It was December. Realtor Hope Hooper was skiing with her family when she received a call. It was from a client who was asking to see, “the perfect home,” which had just hit the market. Hooper was four hours away — all she needed was an agent to open the door for her client.
If you’ve been in the real estate business very long, chances are that you’ve either needed another agent to step in and show a home for you or you’ve been asked to help. In a recent survey, over 85% of agents said that they have either shown a home for a fellow agent or had one of their clients shown a home by another agent in the past 90 days.
Hooper tried something new.
“I heard about this tool Showami from another agent and decided to give it a try,” Hooper said. She requested help and received notice within minutes that an agent was willing to help. The buyers viewed the property that day and Hooper wrote an offer that was accepted within 24 hours. She kept her vacation, client, and commission.
Showami developed a streamlined way for agents to find help showing properties. “Finding help is as easy as entering the date, time, and location into the app”, says founder and CEO Matt Kuchar. The Showami system alerts agents in the showing area that a new opportunity is available. Showings normally get picked up in less than three minutes.
What’s more, creating an account in Showami is free.
Often described as “Uber for Real Estate,” Showami connects agents with each other when they need help with home showings, open houses or granting access to inspectors or appraisers. It is a pay-per-showing service with an average cost of $49 per home shown. Established in Denver, Colorado in 2015, Showami’s services just crossed the 50,000-user benchmark.
Fueled by the growing trend towards automation, the increasing use of Showing Agents makes perfect sense.
“People are continually trying to make their lives and businesses more efficient by outsourcing tasks that can easily be assigned to someone else,” Kuchar explained.
The real estate industry originally began delegating home showing coordination with sellers in the early 2000’s. It made perfect sense that calling a seller to get permission (and then waiting for a return call) for a showing wasn’t an agent’s best use of time.
What used to be a business model used only by large brokerages like Redfin and other big teams, has now also become a tool for individual agents and smaller offices. Buyers’ agents use on demand showing agents to help leverage their time. They are able to assist more buyers because they don’t have to be the person showing every home — and they can extend their reach. They are able to work smarter and not harder!
“The app was easy to use and I’m so excited about this brilliant new service,” Hooper shared.
Showami also has a solution for brokerages that want an efficient way to alert agents within the brokerage that help is needed to show a property. As a broker, you can help your busier and more experienced agents increase sales and profitability without working more hours. At the same time, you increase the retention of newer agents because they are able to quickly and easily use their licenses to show homes and gain valuable knowledge.
“Showami uses automation to create a win-win situation for agents and buyers, alike.” Kuchar said.
Create a free agent account now or learn more about the brokerage solution.