4 Ways Rechat Can Sync Your RE Team for Success
A look at how one real estate team uses Rechat CRM to boost collaboration, efficiency, networking and more.
Running a real estate team is akin to coaching a sports team. Just ask Tinka Ellington, executive director of luxury sales at Douglas Elliman in Boca Raton.
She founded the Tinka Ellington Group nearly four years ago and understands that when her team moves in sync it’s easier to achieve their collective goals.
“In the beginning, our file sharing and listing management was discombobulated,” she says. “It was a messy, time-consuming process that also kept us bogged down by administrative and marketing tasks.”
Thanks to Rechat, an agent platform for lead generation, customer relationship management (CRM), marketing automation and transaction management, Ellington’s team now operates with greater efficiency.
“Our working relationship and time savings have improved so much that we’re not only more effective but we also have more freedom to focus on selling,” she adds.
Specializing in properties along the coastal corridor between the Atlantic Ocean and Federal Highway, Ellington uses her 22 years of local experience and passion for water recreation to connect with clients on a personal level.
“I’m a boater who enjoys boats, kayaks and water sports toys,” she says. “It makes real estate much easier when you can sell something you can really talk about or be an expert on.”
Rechat offers its products to real estate brokerages, which then provide the platform to their agents. Pricing varies depending on the specific agreement with the brokerage.
“We started using it after Douglas Elliman implemented it at the brokerage, which was around the same time I formed my team,” Ellington says. “Rechat has taken us from an antiquated, old school way of doing things and completely changed our business. It improved how we manage marketing tasks, track client data and put our team at the forefront—all within a matter of weeks.”
Ellington recalls that a year and a half ago, a prospect reached out to her from another city.
“When I asked how he had heard about me, he couldn’t remember,” she says. “There was no personal connection, and we tirelessly tried to figure out how he came to find me. Nevertheless, within two weeks of getting to know his family and doing some Zoom calls because they were out of state during COVID-19, I helped them purchase a $4.5 million home. We thought, ‘Hey, we really like each other; it would be nice to know how we found each other.’ So, we did some digging and discovered that he had seen a post of mine on my Facebook page because we were somehow connected through another agent. That post, created through Rechat, caught his attention and resulted in a significant sale.”
Here are benefits Ellington’s team derives from Rechat:
1. Team collaboration
Ellington has six team members—five agents and one assistant. She points out that some CRMs only grant access to certain team members and restrict others.
“Rechat is one of the few CRMs that allows you to work as a team,” she says. “That’s a huge benefit to us. I’ve been with the company for 10 years and have gone through several systems, which was quite challenging. People don’t like changing brokerages because transferring their data and learning a new system is so painful. When Douglas Elliman first introduced this, we were moaning and groaning, but then we realized what a great benefit it was. Agents have actually come to Douglas Elliman because of Rechat, in addition to us having great management. It’s a huge perk.”
2. Marketing efficiency
The platform streamlines the Tinka Ellington Group’s marketing efforts by automatically pulling and updating information from their MLS entries, including all photos and data points.
“It saves us time because we don’t have to do double entry of data,” Ellington says. “We can choose templates for emails, newsletters or social media and make minimal adjustments. All we have to do is click on it, change a couple of things around and our marketing is ready to go. Everything either gets auto-populated into our email system or our social media sites. We can also use the calendar function to prepare posts for each of our social media platforms in advance. It’s so much more streamlined, and we work much more effectively than having to use different sites and systems.”
Although much of the process is automated, users must still enter Rechat to schedule tasks and either utilize templates or set them up manually.
“The best example is when we have a new listing,” Ellington says. “Once the listing agreement is signed, we upload it into Rechat on the back end, and the broker signs it. Then the client’s name and email addresses from the listing agreement are automatically entered into the CRM. When the listing is entered into the MLS and pictures are uploaded they auto-populate into Rechat. Then, we log into the marketing side and download the ‘Just Listed’ flyer to email. We print nice brochures for when buyers visit, get the ‘Just Listed’ social media posts ready, and within 24 hours, we can launch a marketing blitz campaign for our new properties. I have to say, my team is so much better at social media than I am. They mostly use Instagram and Facebook, but they’ve started branching out to TikTok and LinkedIn. If we didn’t have Rechat, I would need to hire another marketing person.”
3. Enhanced workflow
When a team member inputs a listing or client information into Rechat, the data automatically populates across the entire system.
“We use it for documents we need to file, forms, contracts and addendums,” Ellington explains. “It’s great for our CRM because once we enter a contract or listing, the CRM updates automatically, eliminating the need for double or triple entries.”
Previously, they had to input information into three separate places: the contract, their CRM and their email list. “Rechat has streamlined everything,” she says, adding that it’s important to do the groundwork and take the time to properly set up the platform. “Within Douglas Elliman, our marketing arm creates templates for us in Rechat. They’ve set them up to be appealing and minimize a lot of the required back-end work. Personally, I’ve found CRMs challenging to use, so it’s a big achievement that we are effectively using it now.”
4. Better networking
Ellington and her team consistently generate referral business through their monthly newsletter.
“I recently got a call from an agent in New York whose aunt and uncle are wanting to sell their condo in Florida,” she says. “I’ve been with Douglas Elliman for so long that I have connections across different offices. People know me mostly from our continuous emails, newsletters or ‘Just Listed’ [announcements]. They often contact me to say, ‘Oh I see your emails all the time and thought you sounded like the right person to call. Rechat definitely plays a role in that aspect of our marketing efforts.”
Her team also uses Rechat for what she refers to as “reverse prospecting.”
“Another cool feature is the ability to search for agents who have sold properties within a specific radius of your listing, which allows you to reach out and introduce your property to them,” she says. “It acts as a radius marketing tool that saves you time and effort.” Instead of painstakingly searching recent sales, this tool allows Ellington and her team to connect within a few clicks. “We can say, ‘I saw you sold XYZ property a few months ago; I have a similar property.” Instead of waiting for buyers to find their listings, they proactively reach out to agents who have a history of selling similar properties in the area and whose clients are most likely be interested.
Ellington and her team have found Rechat user-friendly, despite an initial hiccup.
“We had one oopsie-daisy with the newsletter where it wasn’t translating properly to the mobile version,” she explains. “It took a little back-and-forth with the marketing department [via] their chat function to resolve it with tech support, but now it works just fine. If anything, we probably only utilize 50 to 60 of Rechat’s options and functions and ought to consider using more of what they offer.”
Leslie C. Stone is a Vero Beach-based freelance writer.