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ListOnce® ‘Fees Freeze & Frees’ to help agents through COVID-19

By ListOnce
30 July 2020 | 12 minute read
ListOnce

Promoted by ListOnce

Leading industry software provider, ListOnce, has announced they will freeze fees for a further 12 months on their versatile, Listings & Data Management Platform - to assist agents with the current challenges of reduced sales listings or reduced commission rates, in some markets around the country.

In addition, they will provide some complimentary products and modules (‘frees’) within the comprehensive, Integrations and APIs software.

WebIT director, Matt Webster, who owns the trademarked software platform with his brother and industry pioneer, David Webster (a PhD engineer who built the first version of realestateVIEW property portal back in the late 1990’s), said they had always tried to support the industry that had supported them for over twenty years.

“Right now, with many of our customers under additional commercial pressure, we’ve got to add even more value and benefit for agents and the industry.

Our ‘Fees Freeze & Frees’ initiative will run for at least the next 12 months and will help agencies and groups of all sizes with their profitability this financial year, at least in some modest way via additional value and cost savings with us”, he said.

ListOnce Website Powering via APIs provides a fast and reliable search engine (and associated website functionality) within many large and prestige websites such as Belle Property, PRD, RT Edgar, Barry Plant, Jellis Craig, Marshall White, Highland Property Group and Nelson Alexander, to name a few.  

Whilst the ListOnce Premium Multiloading software offers the most comprehensive set of data feeds and integrations available - now 150+ inbound and outbound data feeds via both XML and APIs - connecting agency websites, apps, any number of CRMs, property management software, property portals, review and referral sites, automated marketing systems, web to print systems, social media marketing, intranets, lead gen tools and more.

Together, the Powering and Multiloading products form the backbone of ListOnce, then there’s all sorts of additional products and modules available.

“Very importantly, the ListOnce platform is CRM-agnostic, which means our customers can use whichever CRMs, other software and even web developers, that they want.  Our job as technical experts is to help customers build and maintain a reliable, flexible and scalable proptech stack.”

Webster maintains there’s no ‘one-stop shop’ when it comes to industry software and proptech.  The industry (agents) and tech offerings are just too diverse and fragmented for that - with well over 500 proptech providers in Australia currently, including a plethora of CRMs and property management software providers.  It’s now a very noisy and probably over-crowded space, which can be confusing for agencies. 

A growing and proven successful model for larger, multi-office groups is to have a panel of preferred CRMs (rather than just one), which in the past may have been a major technical and commercial risk issue. But the ListOnce Agency Datahub (‘LOAD’) platform utilises extensive APIs, integrations and reporting to make the multi-CRM model work seamlessly.  We call this quite simply a ‘ProptechHub’ model. 

This model allows offices to choose their preferred CRM and property management software provider (and other tech products), whilst head office can still aggregate and utilise various data sets from multiple CRMs - for the greater benefit of the group and brand.  In effect, it’s the best of both worlds with CRMs helping offices with contacts management and marketing, whilst ListOnce + LOAD can provide the integrations and data management required by head office.  It also ensures various suppliers within the proptech stack generally stick to what they do best, and don’t over-reach.

National groups such as Belle Property, PRD and Barry Plant have shown considerable innovation to develop variations of this middleware and integrations model.

Webster wanted to particularly acknowledge Doug Hutchinson from Barry Plant group, who helped roadmap the model, commencing around 7 years ago.  It now forms an integral piece of their data warehouse and ‘Complete Digital’ model www.barryplant.com.au/media-hub/news/long-term-digital-vision-puts-barry-plant-ahead-curve/ 

Webster says talking to customers about longer term business and industry needs, means ListOnce will ‘double down’ on their technical expertise in Data Architecture, APIs and Integrations. We’re going to hire more backend developers with specific expertise in these critical areas, whilst the frontend developers can bring any required or customised User Interface to life.

In terms of getting more free products and enhancements into the hands of agents right now, ListOnce are currently rolling out freemium ‘AdTracker’ with numerous agencies.  

AdTracker is an automated, listing admin and marketing tool for agents to use with their Vendors and Landlords. AdTracker also drives traffic and leads back to an agency website.

Nelson Alexander, Hodges, Jellis Craig and Woodards groups in Victoria have been most active in the roll-out of AdTracker, confirming that the automation product helps their agents better communicate with their clients by providing useful listing information at exactly the right time in the campaign, and with no extra work for agents - as it’s automated. 

“AdTracker is simple on the outside but has integration and automation smarts on the inside. 

It facilitates timely communication and enhanced professionalism with clients, which of course then helps build brand reputation and future business”. 

Webster wanted to particularly acknowledge Jamie Owen from Nelson Alexander group, who helped roadmap the AdTracker product. 

“We’ve got to help our customers solve problems to improve their business, it’s as simple and challenging as that.

So, building these logical solutions and products shoulder to shoulder with smart customers achieves so much more for everyone, rather than the constant ‘yell and sell’ of myriad proptech providers offering the next big thing ... which often doesn’t live up to the hype.

In fact, we’re right now working closely with a major client on the development of our next web app product, ReportOnce, a logical reporting and marketing product which is both agent and consumer facing. We won’t build enhancements or new products without extensive customer input”. 

He adds that they’re on track to release ReportOnce for the Spring selling season.

In addition to free AdTracker, WebIT are currently offering a 15% discount on their standard Website Development fees (for existing websites or new, large website builds), to assist agencies through this next 12 months.

“We want these fee freezes, freemium products and discounts on core services to assist agents with their operations, marketing and cost savings this financial year”.

One other thing Webster is particularly proud of is their support and involvement with Real Estate Industry Partners (REIP), a national, industry-owned, agent representative group who are working to improve industry leadership, sustainability and innovation. 

The REIP Board, led by Mike Green and Dan White, have been consulting openly with over 200 industry leaders, some of the state-based Real Estate Institutes and the REIA to try and create a stronger voice for the national industry (both independents and groups) - including with Federal and State Governments - and in terms of better promoting to consumers the relevance and value of good agents. 

“WebIT and ListOnce are pleased to help the REIP industry group with this important cause by providing proptech and data expertise to REIP and its agency members and supporters. 

More Information?

If anyone in the industry would like more information on REIP objectives and activities, please call Mike Green via Harcourts International”. 

If any agencies or groups would like to discuss the benefits and various applications of the ListOnce Listings & Data Management Platform, please contact Matt Webster on phone 1300 655 448 or via email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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