Spreadsheets are the silent killers of real estate, suffocating the potential to build your firm.
As expected, the spreadsheet appears to be the best option when starting with a small number of listings and/or agents. We frequently see this approach accepted because of the “perceived benefits” of spreadsheet-based processes: “good value, flexibility, and scalability” as well as requiring little technical knowledge to do so.
While these are certainly key benefits required in a tool, the expectations of achieving your goal using a spreadsheet never actually translate into a reality.
Ways Spreadsheet is killing your business
With so much to do in so little time, resource efficiency is important. Ultimately, utilizing spreadsheets to handle listings, particularly those that are huge and complex, proves to be unreliable, unproductive, and time-consuming. There are numerous explanations for this, which we’ve listed below:
1. Misinformation & Loss Of Project Detail
What happens if the information in your spreadsheet is updated or modified? Are you able to maintain consistency in your listing data across all of your sales channels?
The spreadsheet requires you to enter your data once, then re-enter it for every share. Manually. Then, if updates and changes occur, you must update your spreadsheet and then re-enter those updates and changes across all of your shares, again. Each share raises the likelihood of human error and doubles the time required to maintain data.
2. Time-Consuming
The larger your company grows, the more time and money a spreadsheet becomes a burden on your productivity and bottom line.
Employees spend roughly 12-18 hours on average aggregating, amending, and correcting spreadsheets, which equates to one and a half business days. Furthermore, according to Ventana Research, at least 50% of businesses that utilizes spreadsheets spend more days to complete their monthly close – imagine what you could accomplish with those few extra days?
The capacity to act quickly, whether you’re aiming to beat the competition to market or not, is one of the top differentiators of high-performing organizations. However, spreadsheets often hold people down by requiring repeated processes that can be automated or optimized on other platforms. Because there is no central database with multiple components, you’re required to enter data into a spreadsheet for tenants, another for receipts, etc. Talk about triple handling!
3. Slows your decision-making process
Aside from the time lost, your spreadsheet lacks a useful means to see and manage your online listings or analyze their success.
An overview is provided by data analysis, which pulls data from several departments. Using spreadsheets, this procedure takes days to complete. By the time the report hits your desk, the data is outdated. Because of this, making fast decisions in a fast-paced market is difficult.
4. Security Risk
Aside from hackers, unintentional security breaches and harm caused by untrained staff may be more dangerous. Preventing workers from messing up a spreadsheet while entering data typically results in extra processes and time-consuming effort. The data may need to be provided to someone with modification permissions, causing delays and unnecessary processes. This also increases the danger of someone stealing your key data and business operations.
Work Smarter, Not Harder
A dedicated real estate online listing management software can assist you in matching inventory with opportunities in a timely and accurate manner. While spreadsheets and listing platforms both begin with manual data entry, online listings management tools seamlessly connect your leads, listings, agents, and co-brokers – offering you a 360-degree view of your team, inventory, and opportunities.
Instead of navigating a spreadsheet that is always shifting and expanding, why not use Property Flow to help you? With the right real estate analytical software, you may immediately grant access to all relevant parties so they can access and update their inputs.
Property Flow offers a user-friendly dashboard with built-in capabilities. This makes the process of creating listings quick and simple, which is critical for eliminating errors snd saving you time.
