Task app KeyPleaz unlocks ways for agents to make more money: Tech Review

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KeyPleaze is showing and project outsourcing app for real estate agents

Platforms: iOS; Android
Ideal for: Brokerages

Top selling points:

• Brokerage-focused
• Agents decide pay rates
• Can be used for multiple tasks
• Agent-created and owned
• Stripe integration

Top concern:

This category of app isn’t new, and each member of it has a worthwhile take on how to deliver the service. However, should significant traction be gained, as is the case with KeyPleaze, it would be very easy for a larger player to replicate it quickly, pushing the smaller players out of the space.

What you should know:

KeyPleaz is a showing and real estate task outsourcing app. Hiring agents plug in a need, and another agent can claim it. Projects are listed in the app as Home Showing, Open House and as a catch-all, Runner, which can be anything from being present at an inspection to collecting signage. There’s also an “Available” module to sort through published needs. Because it’s brokerage driven (a very savvy business play by the creators), tasks are broadcast to all offices and agents under the same brand and location, and assigned on a first-to-claim basis.

It’s really tough to sell software directly to agents. The reasons are many but the prevalent factor is that you have to make a product appeal to millions of people who may have the same job, but conduct it differently. It’s challenging from messaging perspective, and even more so internally, because that’s a lot of accounts for a sales team to handle, among other burdens.

There are fewer brokerages, they have more money to spend and a lot of busy, often deprived agents to support. It also creates optional revenue models, such as per-agent licensing and sign-up fees, set-up charges and user tiers. However, KeyPleaz takes a percentage cut from each task, allowing it to avoid the stigma of upfront charges and extensive charges during onboarding, for example. In summary, this is my way of saying the two women behind this app, at least from what I’ve gathered so far, demonstrate a good deal of wit when it comes to selling software.

The app disseminates tasks to app accounts via alerts on the user’s phone, and in the app itself. Listing agents will enter a property’s location, integrated with Google Maps to allow for easy directions. When asked why there isn’t a local MLS feed, KeyPleaz said that it wouldn’t make it any faster and that few agents ever remember the MLS number when using the app. Makes sense.

Any agent logging on to the app the first time, either as a job creator or taker, needs to verify their license number against the brokerage account the company captures upon setup. Additionally, information about any buyers being met or outside parties is required when setting up a task. These are good steps to take for agent security, but not quite enough. The team told me they hired a group of C-level execs to steer the app’s growth and unearth funding opportunities. My hope is that they use those funds to build an alarm, or time-based alert function to piggyback on the “task completed” function. Or, they include clear instructions for using the onboard safety features of the iPhone and popular Android models.

That aside, payments are processed via Stripe integration, and deciding what to pay for a job is as easy as a slider widget, starting at $20 and ending at $400. The company’s fees are applied to the total to be paid, and KeyPleaz provides all necessary receipts and tax documentation.

KeyPleaz, and its colleagues in the task outsourcing space, rely on the idea that today’s buyers, many of whom are in the finally active Millennial generation, are device-dependent. Fast service and relevant responses are all they seek in any sort of business transaction, from ordering french fries to car buying.

If you need more evidence of consumers’ growing need to be quickly served by attentive professionals and a faster deal, check out a talk given at Inman Connect by 1000Watt CEO Brian Boero. In short, saving money pales in comparison in importance to simplicity. Be easier to work with, and you’ll make more money.

Thus, having to wait two hours before being able to be shown a home doesn’t always compute with younger, cash-on-hand buyers, regardless of market conditions. This is why the company’s founders said their goal is to help agents be in two places at once.

So far, it seems, so good.

I was told the company is onboarding two to three offices per week and has more than 50,000 agents in total with accounts. They also said its users close 10 to 30 percent more deals than non-users. I can’t verify that, but it’s a notable anecdote.

The user interface could use a modern overhaul, but it drives an otherwise solid user experience. Despite the app’s functionality being limited to a single purpose, it’s easy to mess with how users interact with a product. That part is pretty dialed.

I’d like to see this app continues to move in its current direction in terms of its brokerage-level services and more thoroughly address agent safety for showings. I’m confident those issues will be tackled, and look forward to seeing what’s next from KeyPleaz’s founders.

Have a technology product you would like to discuss? 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.