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Integrating Tools & Services with Moxi Works
By Tiana Baur
2017 was a BIG year for us Moxians. We added heaps of amazing partners to our Moxi Cloud open platform that now has well over 30 different tools and services. We also hit over 100,000 agents this year that use these tools and services! Because we’re always looking to provide the best-in-class to our brokerages, we’re constantly on the lookout for new tools and services to add to the Moxi Cloud. Here’s a glance at the tools and services already in the Moxi Cloud:
Joining the Moxi Cloud Open Platform
If you’re a technology or service provider in real estate, how do you work with us? There are two ways to integrate with our Moxi Cloud open platform:
1. SSO
The single sign-on (SSO) integration allows partners to use Moxi Works to grant access to the partner applications. This allows you to avoid managing end-user accounts and to provide a more seamless integration between Moxi Works sites and partner tools.
2. API
The Moxi Works API allows partner developers to access Moxi Works data, product features, and functions to enhance the user experience in the partner application and streamline interactions between systems.
We’re proud of the ease of integration we’ve built and the partnerships that have allowed us to offer brokerages best-in-class tools. Here’s feedback from some of our amazing partners:
“The team at SnapNHD really enjoyed working with the Moxi Team and API. Their API is undoubtedly the most well documented API in the real estate industry enabling our team to integrate within a week. Among my favorite features is Moxi’s ability to turn on new brokerages at the flip of a switch.” – Will Caldwell, Founder, SnapNHD & Dizzle
“We’re thrilled to partner with MoxiWorks to create a great experience for our clients. We recently launched a powerful integration between Imprev and MoxiWorks for a few large brokerage customers. Through the integration, the MoxiWorks REST API exchanges data with the Imprev platform to sync agent, listing, and contact data real-time—making agents’ lives much simpler. The MoxiWorks team was awesome to work with throughout the entire development process; thanks to MoxiWorks’ agility and support, we were able to solve challenges quickly and deliver outstanding solutions to our clients.” – Paul Cooley, CTO, Imprev
If you’re still curious what it is like to work with us, watch this video of Melissa Kwan over at Spacio (also below) – we think it will illuminate what the partnership will look like!
Interested in joining the Moxi Cloud? Fill out the form at the bottom of this page and we’ll be in touch!
Introducing: PadStyler, Virtual Home Staging Experts
By Tiana Baur
Moxi Works has partnered with PadStyler to give agents another way to boost their selling potential by helping buyers visualize the home in a better light. As visual home staging experts, PadStyler truly is the quintessential addition to the home staging efforts agents are currently doing.
Sell the vision
PadStyler isn’t necessarily meant to be a home staging replacement – although it can be. It’s meant to help agents up the game of their listing with amazing virtual staging. Why is this so necessary? It’s often hard to envision what a home could look like with different furniture or even a remodel. PadStyler brings the buyers’ visions to life in more ways than one.
Virtual furniture replacement
PadStyler can transform poorly or outdated furnished properties into stunning homes, so buyers can get a more realistic idea of what it will be like when they call the house “home.” This is especially good when trying to give the home a modern feel to it, without having to update the actual house.
Renovation vision
Kitchens might need a little updating and it could be a reason a home isn’t sold straight away, regardless of how amazing the in-home staging is. Some buyers just have a harder time then others when it comes to seeing what a house can be vs. what it is today. With PadStyler, buyers can visualize a beautiful renovated kitchen right in front of them. This goes for other rooms, paint color, flooring replacement – you name it.
Curb Appeal
Bad roof, dry nasty grass, or poorly tended to plants? No worries, PadStyler ups curb appeal in a major way by showcasing the exterior property photos in the best light.
Integration
The best part about this new Moxi Cloud service, is that it is fully integrated in a way that makes it a piece of cake for agents using it. All initiated via their Photo Gallery and Listing Management, here is what it will look like:
If it wasn’t obvious already, we’re extremely excited about this addition to the Moxi Cloud! We love PadStyler because it works for agents that are not currently doing home staging of any kind, but also for those that are home staging hooked. It is the perfect addition to all home staging efforts.
Happy to have you, PadStyler!
Compass: What Goes Up, Must Come Down
By York Baur, CEO of Moxi Works
If you’re reading this, you have no doubt seen the news about Softbank (the world’s largest tech investment fund) investing $450 Million into the tech brokerage Compass – emphasis on the brokerage. This morning I sent out a note to all of our employees here at Moxi Works, and have decided to share them here. As a true “techie,” I’m sure it surprises no one to learn that I have some opinions about this.
