As a real estate professional, you might have heard of the Smarter Agent app because it promises that you can engage better with potential real estate buyers.
But is the app something for your real estate business?
In this article, I try to answer this question and provide you with the ultimate Smarter Agent Reviews combo package.
I discuss what Smarter Agent is, its features, how it works for real estate pros, the pricing, the pros and cons, and what other users have to say about it.
So please, keep reading.
What Is Smarter Agent?
Initially, Smarter Agent Inc. was a research and development company, and the founders were brothers Brad W. Blumberg and Eric M. Blumberg. This was around 2008.
The application is a mobile SaaS (Software as a Service) platform in real estate. You can search for homes for sale, recently sold homes, and apartments for rent based on GPS data.
The latter makes finding properties in an area possible based on your current position.
The home sale information is integrated with MLS listings in more than 300 real estate markets.
You can find properties sold within the last three years, and the ‘apartments for rent section is integrated with websites such as apartments.com.
The information you get displayed once you find a property is as follows:
- Price
- Square footage
- Taxes
- Estimated mortgage
- Pictures
- Number of bedrooms and bathrooms
- Features (interior and exterior)
- An interactive map
If you, as a user (a potential real estate buyer), want to contact a real estate agent, you can click on “Call to See” and then schedule a property showing.
You can also see a “Broker Reciprocity” logo at the bottom.
In this case, you can view all publicly available MLS listings in the respective area.
The name “Broker Reciprocity” comes from a national MLS program with a similar name, “Broker Reciprocity/IDX.”
Its IDX helps to integrate MLS databases in third-party applications (discussed already in this article).
By supporting this system, Smarter Agent can partner with local brokers and agents, enabling them to access both their own listings and all listings in that market.
If this logo is not displayed, only 25% of the available listings that come from respective real estate companies will be displayed.
Smarter Agent Features and Benefits
Whether you will use the Power App (Single App) or the Office App (Comprehensive Suite), you will have different features at your disposal.
Actually, the only difference between the Power App and the Office App in terms of features is that with the Office App, not only one agent can use it but 200, and you will have more lead routing, special icons, and home screen icons at your disposal.
These are the features both versions offer:
- IDX property listings
- GPS, address, city/state-based property searches for real estate clients
- Distribution tools such as URL, mobile engagement page, and app code
Smarter Agent in Action – A Real Estate Marketing Use Case
To use the Smarter Agent app effectively in your real estate marketing, you need to motivate your potential and current clients to download the app.
You could promote the unique link to the app you will get as a real estate professional on different marketing channels, such as:
- Your website contact page
- In your email signatures (with app store badges)
- In WhatsApp messages or other chat systems (e.g., with a Facebook Chatbot)
- On a Facebook business page as a pinned post
- On landing pages where potential clients come to from your digital marketing campaigns of Facebook Ads or Google Ads
Generally speaking, you will be able to increase your chances of communicating and engaging with potential clients on a higher quality level when they will use the app.
Why?
Because they will create an account and enter their first name, last name, and email.
They will then be able to save properties and searches and get notifications.
The potential clients and leads that created an account can also share the app with other contacts.
Once you are logged in as a real estate agent, you will have access to the Engage Portal, where you can do client outreach.
Three different views are available: Mobile, Timeline, and Client.
Mobile View
Here, you can display the activity by a particular date range. You will also see the app usage analytics, engagement data, and leads.
Timeline
In the timeline view, you can see the activity in your app. You will also see the ID, contact information, and searched properties there.
So you will be able to learn what your clients want.
Client
The client profile view allows you to access specific client information, the price ranges and locations they searched, and which properties were recommended.
You can use all this behavioral client information to be better prepared before you make a call to a particular client.
Below you can watch a video where the use case for real estate marketing is also discussed.
Smarter Agent Pricing
The Smarter Agent app comes with a slightly high price tag because you usually would expect other prices for an app.
The Power App plan costs $249 per month plus a one-time payment of $9.99 per agent app and has a one-time setup fee of $275.
The Office App plan costs $349 per month and includes 200 apps for agents. The one-time setup fee here is also $275.
So, price-wise mid-size to larger size real estate offices (brokerages, etc.) can benefit a bit more from using the Office App plan.
