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Key Aspects to Look for in a Brokerage Platform
By Maddie Jostol
Many technology companies are calling themselves a platform. It’s becoming a loosely used buzzword, but what makes a true platform is a technology that serves as the base for all of your technology solutions. It’s the hub of your company’s technology.
As a brokerage owner, what should you be looking for when considering a platform for your business? Below are a few of the key things you absolutely must consider when vetting these technologies.
Make sure it’s open
An open platform is quite different from a closed platform. What makes a platform “open” is an open API, which allows other technologies to plug into the platform, integrating and sharing data. Asking whether or not a platform is truly open is key to knowing what potential the technology has in integrating your business. A closed platform limits your ability to leverage data, and doesn’t help your agents run their business.
Find a reliable partner
When it comes to onboarding a platform for your brokerage, you’ll want to work with a provider who serves as a true technology partner. A platform is the technology backbone of your business, it isn’t just some add-on tool. Because of this, your platform provider should serve as a trusted advisor, guiding you to the strongest technology ecosystem that effectively runs your business.
The beauty of an open platform is that you can make it your own – our brokerage clients have varying technology ecosystems based on which integrated tool and service providers they’ve decided to provide to their brokerage. Work with people who can guide you through this process, selecting the best technology services for your business. This brings us to our next tip…
Own your data
Data is more powerful than you might think. What kind of data are we talking about? MLS data, consumer data, agent data, and more. All of it should live in your brokerage platform, where it’s accessible and useful. Data can power other tools, lend valuable insights, improve productivity, and more. It’s time for all brokerages to own their data.
The value of integration
Integration adds value to your business, smoothing operations and increasing productivity. Agents don’t have to switch back and forth between technologies, attempting to remember dozens of passwords. It also gets rid of manual data entry. When data is shared across your tools, including your MLS, it negates manual data entry and the inevitable errors that comes with it.
Selecting and onboarding an open platform for your business can feel complicated, but it’s vital to staying ahead in this competitive market. Your brokerage needs an integrated technology ecosystem that offers flexibility, connects your business, and helps you be more profitable.
To learn more about the Moxi Cloud open platform and what sets it apart, click here.
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!
How to Automatically Track Your Mileage and Save Hundreds on Taxes
By Maddie Jostol
Taxes are a pain. Real estate agents face unique challenges as independent contractors because you’re running your own small business. This makes taxes an even bigger pain.
It’s really common for agents to miss out on deductions because the tax filing process is so time consuming and frustrating. Especially when you file on a quarterly basis, the accounting responsibilities of running your small business start to take over. Have you ever thought about how much savings you’re missing out on because you didn’t take full advantage of the deductions available to you?
A few of the many deductions to look out for:
– Mileage tracking
– Business-related technology subscription fees
– Meals and entertainment when you meet with clients
– Home office (or desk fees)
We’re going to focus on mileage tracking because that seems to be a common one for agents to miss out on. We understand why… it’s a huge annoyance to write down your mileage and then remember what that trip was for later on. We all end up with endless images of our car dashboard on our phone. That’s not exactly what you want to see as you’re scrolling through photos of your niece’s soccer game last weekend. When it comes time to file your taxes, it isn’t even worth trying to sift through pictures and records of trips you took for business. That means you’re missing out on some hefty deductions, though.
The good news? There’s a better way. We came across QuickBooks Self-Employed a few months back and realized it’s the perfect tool for busy agents. It’s an accounting tool built specifically for independent contractors, so it tracks your mileage for you so you don’t miss out on any deductions. Tracking your mileage and filing your taxes has never been easier… trust us.
When you have QuickBooks Self-Employed downloaded on your smartphone, it will track your trip every time you drive (yes, it knows when you’re in the car). Go into your app, scan your recent trips, and simply swipe left for business or right for personal. QuickBooks Self-Employed will categorize those expenses accordingly, making tax filing a piece of cake.
It also tracks and categorizes your expenses, making filing Schedule C deductions easy, you can also snap a photo and file away receipts, and see a snapshot of your business finances at any time.
