If inventory in your market is at a premium, you likely face unique challenges.
While these conditions can undoubtedly be favorable for sellers, they also offer new challenges for their agents. Fortunately, ShowingTime is committed to helping agents succeed in any market and we know from experience serving agents, teams, offices and MLSs how vital it is to offer the right tools to tackle the evolving landscape.
In this blog, we’ve highlighted several ways agents can leverage ShowingTime+ to overcome challenges presented using existing features and products. In the weeks to come, we’ll also be revealing additional new ways we’ll be helping both listing and buyer’s agents navigate current and future high demand, low supply conditions.
Automatically Share Timely Showing Details with Clients Using Home by ShowingTime
In real estate, time is always of the essence. But in no context is timely interaction with clients more of the essence than when buyer demand outpaces the available supply. This is immediately obvious for buyer’s agents, who must compete with the many other agents present in a seller’s market. But listing agents also must regularly communicate with their clients to discuss logistics of upcoming showings, share valuable showing feedback and offer other timely updates when demand is high.
With Home by ShowingTime, ShowingTime makes sharing all pertinent details with clients quick and painless. As the residential real estate industry’s leading solution for connecting agents with their clients throughout all parts of the showing process, Home by ShowingTime automatically provides clients with information about their listing, removing the need to have agents individually reach out to provide each update – a significant time-saving feature that also ensures that clients have the details they need to make informed decisions, right as it’s available.
Home by ShowingTime makes available all relevant details about a seller’s listing(s), streamlining agent-client communication. Click the image to learn more.
Offer Peace of Mind with Pre-Scheduling Forms
Even as COVID-19 restrictions fade into memory, the reality is that some home owners may still require acknowledgement of certain terms before a showing takes place.
Offices in select markets that subscribe to any of ShowingTime’s showing management products have access to a pre-scheduling form editor to help them meet this need. The feature allows offices to create acknowledgement forms, like safety acknowledgements, that buyer’s agents must agree to before being allowed to schedule a showing. This significantly streamlines the showing process, a crucial advantage in competitive markets. For complete details on how to access this feature, click here.
The pre-scheduling form editor available in office configurations of ShowingTime+’s showing management products makes it easy to create forms like safety acknowledgements that buyer’s agents must agree to before being able to schedule a showing.
Catch Your Breath with Buffer Times and Options to Prevent Overlapping Showings
As previously mentioned, when heavy demand for showings takes place amongst a low inventory, showings per listing typically rise to untenable levels. This can make for complex scheduling scenarios for agents to have to manage, especially during times when homeowners may wish to take a breather during a busy day of showings.
Thankfully, ShowingTime empowers agents and their clients to build in extra time between showings by implementing buffer times to prevent back-to-back showings.
Listing agents can configure their listings to allow for one of three possible scenarios:
- Allow overlapping appointments and notify showing agents when there is an overlap (“Yes, Please tell the showing agent ahead of time”);
- Allow overlapping appointments but do not notify showing agents of an overlap (“Yes, No need to inform the showing agents”); and
- Allow one appointment at a time (“No, Exclusive appointment requests only”)
ShowingTime users can select their preferred buffer time from their profile or on the listing worksheet (as seen in the above screenshot).
For complete details on how to set up buffer times for your showings, click here.
Listing agents also have the option to prevent overlapping showings, a particularly popular option in accordance with safety guidelines. Learn more about this option here. Note: In some markets, overlapping showings are not allowed by the MLS and the default option is set to No, Exclusive appointment requests only accordingly.
Share Valuable Feedback Quickly with Feedback Management Features
Even in markets that heavily favor sellers, timely, actionable showing feedback remains a vital tool for helping secure a sale. To help sellers get the highest offer for their listing(s), agents need a way to not only earn quality feedback, but also a means of sharing it without delay so that sellers can act upon it and make any necessary changes to their listing.
With ShowingTime+’s array of feedback management features, agents can effortlessly obtain feedback that narrows in on a listing’s key attributes by creating custom feedback questions and share it at the time that’s most convenient for them. Of course, agents are always in control of whether a client receives feedback and, if so, when they are to receive it.
Available for users of Appointment Center by ShowingTime, Front Desk by ShowingTime+ and, in select markets, ShowingTime for the MLS, the ability to customize feedback options is a gamechanger for streamlining the feedback acquisition and sharing process.
For complete details on how to use ShowingTime+’s feedback options, click the link below that corresponds to the ShowingTime service you’re using.
Provide A Flexible New Showing Option with ShowingTime LIVE Video
The COVID-19 pandemic made it clear that people are increasingly comfortable using technology to facilitate tasks that were once considered only possible to be done in person. Just as remote work has exploded in popularity and now looks to be an option that will endure long after the pandemic has faded, so too have showings evolved to incorporate technology to keep them going in the face of sustained demand.
The proof is in the pudding: Since its launch in mid-2020, ShowingTime LIVE Video has been widely adopted by thousands of real estate professionals around the country to offer clients one-on-one live video showings using nothing more than their existing ShowingTime mobile app (or for their clients, Home by ShowingTime). As some buyers remain apprehensive about in-person showings, an option like ShowingTime LIVE Video can help agents meet the demand while respecting the ever-evolving conditions in communities throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Every feature of every ShowingTime+ product is born from the feedback provided by real estate professionals of every role. We’re looking forward to revealing new features in the weeks to come based on that feedback that will give you even more options for tackling the present market. Stay tuned!
For more than 20 years, ShowingTime has remained a trusted partner for real estate professionals looking to streamline their business, regardless of the market conditions. To learn how ShowingTime+’s services can integrate within your existing workflow and enhance your efficiency, click the button below to speak with our Sales Team.
