Text Messaging for the Real Estate Industry

A guide for using text in your business.

The success of the property and real estate industry relies heavily on effective communication. Communication between property brokers, contractors, agents, tenants, and also between buyers and sellers.

For agents, it’s crucial to be front and center when advertising a property, and more importantly to stay on top of all the administrative work when selling or managing a property. And for tenants, paying rent on time, keeping the property in good condition, and staying informed is key. This is where text messaging offers effective, real-time communication that is both reliable and trusted.

Below we outline practical ways to improve and streamline communications within the property industry using SMS.

1. Lead Generation

One of the easiest ways to generate leads using SMS is to give potential buyers the chance to opt-in to receive updates and notifications from you. By using a shortcode or incoming long number, you can gain valuable insight from your prospects and even engage in two-way conversations with them to find out what it is they’re looking for.

2. Property Alerts

Once a contact list of interested clients has been created, texts can be sent to buyers alerting them of new properties, price reductions, or any other important information about their property search. If you’re using a CRM system, these alerts can even be automated.

3. Viewing Reminders

No-shows are frustrating, especially for busy agents - and let’s not forget the owners or tenants who have spent time prepping their home for the viewing. Reduce no-shows by scheduling reminders to be sent a few hours before the viewing; you can even ask for a reply to confirm that they’re still on to view the property.

4. Picture messages

Send SMS attachments to interested clients with images of, or a map to, the property they’re interested in. This adds an appealing visual element to a standard text, and it will help filter out any potential buyers that aren’t interested.

5. Payment reminders and notifications

Following up on late rental payments is time consuming, especially if you’re having to phone each tenant in your books. Sending a simple text to remind tenants about rental payments and overdue accounts is cost-effective and quick. You could even pinpoint those tenants who are notoriously late on payments and schedule texts to be sent to them before payment is due.

6. Fault logging

Tenants need to be able to get in touch with rental agents whenever there is a fault or problem on the property. Likewise, agents need to be able to let tenants know when contractors are on the way to fix any problems. Texting is the perfect platform for this type of communication.

7. Event reminders and notifications

When a simple text message doesn’t get all the information across, or you’d like to add something visual for your prospect, you can create a Landing Page, or attach an existing image or pdf to your text. If you are showing a property, and you want to send an invitation directly to the hands of the prospect, attach the invitation to your text message.

Scottish Property Agency uses SMS to Streamline Communication

Established in Scotland in 2011, Excel Sales & Letting provides a full range of property assistance including the sales and letting of homes across the Central Belt of Scotland. With the success of the business relying heavily on customer interaction and successful communications. Joann McIntosh, founder of the company, started to investigate mobile communication channels that were both reliable and efficient. Which is when she turned to SMS.

Why SMS? The Excel agents needed a different method of communicating with clients as email and phone calls were often missed. To decrease the rate of missed appointments and improve communications between agents and clients, McIntosh turned to SMS and found that it met all their requirements.

Read the full case study here.