For starters, Compass is a brokerage, not a tech company. However, like Redfin (who has continually overpromised and undelivered), they’re being valued as a technology company, not a brokerage, which means it’s valued at several times the valuation of brokerages.
This fundamental disconnect will work for a while, but gravity is pervasive, and the valuation will fall back to earth soon enough, particularly when there is a real estate market correction.
In short – this is the Greater Fool Theory at work.
What does this all mean?
To quote Inman, “Compass touts itself as “the first modern real estate platform, which reduces the friction and frustration associated with selling, buying, or renting a property by providing real estate agents with a set of powerful tools to increase efficiency and sales volume.”
They have to pay off agents with large sums of money to consider leaving their current brokerage for Compass and their platform. Hence, they are a brokerage, not a technology company.
Here’s a fact: You don’t have to with a true open platform and the technology that embodies it.
There’s nothing Compass has that we don’t already have or that isn’t available today from our more than 35 partners. Our success, the success of the Moxi Cloud open platform isn’t a theory – we can prove that our stuff makes agents more productive and brokerages more profitable. To that end, their CEO Robert Reffkin said today that agents that come to Compass do 24.9% better the year after. We know that agents that adopt Moxi Engage do 39% better, and are happy to walk you through that data.
News like today’s strikes fear in the heart of brokerages, as it probably should. Like every problem, there is a solution. That solution is the Moxi Cloud, which takes Compass head on and gives agents exactly what they need to be more successful than their competition.
I encourage you to contact us – we’d be happy to answer any questions you have, whether it’s about Moxi Works are not. We’re here to help the brokerage.
Where Does a Chatbot Belong in Your Real Estate Business?
By Maddie Jostol
Yes, chatbots. It’s a question every brokerage owner should be asking themselves. It’s not as intimidating as it may sound, but it is necessary. The world of real estate is changing rapidly. What are you doing to stay ahead of the game and ensure your brokerage survives?
By 2020, over 80% of businesses are expected to have some sort of chatbot automation implemented. (Business Insider, 2016)
You don’t have to be a technology company or specialize in artificial intelligence to be smart about your business tech. Look at the shifts happening in our industry and consider solutions for combatting competition and adapting with the market.
Here at Moxi Works, we’re declaring 2018 the year of the chatbot. Massive investments are being made to develop chatbots, and chatbots are gaining familiarity with consumers. As they become more widely available and used, chatbots are becoming more commonplace. When backed by powerful AI (artificial intelligence), consumers often expect, and sometimes even prefer chatbots when it comes to customer service and support.
40% of consumers do not care whether a chatbot or a real human helps them, as long as they are getting the help they need. (HubSpot, 2017)
21% of consumers see chatbots as the easiest way to contact a business. (ubisend, 2017)
Chatbots are transforming consumer interactions. The way in which consumers access personalized information and get their questions answered has changed drastically. Consumer expectations have shifted and the only way to meet and exceed those expectations is to have smart efficiency tools backing up your sales process.
Realogy, a global leader in real estate with agents in affiliated brokerages totaling almost 300,000, has recently joined the chatbot trend. In September, they announced an agreement with OJO, an AI-powered chatbot that specializes in talking real estate with consumers. OJO Labs, Inc. focuses on the union of machine and human intelligence to positively transform the home buying and selling process. The AI-powered personal assistance holds two-way conversations, providing property information and answering client questions. OJO nurtures leads until they’re ready to speak with an agent, saving both the agent and the consumer time. With the addition of OJO, Realogy brokerages will improve their customer experience, see increased productivity in agents and improve retention, and see a positive impact on their bottom line. Realogy is just one example of organizations in real estate that are adapting and embracing technology and innovation in order to stay relevant through industry changes.
In real estate, it’s common for business owners to miss significant growth opportunities because they failed to embrace technology. While you don’t need to run out and choose a chatbot provider immediately, you should begin thinking about where one might fit in your business. Partner with technology companies that are considering these trends, ensuring you have the option to adopt artificial intelligence and chatbots down the road.
Introducing: HomeDiary, Now Plugged into the Moxi Cloud
By Tiana Baur
Moxi Works is happy to announce our newest member of the Moxi Cloud open platform! FloorPlanOnline’s HomeDiary, a homeowner management platform that includes a free 3D space planner! HomeDiary enables agents to help their clients better keep track of everything going on in their homes; items, activities, and spaces.
A digital record of their home
With HomeDiary, your clients can log projects, photos, improvements, and documents for easy reference. They can upload photos and manuals, tagging items for a permanent record. They can clip images or upload snapshots of products or ideas, keeping a digital scrapbook. Finally, HomeDiary allows your clients to room plan and visualize their space in 2D and 3D.
