Benefits of a Real Estate Transaction Calendar

Here’s a pop quiz for you. What’s a real estate transaction calendar? If you answered, “A Godsend,” then you’ve clearly experienced this tool firsthand.

While we’re being a bit tongue-in-cheek here, we’re highlighting a truth that most real estate pros know only too well: If you don’t have a calendar system in place, your career in real estate pretty much overruns your life like a noxious weed.

It’s just plain hard to keep up.

Who Uses a Real Estate Transaction Calendar?

For John Q Public, the local real estate office equals the real estate agent. Given that it’s the real estate agent who usually runs an open house or has homes in the yearly Parade of Homes, this assumption is natural. The real estate agent is the public face of the real estate business.

However, it takes a village to run a real estate office. As such, each person who works at the office from the broker to the real estate transaction coordinator and finally to the real estate agent, potentially benefits from using a simple real estate transaction calendar.

A Real Estate Transaction Calendar Offers You An Overview

Some of the benefits of a real estate transaction calendar are fairly straightforward. That is, everyone on the team has at-a-glance access to everyone’s activities when a calendar feature is introduced to the mix.

Additionally, most calendar software these days allows for the integration of the calendar software with online calendars like Google Calendar. It isn’t necessary for users of real estate calendar software to use two different calendars. And anyone who has access to your Google calendar, like your assistant, can see your schedule if they login to Google calendar (or whatever calendar you use).

Streamline Transactions With Simple Real Estate Calendars

A real estate transaction calendar allows for segmenting and filtering, which helps you streamline your work.

For example, if you’re an agent and you need to contact all the people whose homes close in the next week, this type of specialized real estate technology lets you filter your calendar’s results by closing dates. In this case, when you switch to calendar view, you’ll see the closings for the day, week, or month, depending on how you set the filter.

Efficiency experts extoll the virtues of this type of planning, which is called time chunking. Basically, time chunking is when you organize your activities around chunks of activities instead of chunks of time.

In our example, the real estate agent carves out an afternoon to take care of all of his or her closings for the week in one sitting. Because this type of organization is thought to be less challenging to the brain, the person who uses the time chunking time management system gets more done and often makes fewer mistakes.

From the clients’ point of view, it means that their real estate agent is putting the best foot forward for the sale of the clients’ homes. Something like a simple real estate transaction calendar can make a big difference in Realtor efficiency and client services at the same time, just by allowing the agent to maximize time management systems, like time chunking.

Real Estate Calendars Encourage Lead-Building

Some real estate transaction calendars allow you to filter your clients by their birthdays and home anniversary days. If you choose this filter, then your clients’ birthdays or home anniversary days show up on your calendar.

Why is this important? According to some statistics, more than 80% of all real estate transactions come from referrals. Nearly 90% of all home buyers and sellers say that they would use the same real estate agent again on another home deal.

So, what does this have to do with using a real estate transaction calendar for client birthdays and home anniversaries? Plenty, if you want to get referrals for your business. One way to do this is to remember the important dates in your clients’ lives and then reach out to them on those dates.

It takes just a few minutes to send out a card or flowers to a client on their home anniversary date or their birthday. Simple as these gestures are, though, your past clients will likely remember you when it comes time to either buy or sell their home or refer their friends and family to a real estate agent.

Segmented Messaging at-a-Glance

This is related to the section above, though it deserves its own section. Your real estate transaction calendar can become the basis for any content marketing you intend to do.

Let’s go back to the closing example. Say that your content marketing includes writing a helpful blog post or white paper on the closing process. You know from experience that many buyers and sellers feel a lot of anxiety around closing.

To alleviate their closing-related stress, it’s your plan to send those clients a link to the blog or a copy of the white paper. The at-a-glance feature of the calendar shows you who you should send that information to and when.

The job will be fairly straightforward. Most real estate CRM software gives you streamlined access to all of your clients’ information. While you may first see it when you’re in calendar view, a simple mouse click takes you from calendar view to client contact information. From there, you can send out your content marketing material.

This can work for any significant task in the sales process. For example, you can create content around home inspections, loan contingencies and/ or mortgage issues, and more.

This kind of communication not only allows you to better serve your clients, but it is also a good long-term marketing strategy. The client you communicate with regularly is the client who remembers you.

Final Thoughts on Real Estate Transaction Calendars

A simple real estate transaction calendar really is a Godsend for the real estate pro who knows how to use it. This real estate technology benefits everyone who works in a real estate office because it gives them an at-a-glance look at important dates and events. Any agent who has ever lost a client because they didn’t stay on top of a listing date, or more specifically when a listing expired, understands this only too well.

However, a simple real estate transaction calendar also benefits clients. Agents who use them are better organized and can offer better service to them just by using calendar technology.

If you’d like to streamline your real estate career, take a look at Shaker’s new real estate transaction calendar feature. It’s part of Shaker’s transaction management software.