Showami is software that facilitates the broadcast, acceptance and payment of showing needs between licensed agents, offering teams and brokerages a quick way to create a showing delegation system.
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Showami is an app for outsourcing home showings to other qualified agents.
Platforms: Browser; mobile app on iOS, Android
Ideal for: Brokerages, teams, agents and property managers
Top selling points:
- National coverage
- Good tool for new agents
- Flexible brokerage/team options
- In-app video/photo content
- Property management dashboard
Top concern:
Showami is the latest in a series of recent apps that helps agents assign showings to other agents. While it does have a brokerage focus, it’s facing some adoption headwinds. I feel confident it can maintain its direction in the face of them, however.
This review was updated April 25, 2023.
What you should know
Showami is software that facilitates the broadcast, acceptance and payment of showing needs between licensed agents, offering teams and brokerages a quick way to create a showing delegation system. It can be used in a browser and on both major mobile operating systems. It can do more, however, offering a dependable solution for property managers and agents who work with single family investors as well as institutional buyers seeking to add to their portfolios. It offers a Platinum level account for small cash-back incentives and faster payouts.
There’s nothing overly groundbreaking here, but it is really good purpose-driven software with some nice new touches added since its initial launch. The company has made smart moves into property management, choosing not to rely solely on residential showings. It’s also working with investors, independent and institutional.
Business processes should be under constant scrutiny for improvement, which typically means finding ways to make them more manageable. That’s where software comes in. Showami gives agents a central source for posting and responding to showing needs, a common industry practice. That alone makes it an app worth considering.
Although many brokerages may have a standard practice in place for handling the outsourcing of showings, it’s typically manual and unstructured. Maybe there’s a bulletin board of some sort or available agent dashboard, which is something Showami offers its administrators.
Showami has built in a training agenda for users, one that runs through a series of short videos and actually adds some Q&A to ensure the user is up to speed. This is a good way for brokers or team heads to ensure their investment is getting adopted.
But on the training/coaching front, Showami has integrated a series of longer-form coaching channels from noted speakers and successful agents. I said to the team that a showing app is an odd place to run into such an offering, but it can only help, and suggests to me that the app has longer term plans than being relegated to a productivity app.
Agent use of the app be tracked, from who’s assigning to who’s accepting. If an agent is around to accept or facilitate a showing, admins (team leads, brokers, etc.) can “impersonate” that agent and step in for them. This is nice touch in an app, that again, is all about keeping business moving.
I’d like to see Showami add integrations with CRMs or business management solutions that also monitor showing volume, especially as they relate to market activity and keeping sellers in the loop on how their home is performing.
Thus, could this app disintermediate how showings are tracked? Maybe. That’s something users will need to reconcile.
Setting up an account comes down to inputting name, license and brokerage information. Agents can identify as a buyer rep, listing agent or both, and the app is bifurcated accordingly.
Agents needing to get a showing down can broadcast the need to trigger a 20-minute response window. If it’s not accepted, it’s delayed for 3 minutes and sent again.
Brokers can have an open or closed portal, meaning requests can be limited to only those in their brokerage, while an open portal gives in-house agents 10 minutes to respond before being sent to Showami users outside the brokerage.
There are fields for entering lockbox details, the buyers’ information and an important field that asks if the agent knows the buyer. This can’t be taken seriously enough, as security threats are a real thing.
My initial concerns about safety have been somewhat alleviated with Showami’s most recent update, as users are offered a significant discount to sign up with Protect, a mobile, emergency notification app for those often working alone and in odd hours.
There are public and private notes fields that can help the assigning party further detail what the buyer is looking for, their budget, etc., which I imagine a CRM could share, too.
Those looking to show a home can propose a new time, confirm or cancel, and have accepted showings get automatic placement on their calendars. The push notification system keeps everyone up to date on what’s happening.
Overall, the front-end design does what it should, keeping everyone easily informed and offering quick access to the core functions in both mobile and desktop environments. There has been some tightening here and there since my initial look, and it works. This is a good looking UI experience.
There’s also a new, very interesting feature that sort of hides what it forecasts. The Client Portal, enacted when an agent invites their client to setup a showing, offers a payment solution — for the buyer. The object here is to get the client to pay for their agent’s time. It’s novel, and will take some time, but are we that far off from this becoming the norm? I think it’s prescient.
Agents can of course choose to reimburse their buyer at closing, or simply tell them not to use it. I really want to see where this goes.
Showami will be expanding into using its tools for inspections, walk-throughs, photography appointments and other common listing tasks that require visiting a property.
The app does what it promises quite well, among some new things. It’s improved quite a bit, and I’m adding another star to it rating.
In short, the company heard my initial review, and likely its marketplace, and responded quickly and effectively.
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.
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