Have you heard of Podio? It was on our list of Favorite Things for 2014
We hadn’t heard of it either until about a year ago. And if you’ve been following this blog (or our email list) for any amount of time, you probably know that we use InfusionSoft as our main CRM.
But we heard so many good things about Podio that we wanted to give it a try in our own real estate business, and see what all the hype was about.
We tested Podio for about 6 months with a team of 3 people. The 3 positions on our team were marketing person, acquisitions person, and deal analyzer.
Why you might want to consider Podio
In order to catch your attention right off the bat Podio is FREE for 1-5 users. This makes it extremely attractive for the new Realtors and Investors. And why we had not issues giving it a try for a few months.
Podio is also VERY good at helping teams of Realtors, or Investors work together.
The way that I describe Podio is like a Facebook for your business. It’s very interactive! You can even go as fas as Liking (or Hearting) someone’s update.
It’s also great when you need more than one person working on a deal (or multiple deals).
How Podio can simplify your life
Imagine that you have a phone system. When the phone rings and a seller leaves a message Podio assigns your acquisitions person to call them back. Once your acquisitions person deems that the sellers might have a deal they enter the property info into Podio, and adds a task for the deal analyzer to take a look. The deal analyzer takes a look, and posts a note saying that you can buy the property for $200k, and tags the acquisitions person. The accessions person then goes out and locks up the deal at $200k, and starts the closing checklist in Podio, which all other team members can follow along without having to ask the acquisitions person “how it’s going?”.
Podio deal analysis
The communication flow that Podio makes available is really masterful! But you really need to dig into it yourself to see what I mean.
Setting up Podio
If there is one downside to Podio it’s the setting up of your system. This is because Podio is designed for many different types of businesses. Not just real estate. Although lots of real estate businesses use it, and it was a real estate business that brought it to our attention.
That being said, once you have the hang of it, it’s pretty easy. You just need to have a vision for how you want your deal flow to… flow.
A shoutout to Podio customer service
Podio chat system
Inside Podio they have an instant messenger function. This is similar to GChat where if someone on your team is using Podio they are available to instant chat with you. This function is really great when you’re working on a project together.
BUT the brilliant thing that Podio did, is they put their support staff in your chat list. Now I’ve found that the replies aren’t instant, but they are reliable, and so much easier than any other support system that I’ve used. Any other support system!
So, HUGE props to the Podio support system!
An option for Podio set up
There is an option for setting up your Podio without having to learn the whole system. That is that you have someone (like us), load our apps into your Podio account. That way you can simply start using Podio just like we do. If you are tech savvy I don’t recommend this path, as you will find things that you like and don’t like about the way our workflow is. And you’ll want to do things your own way. But if you aren’t tech savvy we’ve giving our Podio apps to several teams who use it without any hiccups at all.
Who is Podio right for
If you are new to the real estate world, and aren’t using any kind of deal flow software I highly recommend that you checkout Podio.
Or if you’re using a CRM system, and you don’t really like how it’s working, you should checkout Podio immediately. It can really simplify your deal flow communication, which will help to get deals done faster.
If you’re doing a ton of email marketing, Podio might not be the right fit for you, or if you’re a one man/woman team if might not be the best. But if you plan on bringing people onto your team, you should start using Podio to see if you like it.
Podio is compatible with email marketing systems like MailChimp, but it will take some technical savvy to set it up.
Right now we are using InfusionSoft as our primary email marketing system because of it’s great automation, but it’s inferior in it’s team communication.
Overall Podio impression
Podio is an amazing system that we thing everyone in the real estate industry should be considering. I mean it’s free to try out.
You can get started by going to: www.Podio.com
If you have questions about how we use Podio feel free to comment below or shoot us an email at Info@PowerUPSocialMedia.com. Like I said above, we have been using it for over 6 months, and have found that communicating about deals has improved immensely.