Visualize & plan spaces in 3D
Draw a room or a whole floor plan! Design, plan, and view spaces in 2D and 3D. Plan furniture layouts, explore remodeling ideas, play with paint color palettes, and plan patio and landscaping ideas.
Store inventory & maintenance records
Find critical home information when you need it. Log paint colors and finally throw away those old cans. Find old receipts and purchase information, save and record every improvement, and easily story maintenance activities.
Clip ideas & create reminders
Save images from the web and upload or snap photos of products and ideas. Save purchase ideas, store decorating ideas, organize wish list items, and create maintenance reminders. Sort, filter, easily find!
HomeDiary helps agents stay connected to their sphere throughout the whole homeownership lifecycle. Through the Moxi integration, HomeDiary not only provides marketing tools for the listing side of the transaction, such as hands-free, automated, single-property websites and the free use of the advanced 3D floor plan engine, but it also enables agents to stay relevant with their sphere as they live in their home with the included HomeDiary sponsorship (for an unlimited number of clients). The HomeDiary system is extremely affordable—priced at less than the daily cost of a cup of coffee. Find out more on homediary.com!
Got Cloud?
By Maddie Jostol
There’s a digital transformation happening. Everything is moving to the cloud. On-premises servers are being replaced, data is constantly being uploaded, exchanged, and shared, and technological advancements are being made to the cloud daily.
First of all: What exactly is “the cloud?” Mashable defines the cloud as “a network of server.” Some servers provide an online service, like Adobe Creative Cloud, and others allow you to store and access data, like Instagram or Dropbox. New to the concept? Check out their cloud for beginners guide.
A few of the major clouds you might recognize include Amazon Web Services, Google, IBM, and Salesforce. Needless to say, with these powerhouses innovating, the cloud computing market is growing rapidly and you better believe the real estate industry is moving to the cloud as well. To put things in perspective, the global cloud computing market has grown from $5.8B in 2008 to $41B in 2012 to now over $128B in 2017. What’s that have to do with real estate? Let’s just say that the amount of money pouring into real estate tech is growing, with venture capitalists investing over $1.1B in real estate technology this year alone.
Yes, the cloud is taking over real estate as well. Let that be seen as an opportunity, however. Cloud migration is gaining rapid adoption for a reason – it’s good for business, and that’s especially true in real estate. Many brokerages feel pains derived from inefficiency, low agent retention, and industry changes. The best part about the cloud is, when it comes to an open platform, it gives you the flexibility to change out technology solutions as necessary, and your data will still be safe in the cloud, ready to integrate with the new solution.
The Moxi Cloud open platform was built to bring the benefits of a cloud-based platform to real estate, delivering brokerages higher flexibility, efficiency, and profitability. It isn’t just about convenience – cloud computing is having a serious impact on companies’ bottom lines. 74% of Tech Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) say cloud computing will have the most measurable impact on their business in 2017, according to Forbes. Companies are investing in the cloud for a reason. Forbes also revealed that 60-70% of all software, services, and technology spending will be cloud-based by 2020.
The power is in the data exchange. When you integrate your systems through data exchange, you find a smoother sales process, more value delivered your agents, increased productivity, and fewer mistakes from manual data entry. Cloud migration is an opportunity for you to get your brokerage’s technology solution up to par. The competition is heating up in real estate and it’s vital that you set your brokerage up for success with the right technology – not to mention, offering technology that will attract and retain agents. So… Got cloud?
What Compass Is Planning in Your Market
By Tiana Baur
Chatbots and new tech are barreling towards the industry. Everything is moving to a cloud environment. And now, Compass is coming for your market share.
The CEO of Compass, Robert Reffkin, recently announced a 2020 by 2020 plan to the company. What does that mean, you ask? A plan to expand into 10 new markets in the U.S. by 2020, and to grab 20 percent of the market share in the 20 largest U.S. cities. Casual, right? The cities they’re expanding to are: Seattle, San Diego, Phoenix, Dallas, Austin, Houston, Atlanta, Charlotte, Philadelphia, and Chicago.
Compass has now raised a whopping $325 million in capital and their success feels imminent, especially since they’re already the #4 largest brokerage in NYC, #3 in DC, and #2 in Cambridge. Not only that, but their agent count is up 500% over the past two years, now at 2,000 agents and gaining more traction every day. They have the capital to buy agents with massive signing bonuses and the funds to invest in an entirely new CRM and targeted marketing tools designed just for their agents. By the end of this year, they are projected to do 16,000 transactions, $14 billion in sales volume and $350 million in revenue, annually.
