Real estate lead generation software has revolutionized the real estate world. Before these platforms became popular, the real estate market was reserved for investors with deep pockets and extensive networks. Without a mentor or some degree of luck, getting started as an investor was hard.
As a result, many people interested in growing their net worth didn’t have a good place to start, so they never did. But real estate investing apps changed that by giving everyday investors affordable access to lead generation, detailed property information, and many other tools. Now, anyone can take the first steps to build a real estate portfolio or wholesale real estate business.
However, there are a lot of real estate apps to choose from, and not all of them will be a great fit for your business or investment strategy. This guide will walk you through everything you should be looking for when choosing a real estate investing app for your business.
Property data you can rely on
You can find property data anywhere on the internet. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be accurate or in-depth. The internet is filled with estimates, outdated data, and even wildly incorrect information that will only slow you down.
When you pick a real estate investing app, look for a platform that offers detailed property information, accurate comps, and owner demographic and financial insights. This information will allow you to do much more than simply qualify leads. It will also let you generate leads based on property characteristics, financial distress factors, and much more. With this information, you can create targeted lists and make great investment decisions.
Of course, the accuracy of your data is equally important. If your data is in-depth, but you can’t trust it, you’ll find yourself making bad offers, calling the wrong people, and wasting your time on dead leads.
To find accurate data, choose a real estate app that supplies Tier 1 data from the highest quality sources. These sources should include available public records, the Multiple Listings Service (in disclosure states), and trustworthy online data repositories. Without data from these sources, you’ll be stuck working with estimates, and those estimates won’t help you make great investments.
Full-suite real estate investing app
You should also choose an app that has everything you need in one place. Otherwise, you’ll spend more time logging into various platforms than landing deals. Here are some of the most important tools you should look for in an app.
Lead generation and property search
One of the most important aspects of a real estate app is its lead generation module. Look for a platform that offers quick filters. Quick filters will let you generate lead lists with the click of a button, speeding up your lead generation process so you can start marketing faster.
You’ll also want advanced search capabilities that let you build particular lists. Some of the features to look for are
- A boundary search that lets you define your own search area on a map
- Advanced search filters that let you combine multiple search criteria
- The ability to create and save custom quick filters for easy access
With both quick filters and advanced search options, there will never be a limit to how broad or specific you can make your lead lists.
Real estate comparables tool
Comping is essential to profitable real estate investing, so you should find a platform that makes it easy and gives you reliable data. A comping tool will pull lists of properties near your deal that have a similar number of bedrooms and bathrooms, square footage, and lot size. This tool will also estimate the value of your deal based on the recent sale prices of the comparable properties.
The main feature that sets comping tools apart is their access to recently sold data from the MLS in disclosure states. Many real estate investing apps only estimate these numbers, so their users are guessing when they calculate the value of a deal.
While active listing data is most crucial if you don’t have your real estate license, you’ll still need a comping tool. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck searching for comps yourself and doing comparable analysis manually.
Skip tracing
Unless you want to constantly export lists from your lead generation platform and then upload them to a third party data provider, you should choose a real estate investing app with built-in skip tracing.
Skip tracing is the process of finding contact information for property owners based on their name and address. This is one of the most important steps to real estate investing, so it’s crucial that you choose a service with high-quality data.
Just because a service charges $0.50 per record, that doesn’t mean its data is reliable. Choose a service that uses Tier-1 data and has a reputation for quality. Oftentimes, you’ll find that these services are less expensive than you expect.
Marketing
Once you’ve built a list of motivated sellers and property addresses, you need a way to market to them. While there are many dialers on the market, choosing a lead generation platform that has built-in or integrated functionality will make your work much easier.
Direct mail is another favorite of real estate investors because postcards and letters are tangible items that motivated sellers can hang onto. Launching direct mail campaigns used to be a manual process, but now some real estate investing apps let you launch campaigns from the app so you don’t have to send them yourself. While this feature isn’t absolutely necessary, it will boost your productivity and save you time and likely money.
Driving for dollars tool
Searching for properties and pulling lead lists aren’t the only ways to find promising real estate opportunities. Driving for dollars is still a great option, even if it is one of the oldest tricks in the book.
Driving for dollars is a lead discovery method that involves driving through neighborhoods and identifying distressed properties. It’s a great way to complement your lead generation software, because it gives you the chance to find neglected and distressed property that don’t show up in public records.
Very few real estate investing apps have driving for dollars tools, but the ones that do make the practice more effective than it’s ever been. With them, you can take your business with you when you explore a neighborhood, add properties to your list with a tap, and access extensive property and owner information on the go.
This means you can discover a neglected property and quickly learn everything about it, including its equity and any financial distress factors the owner may be experiencing. Then you can knock on the door or skip trace the owner and call them from your vehicle.
Virtual driving for dollars
Another great feature to look for is a virtual driving for dollars module. Virtual driving for dollars works like driving for dollars, except it uses street view to give you access to neighborhoods across the United States.
Like canvassing a neighborhood in person, you can discover distressed properties based on their physical appearance, but without being anywhere near them. It’s a growing trend, and it’s transforming how investors expand into new markets.
Scalability
If you’re serious about building a real estate business, you’ll eventually need to hire a team to help you find leads, contact owners, and secure contracts on deals. Knowing that, you should pick a platform that’s built for both individual investors and growing real estate teams.
A few of the features that will help you scale efficiently are:
- Workspaces for different teams
- Team member account management
- The ability to assign leads to team members
- Integration with a full-scale dialer
- Route planning and tracking in your driving for dollars tool
- Dynamic reporting and task tracking
- Pricing plans for both individual investors and teams
Having these features from the beginning will make growing your business much easier and smoother over time.
Outstanding service and support
Finally, don’t pick a real estate investing app that has unreliable customer service. Even if the features seem great, you’ll inevitably regret choosing the platform when you can’t get the help you need.
An app with great customer service will have free, regularly scheduled training, a wide variety of support materials, complimentary onboarding, and educational opportunities.
As a bonus, it’s great to choose an app that hosts regular webinars and provides a wealth of educational information to its users. These are signs that the team behind the real estate investing app are engaged with their users and care about helping them grow their businesses.
Key takeaways
There’s a lot involved in choosing the right app for your real estate business. Not only do you need a wealth of features, but you also need quality data, a scalable platform, and unmatched customer service.
While there are a lot of real estate apps on the market, not many offer the magic combination that will help you grow your business and increase your net worth. If you’re ready to experience the BatchLeads difference, click here to get a free 7-day trial and 500 complimentary property leads. You’ll see the difference immediately.