Want to try out QuickBooks Self-Employed? Users are finding an average of $4,340 in tax savings per year. Since they’re a partner of ours, we’re offering you 50% off your first year. Click here for more details and to get set up!
You can also find out more about QuickBooks Self-Employed below:
My Proudest Moment as a Moxian
By Regina Kelley, Senior Manager, PMO & Quality Assurance
I love what I do here at Moxi! I have been a Moxian for almost five years and have had the opportunity to wear many different hats in that time. My role has morphed and changed, year over year thanks to my amazing and supportive manager, Mark Carlson, who continues to believe in me, challenge me, and give me the opportunity to do what I love – being a leader at Moxi Works.
My proudest moment being a leader here at Moxi has been helping a fellow Moxian grow his own career and watching him become a strong and successful leader. Andy’s journey these past nine months is worth sharing and could perhaps inspire others to grow their own careers as well!
Be an expert or demonstrate knowledge
Andy started his career as a summer intern while he was still in college and rocked the testing world right out of the gate. His performance and attitude earned him a full-time position when he graduated, and over the next six years Andy expanded his knowledge and perfected his craft. He worked hard to grow his testing and technical skills, quickly becoming our team’s go-to-guy!
Find a path, make a plan
In the first quarter of 2017, we were beginning our Quarterly Review Cycle and were talking about his goals and what was next. Our discussion lead me to ask Andy what he enjoyed most about his job and what he does daily here at Moxi. His answer came fast: He enjoyed the technical aspects of testing! He also mentioned enjoying helping his fellow teammates… So we went with it!
I approached our VP of Technology and pitched the idea of this new role on the testing team and after getting the thumbs up we created a new role just for Andy to drive and work toward – a technical lead.
The testing team had never had a lead before, so I asked Andy to do some research and define this new role and with that, a path was created. He created a plan and off he went to work toward achieving this new goal. I am a big believer in employees taking control of their own careers and this is a great example of how to get started. Find a path, and make a plan!
Create opportunities for growth
In order to grow on this new path, to become this new Technical Lead, I had to create new opportunities for him to step up. The more responsibility Andy took on and succeeded at, the more his passion grew for what he was doing, so much so that he even began creating his own opportunities for growth. It didn’t take long for Andy to reach that goal and we had ourselves a Lead.
He was doing so well and gaining so much momentum in his new role, I started asking, what’s next? How do you feel about Leadership and Management? Again, with the quick answer – I’m not interested in that, I like the technical side. But I could see that he did enjoy helping his fellow teammates and mentoring – and he was natural at it! So, I suggested to him a new growth opportunity – to mentor/ manage an intern. Although reluctant at first, he jumped in with both feet.
Check In
After that our weekly check-in meeting dynamic began to change. As the weeks went by it shifted from strictly a test status update to more focused conversations about leading and mentoring on the team. We talked about the best ways to get things done, how to grow his mentee and help others on the team continue their growth. Every week Andy walked away with new objectives and opportunities for him to stretch himself in a different way, a non-technical way.
After a couple months went by I asked Andy how he was feeling about his mentorship, and his answer didn’t come quite as quickly as before – surprisingly, he was really enjoying it! I could see the great leadership potential Andy had, he just needed to see it in himself.
Strengthen what you love
Andy and I will continue to rock the testing world here at Moxi together, and we will continue to push him and give him new opportunities to try different things – even things he may not know he will enjoy.
If you take one thing away from this story, know that you can do this too. Start by asking yourself what you love most about what you do every day, and go with it! Share that with your manager or mentor and look for new opportunities to push yourself outside of your comfort zone and take chances. You won’t know until you try, and you may find a new passion you didn’t even know you had!
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!
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!
Why Your Brokerage Will Die Without a Great API
By Tiana Baur
API stands for Application Programming Interface. It sounds complicated, but it’s actually quite simple. An API is the messenger that delivers the request you make to the provider you’re requesting it from, and then delivers the response back to you. It’s what moves your data from point A to point B. MuleSoft compares an API to a waiter or waitress at a restaurant. When you sit down, you are presented with a menu with a variety of options and variations. You place your order with the waiter who then delivers your choices to the kitchen and brings the food and drinks back to your table.
