CRMs and transaction systems, most of which hold property data and listing activity tracking.
Now, Showingly could dump the CRM altogether and remain very effective as a tool for showing property. I see it was an either/or scenario: Stick to all-things scheduling, or find a way to bridge showings with existing in-house enterprise tools as soon as possible.
This goes for all showing tools out there. Data has to connect to be worthwhile to its owners and for brokerages to build coherent tech stacks.
At risk of repeating myself, neither of my big worries here take away from Showingly’s core competency. It’s all there, and the UI/UX are solid.
Maybe Showingly tried to be too much too quickly, a development trend I see a lot of in new products. But because what’s underneath the superfluous functionality is definitely worth recommending, I forgive them for it. I see no reason why Showingly’s early success won’t continue.
Have suggestions for products that you’d like to see reviewed by our real estate technology expert? Email Craig Rowe.
Craig C. Rowe started in commercial real estate at the dawn of the dot-com boom, helping an array of commercial real estate companies fortify their online presence and analyze internal software decisions. He now helps agents with technology decisions and marketing through reviewing software and tech for Inman.
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