Smarter Agent Pros and Cons
Smarter Agent Pros
- Great tool for clients of real estate brokers and agents to search and view properties, including MLS listings
- Can help real estate pros to better engage and follow up with new real estate leads and potential clients.
- Gives real estate pros better insights about what a potential client is looking for via analytics.
- It is integrated with MLS listings in more than 300 real estate markets.
Smarter Agent Cons
- High monthly recurring costs for real estate pros
- Some real estate agents report that clients using the app are not directed to them (a huge minus).
- The last version update was on September 2nd, 2019.
- Some report a buggy user experience, such as min and max pricing out of sync, the save feature not working, frozen screens, not up-to-date houses, and more.
3 Smarter Agent Alternatives
1) Redfin
You would need to be a realtor on Redfin or a partner of a real estate professional to use their application for your real estate business since it’s an online brokerage.
As a direct seller, Redfin helps you find the right real estate agent to help you with the sale.
As mentioned and analyzed in this and this article, this platform also includes an app for potential buyers to search for homes.
Real estate professionals can use it similarly to Smart Agent as a marketing tool.
They also offer a service to promote your properties, including 3D Walkthroughs for free and digital marketing campaigns for sellers on Facebook and Google.
You can check out Redfin here.
2) RealScout
I already covered an in-depth review of RealScout in this article.
Like the Smart Agent app, potential real estate clients can search for properties from a realtor’s website.
Real estate pros can also use it as a marketing tool.
The app integrates with MLS data, so depending on the respective search parameters of the real client (the user), property listings are displayed, and similar ones are suggested.
The software ensures that potential clients stay focused on searching for properties from just one agent, so the real estate pro isn’t cut out.
You can check out RealScout here.
3) Homes.com
Homes.com is another app that realtors can use for marketing purposes.
As a potential buyer, you can search for available homes in the local neighborhood, use interactive maps, and check mortgage rates.
The platform also has different partnerships with MLS boards, and it integrates with more than 650 MLS IDX listing feeds with more than 4.3 million listings.
It also features agent and broker websites with IDX and Virtual Office Website capabilities and lead generation and management services.
You can check out Homes.com here.
4 Smarter Agent Customer Reviews
Bringing this article to a close, I will provide you with two positive Smarter Agent customer reviews and two negative ones.
Two Positive Customer Reviews
“I found this app accidentally while doing a search for real estate apps. I really liked using this one because the pictures in the listings were big.
It was very easy to get in touch with local agents to view other properties and what I was looking for.”
“I have been using other applications but the GPS search on Smarter Agent is by far my favorite.
My husband and I have been house-hunting in South Jersey for a while now, and this has made our search a lot easier.
I LOVE the fact that I can go to a neighborhood that I like, hit the GPS search and I can see all the homes for sale in that neighborhood.
There is a lot of information provided for each listing, and I like that you get a variety of photos, unlike most applications that just give you one.
On a side note, on a recent trip to Miami Beach, I tried it out to see what the housing prices were like.
Well, they were out of my league, but WOW, there were a lot more for sale than what appears to the naked eye.
It was really cool to see what the places looked like inside.”
Two Negative Customer Reviews
“They sell you a branded product but when the app gets lost and re-downloaded they send your clients to another agent or brokerage.
The representative I spoke to, hung up on me when I questioned this tactic.”
“Just loaded this app because my favorite local real estate office app ceased operations.
Just tried to peruse homes, and both times I picked a listing to view, I couldn’t back out after looking at the photos.
Screen froze. Each time I had to turn my phone completely off to reset.” (source no longer accessible online, 14.02.22)
Conclusion
The Smart Agent app seems to provide great value in terms of real estate marketing, engaging with potential leads for real estate pros, and getting good insights into their behavior and property needs.
However, the two main concerns to me were that the app hasn’t been updated for a long time and that some real estate pros reported that users sometimes weren’t directed to them but to other agents.
I assume the latter may also cause the app not to be up to date.
My impression of the user reviews was that some very positive ones seemed a bit “staged” and not authentic.
Unfortunately, the negative ones seemed more genuine, but that’s just me.
You can check out Smarter Agent here.
This article has been reviewed by our editorial team. It has been approved for publication in accordance with our editorial policy.
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