An obvious question is: Will they have a durable and lasting impact? What happens to aggressive brokerages, such as Compass, when the value proposition of a big signing bonus isn’t attractive enough for agents to make the move? Meaning, what if their culture doesn’t align with what an agent wants out of their brokerage? Pockets are deep, but might never be deep enough for the many that love the brokerage they currently call home.
In the shadow of Compass’s other recent announcement that they’re also considering an IPO, lies a sad-looking Redfin, whose stock dropped over 5% that day. The waters are rough out there right now and it’s obvious many brokerages won’t make it out of the impending storm. The reality is, few are safe. Fewer are “too big to fail.” When tech and industry are changing at such a rapid rate, it’s impossible to predict the future of winners and losers. Whether Compass is successful or becomes another Redfin, remains to be seen.
Looking to future-proof your brokerage for these massive industry changes? This is a good starting point. An open platform allows your brokerage to combat the massive technology budget Compass has with your very own unique suite of tools, in an affordable way. 2018 is right around the corner – start it off on the right foot.
Introducing: CallAction, Now Available in the Moxi Cloud
By Tiana Baur
We recently added another best-in-class tool to the Moxi Cloud! CallAction instantly responds, engages, and tracks all inbound leads for agents. With CallAction, agents never have to miss another call or email lead ever again.
CallAction is the only marketing automation service that can be used with your offline or online lead generation efforts to respond to inquiries from phone calls, emails and texts. Their powerful integrations bridge the gap between agents’ top of the funnel lead generation and their existing lead nurturing CRM systems for increased productivity.
Here is how it works:
Answer every call
Agents no longer need to worry about rushing to the phone or nervously watching a call come in during a meeting they can’t step out of. With CallAction, agents can ensure they keep ALL of their inbound leads engaged with automated responses through SMS and email.
Building agent databases
Every inbound call is saved to a secure cloud-hosted database and appended in real-time with caller information aggregated from the world’s largest consumer profile databases. It is also passed into Moxi Engage, so the leads go directly into their sales flow. From there, they can nurture the lead and show their new prospect why they are the best in the business.
Track every inbound call
Agents can instantly create a local or toll-free phone number for each of their marketing channels to automatically track every inbound call that is seamlessly routed to their phone.
“50% of buyers choose the vendor or service that responds first, according to the InsideSales.com 2014 Lead Response Report,” mentioned Mike McHenry, VP of Channels and Partnerships at MoxiWorks. “In a perfect world, every call is answered right away, the first time a lead calls an agent. But with CallAction, all missed calls are automatically responded to with CallAction’s SMS responses to guarantee the lead stays engaged. All the responses are fully customizable so the agent can keep their own voice and style.”
We’re super excited to have this company in the Moxi Cloud! When we say we only let the best-in-class tools and services into the Moxi Cloud, we mean it.
For more information on CallAction, visit callaction.co.
How to Compete Now That Marketing Has Gone One-To-One
By Andrew Eberting
Fact: The average person is exposed to as many as 5,000 ads per day (Source: Media Dynamics, Inc.). The ability to cut through the noise and compete for people’s attention is growing more precious with each passing minute.
Blanket, unimaginative marketing efforts like sending out a yearly calendar isn’t enough nowadays and likely isn’t moving the needle or making your brand standout as a real estate agent. Alternatively, to put it another way: marketing like this today is the equivalent of the old Publishers Clearing House mailers or getting yet another invite to Play Candy Crush – people tune it out.
If you are still marketing like this today, then you are losing potential clients and money with each calendar you send out. Utilize these three techniques to revamp your marketing and start branding yourself as someone potential prospects will want to work with vs. wanting to avoid.
One-to-One Marketing
Personalizing your marketing is the new Marketing 101, or, as it is more commonly referred to, one-to-one marketing. Simply speaking, each marketing touch you put out to the market should have a personal or targeted element to it.
Facebook Ads
With more than 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the standard for where many of us go to catch up with news, friends, and share moments of our lives. Placing online advertisements on Facebook then only makes sense, as this is where all the eyeballs are.
Let’s say you won a new listing (yay!) and you want to promote this to people in your area. By creating a new listing advertisement for your client via Facebook, you can promote your new listing to people using criteria like:
- Geographic radius
- Income
- Age range
Why this is important: 93% of buying decisions are now influenced by Social Media.