An API is what allows a brokerage platform to be truly open. And an open platform is what allows brokerages to have a choice in every tool and service they want to use. Here’s a look at the difference:
Open Platform: An open platform has an open API that allows brokerages to plug and play tools and services from multiple vendors, including multiple vendors per category (such as marketing, transaction management, advertising, gifting vendors, etc.), as they see fit.
Closed Platform: With a closed platform, brokerages are required to take the tools and services from one vendor and a very short list of partners, limiting choice and flexibility. Many will say that the brokerage has to use their website in order to get the “platform” with it. This means brokerages don’t get to keep the investment they’ve made into their current tools and services when they change them out for new ones. It means they have to start over.
The thing many brokerages don’t realize, is that data isn’t just a list of numbers. Data is what integration is literally made of. Brokerage data is the soul of the brokerage business that keeps its heart beating and its legs moving. This data is useless if it doesn’t work flawlessly together and isn’t stored in a shared environment. Without data, brokerages will cease to exist.
The Moxi Works API gives our approved partners an easy way to integrate with our open platform and helps provide a seamless solution to our brokerage customers, making them more profitable, and their agents more productive. Having all of their data in one center of truth, speaking to their unique variation of tools and services they’re plugging into their power strip, means they’ve future-proofed themselves for any and all technology changes to come. Why? Because they retain control of all their data.
The five core data components that the open platform has are:
1. Property data
2. Brokerage and agent data
3. Consumer data
4. Integration with the cloud environment with Microsoft and Google
5. An API allowing other companies to integrate
If a brokerage doesn’t use a powerful API to connect all of their tools and services, there is anarchy amongst them. A lack of integration gives agents and brokerages tool fatigue. The Moxi Cloud open platform and Moxi Works API work together to store and exchange data, and above all else, means brokerages can take the investment in their existing tools and services and integrate them using our open platform and API.
Want to know what our Moxi Works API is like? Here’s an idea of what our partners are saying about their experience with us.
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?
Is Amazon Going to Lower Your Leads Cost?
By Tiana Baur
“Alexa, find me the best real estate agent for our neighborhood.” Another giant might be joining the real estate industry madness with Google and Facebook, providing more referrals and lead generation to real estate agents. An Amazon placeholder page was discovered, which has since been removed, that gave people the option to “Hire a Realtor.”
The webpage was found in their Home and Business Services section, which is a newly rolled out vendor marketplace. According to Inman, “If the marketplace works for agents like it does for other professionals, then agents would pay referral fees to Amazon in exchange for new business. Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.” The general public can already hire home inspectors and interior designers via the marketplace, so adding real estate agents to the vendor list actually makes a lot of sense.
Image source: Inman News
Reviews, Reviews, More Reviews
Amazon is review rich. It’s what makes buying from them easy and painless. Like everything else with them, their Home and Business Services section also has reviews for their vendors, meaning that real estate agent reviews might have yet another place to live. Instead of agents asking for reviews, they might start receiving them unprompted.
Move Over, Zillow
If Amazon really is going to get into the lead generation game, this agent referral page might be able to create extremely strong leads, meaning more competition for Zillow, making leads more affordable across the board. In fact, according to GeekWire, “When reports of the Amazon page surfaced, Zillow’s stock price slumped from $46.15 a share to $44.54.” They also declined to comment on the surfacing of this new service.
York Baur, CEO of MoxiWorks, said, “Monopolies are never good and competition is the antidote. If anyone can give Zillow a run for their money, it’s Amazon, and knowing them they’ll be incredibly price competitive.”
Plus, let’s face it: Amazon finds ways to make everything more affordable. Even on Thanksgiving, they were able to provide turkeys at a lower price at Whole Foods (the used-to-be most unaffordable way to buy groceries) since they recently acquired the company.
The future of real estate in general could get a lot more exciting and fun with Amazon in the mix. Actually, Amazon might just take over the world – and we’re kind of excited to watch them do it. “Hey Alexa, close this transaction for me.”
