Propertybase Levels the Playing Field in a Competitive Market
On a mission to transcend the barriers between real estate and mortgage, Propertybase—a global real estate and mortgage software company—is working to bridge the gap among the various players involved in a real estate transaction in order to provide everyone involved, but especially consumers, a more streamlined experience.
Leading the helm is Chief Product Officer Tim Fessenden, who has been in the software business for the past 25 years.
Opening the Lines of Communication
“From a technology perspective, real estate has always been a laggard,” says Fessenden. “But over the past year especially, we’ve come to see how important technology is in this space—and how it will be even more so going forward.”
To that end, Fessenden and his team are laser-focused on marrying what historically tend to be siloed efforts and operations within the real estate transaction.
Working toward this goal begins with codifying relationships across the transaction.
“It’s not like real estate professionals, mortgage professionals and others in the transaction aren’t talking to each other,” says Fessenden. “But their conversations are taking place outside of the systems, and it’s not something they’re utilizing software for.”
Creating these relationships and finding ways for those involved in the transaction to connect with the Propertybase network, which has close to 300,000 end users across its various products, sets the stage for sharing opportunities that arise on both sides of the equation.
“We see this extending to all the personas, from mortgage and insurance all the way down the line to each and every ancillary service that occurs downstream,” says Fessenden.
But how will real estate professionals and the brokerages they work for benefit from Propertybase’s quest to blur the lines between real estate and mortgage?
“At the core, it will provide more at-bats and high-quality opportunities, which, at the end of the day, is exactly what real estate professionals are looking for,” says Fessenden.
Standing Out Among the Competition
Leveling the playing field even further, Fessenden goes on to explain that Propertybase’s solution will allow independent brokerages—or franchisees that don’t get the support they need—the ability to compete.
“We believe that the portfolio we’re bringing to the market today, and what we’ll continue to bring to the market, will level the playing field,” says Fessenden.
In fact, since moving into the mortgage lending space just six short months ago (at press time) with the acquisition of Unify, there’s been an overwhelming demand from key players in the mortgage vertical who need help rebuilding their pipeline in order to generate a larger presence in their respective markets.
“We’re constantly being asked how we can help grow one’s pipeline so that they can compete against the Zillows of the world who have a large brand awareness,” says Fessenden, who goes on to say that the biggest takeaway centers around the fact that they’re empowering the independents to provide the same level of service that the bigger guys provide.
This, in turn, will streamline the entire customer journey.
“As technology evolves, buyers and sellers are going to continue to look at the real estate professional as their quarterback,” says Fessenden. “The real estate professional who can provide that help through the full lifecycle of the transaction will showcase their value-add and stick with the client for the long haul.”
Providing solutions for all who play a role in the real estate transaction so that they can, in turn, be offered to the consumer is the ultimate end goal.
“For example, we’re providing capabilities to the process that allow the key players within the transaction to collaborate via a virtual roundtable [available with Propertybase Back Office] in order to seamlessly pose questions to one another and ensure that the client’s documentation is clean and clear,” says Fessenden.
“Consumers love this piece of the puzzle because we maintain all of their documentation for seven years, making it easy for them to come back to the space should they need to after the transaction has been completed.”
Looking Toward the Future
While real estate continues to be a relationship-driven business, Fessenden notes that Propertybase remains committed to leaning on both technology and partnerships to facilitate business growth as the future unfolds.
“First and foremost, we are a software company that’s not only providing software, but also, value-added services,” says Fessenden. “And we envision ourselves as always having software as a core tenant in terms of the value we’re providing.”
As we head toward the future, it’s looking brighter than ever for the company as its foray into the mortgage space continues to change the game.
With the resources and capabilities to tackle the end-to-end real estate transaction, Fessenden explains that he and his team will be focusing their energy in two specific areas in the weeks and months to come.
“We’re continuing to look at insurance as our next area of investment, but, at the same time, we’re also concentrating on implementing the consumer clearing house we’ve built across the real estate transaction lifecycle in a more meaningful way,” concludes Fessenden.
For more information, please visit www.propertybase.com.
Paige Tepping is RISMedia’s managing editor. Email her your real estate news ideas to paige@rismedia.com.
