How RPR® helps California broker work smarter
Derek Sprague, CCIM, has made the most of his 13 years as a partner at Mossy Oak Properties California Farm & Ranch in Bakersfield, Calif. A combination of factors has led to his success thus far, such as staying actively involved in the industry and building a strong national network of fellow real estate professionals. And throughout it all, he has relied on technology like Realtors Property Resource® (RPR®) to help him work more efficiently and effectively.
“RPR bolsters my real estate toolbelt,” says Sprague. “The mobile app is incredibly useful for obtaining data and delivering a professional experience to clients on-the-go.”
Technology that enhances and streamlines the real estate experience is essential for a busy professional like Sprague. While he has exponentially advanced his career and circle of influence by serving on committees for both the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) and the California Association of REALTORS®—including being recognized among NAR’s “30 Under 30″—Sprague admits that balancing his daily client responsibilities and his numerous volunteer roles has been challenging.
“But my industry involvement positioned me to advance my professional career much more rapidly than I ever would have on my own,” he maintains. “Being able to hear best practices and learning how other successful people are doing business helped me build my business. Additionally, a number of my 30 Under 30 contacts have provided me with referrals over the years, and knowing I have trusted colleagues across the country makes it easier for me to make referrals when my clients are looking for properties in other regions.”
In order to balance his networking commitments with his busy real estate career, Sprague learned how to work smarter by leaning on technology, such as geographic information systems (GIS) technology that he uses in tandem with data and analytics he curates from RPR.
Sprague deploys GIS technology to bring in sales comps and create maps to display where comps have sold, and the prices paid per acre.
“Real estate is geography, so I’ve played around with GIS enough times to create a system for our company that takes advantage of several aspects of that tool,” he explains. “Recently, a client needed to locate properties with no conservation easements, and within five minutes of using GIS, we pulled together a map showing all the properties under that criteria, the names of the owners, and so forth.”
Sprague then uses RPR’s map-based searching for on- and off-market properties to rapidly access data when he’s out in the field. This adds a more detailed level of data to the GIS findings, including tax, demographic, economic, flood zones, distressed data, school information, and more.
“Sometimes I work on land projects throughout Central California,” Sprague explains. “RPR gives me access to data that’s tough to find and centralizes it in one spot. To have a tool that aggregates data in a quick, simple and easy-to-use way is critical.”
Sprague says he is as impressed with the RPR platform’s user-friendliness as he is with the attentive technical support he has received.
“RPR is committed to the success of its users by delivering hands-on training, and they are incredibly responsive to feedback,” he explains. “Out of all the technology solutions I have access to, RPR is probably the only company that will travel to present trainings.”
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