(Source: Erik Qualman, Socialnomics)
These things can help to optimize your Facebook ad and get it in front of the types of individuals who are most likely to be interested in your new listing. This helps you spend your marketing dollars more effectively while making your client happy. Moxi Works now offers a native Facebook tool to help you jumpstart your marketing efforts; you can check it out here.
Direct Mail That Actually Works
Remember that calendar of yours I mentioned earlier? Well, it isn’t personable. However, as we head towards the holiday season, this is the perfect opportunity to share something personable from you to your past clients. Run down to Kinkos and put your favorite cookie, pie or other holiday dessert recipe onto a set of postcards along with a small description of why it is your favorite. It is okay to pull the curtain back a little bit, sincerity and authenticity go a long way. Mailing something like this out to clients is more memorable and thoughtful than a calendar ever will be.
Bonus tip: If you really want to make a lasting impression, measure out some of the dry ingredients in the recipe, put them in mailable bags or packaging, and also include that with the recipe card.
Join Nextdoor
Confession: I am grossly addicted to Nextdoor, a social media network specific to the neighborhood you live. I have been able to network with people in my immediate and surrounding neighborhoods to find folks that are great gardeners, woodworkers, mechanics, and the list goes on. I cannot begin to quantify the number of posts from my neighbors asking for recommendations on a landscaper, painter, real estate agent, or someone else that can help them with something monetarily associated with the upkeep or value of their home. Whether it is the office or the neighborhood, every group needs a go-to person that specializes in something – why can’t the real estate pro in your neighborhood be you?
When it comes to one-to-one marketing, these tips, and techniques only scratch the surface, there is so much more out there that you can do.
Want to know how you can take your one-to-one marketing efforts even further? Check out this article from our August edition of Mile 62 magazine for more personalized marketing strategies that you can implement in your own market.
Everyone Is Moving to The Cloud
By Andrew E.
Fact: 70% of U.S. organizations are now utilizing cloud technology to run at least one application of their businesses. The growth of cloud technology adoption is on the rise as the business benefits have proven to be worth their weight in gold regarding profitability and efficiency standards.
Gone are the days of investing heavily in never ending hardware, and with good reason. The infrastructure of old limited growth of organizations in several key areas that we all have come to demand from our “on-the-go” lifestyles. Vendors such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, and Microsoft Azure are the leaders in cloud computing space that run backend of many of businesses today. While each company offers their own competitive advantages for cloud technology, they all offer standardized benefits regardless of industry, size, or sophistication.
Accessibility
Like being able to get an email or watch Netflix on your phone, tablet, or watch from nearly anywhere in the world? Enter the cloud. The ability to get anything at any time while anywhere regardless of device used is by far the most tangible benefit each of us utilize of cloud computing each day.
Customization
Remember AOL CDs? Well, gone are the days of needing a new disc to update applications or programs in order to have the most current version for your business operations. The Cloud provides scalability at lightning speed to meet your brokerage’s everchanging needs. This gives you the power to keep yours happy with the latest and greatest tools while sunsetting those that have fallen out of favor.
Affordability
With the burden of data transfer, storage, and throughput now shifted online, the need for fixed computing servers or other hardware and the demand of routinely updating them drastically decreases the technology costs required to stay competitive.
Security
Another advantage of the cloud is capitalizing on the nonstop landscape of data safety and encryption advances. Along the same lines of affordability, cloud-based utilization by organizations keeps them in stride with how to best protect their digital currency – their data – vs. being landlocked to onsite systems that require dedicated personnel bandwidth to oversee and maintain a high level of both technical hardware operating efficiency but also protection of those systems.
With so many benefits it can be naive to think that migrating to cloud is an easy task to administer. The Cloud just like anything else can be challenging to get right unless the correct systems are in place to connect everything together.
Open Platform to the Rescue – Cloud Migration
Like clockwork every year heading into the holiday season, it seems like the amount of lights and other powered decorations we need to plug into a power strip seems to grow. Enter Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) or, simply put, an open platform.
Think of all your different brokerage data sources, vendor apps, etc. as all those holiday lights, inflatable snow globes, and everything else you put up in front of the house each year. An open platform, or, brokerage “power strip”, enables you to plug all of those different things together into one common place so that they all work together at the same time. The Moxi Cloud is that power strip.
As an open platform, the Moxi Cloud empowers brokerages to capitalize on the many benefits of the cloud in one common place without all the headache of hooking everything up by itself with no ability to get everything working together. Quite the opposite, utilizing our open platform permits you to turn on and off parts of those “decorations” or swap them out for something else entirely if you feel like it. Your brokerage, your business, your way.
Want to learn more about how an open platform can save you money while also growing your profits? Click here to watch the video.
