The 3-part framework for a stronger real estate digital strategy
A smarter digital strategy starts by looking beyond the tech.
To deliver real value, your systems must align with your people, processes and long‑term vision. The following framework breaks that down into three pillars — clarity of roles, tech‑enabled relationships and a future‑focused roadmap — that can help elevate your strategy.
Real estate digital strategy framework
Three key areas can make or break your digital strategy:
- Roles and responsibilities: How your team operates, the tools they use and how those responsibilities are documented
- Relationships: How you manage critical connections with investors and clients through technology
- Vision for the future: How you align your technology roadmap with your business goals
Understanding these factors provides a framework for building a digital strategy that drives efficiency, scalability and long-term success.
1. Roles, responsibilities and technology optimization
Documenting roles and responsibilities is more than an HR or isolated team/department exercise; it’s a cross-functional review of how your teams use technology and where gaps exist. Start by mapping who does what today and identifying pain points:
- Are teams still relying on spreadsheets or manual processes even though better tools exist?
- Are duplicate systems creating redundancy?
- Would modernizing specific platforms help staff work more effectively?
Thorough documentation can uncover these gaps and guide improvements in technology usage. As part of documentation, it’s also important to consider:
Ongoing change management
Adoption isn’t a one-time event. Build a plan for ongoing training and support so employees understand how to use the technology as roles evolve and new hires come on board.
Establishing a regular cadence for reviews, such as quarterly check-ins or monthly refreshers, helps maximize ROI by reinforcing best practices, uncovering usage gaps and keeping teams aligned with evolving business goals. These touchpoints also provide opportunities to celebrate wins and gather feedback, which encourages deeper engagement.
Implementing technology governance
Audit your tech stack to eliminate duplicative systems and reduce data silos. It’s also important to standardize cost codes, general ledgers and reporting across departments so you can roll up accurate financial and client data.
2. Strengthen relationships with technology
In a relationship‑driven industry, firms that build trust and deliver personalized experiences stand out. Your digital strategy should address:
How to optimize your real estate CRM
A modern CRM should capture more than contact details — it should record conversations, challenges and priority updates so anyone stepping into the relationship understands not just the facts but the drivers. Adding this data also helps ensure successors pick up relationships without disruption.
Access control
Along with relationships comes a range of stakeholders accessing your systems and data. Knowing where data is stored and who has access is essential for keeping sensitive information secure.
For example, your organization should consider:
- Monitoring access to investor platforms and updating access when investors leave.
- Using multifactor authentication for systems that house sensitive data.
- Maintaining an audit trail that shows what files have been accessed or modified and when.
Having the right protocols in place means your firm will have fewer vulnerabilities as relationships change.
3. The future of your firm
Understanding where your business stands today, where it’s headed and the “why” behind it all is critical to securing your future success. Your digital strategy should support that vision, with a deep understanding of what tools will be needed to keep IT aligned with the broader strategy.
As you plan the future of your firm’s innovation, consider:
Addressing your tech debt
Many real estate businesses may feel that their current tech is working well, or that they don’t have enough users to require significant tech investments. However, the rate of change in technology means that your potential tech debt can add up quickly.
If you wait to upgrade legacy systems until they no longer support your operations, you may be looking at more significant costs. And you may also find your business has fallen too far behind the competition when it comes to adopting new innovations like AI.
How you assess your digital strategy
In the same way you revisit and redefine the desired future state of your firm, a digital strategy shouldn’t be static.
Regular assessments should evaluate your current systems, as well as your team, their roles and functions. These assessments help you get more value from your current tech investment and plan out future investments more effectively.
Your AI readiness
While most firms aren’t yet at the point where AI can be leveraged as a digital workforce, that reality isn’t far off.
AI readiness should be part of your broader technology and data strategy. If your systems are fragmented and your data is poor, AI won’t deliver meaningful results.
Standardization, integration and data quality are the foundation for leveraging AI effectively, and they’re areas where you can start making improvements today.
How Wipfli can help
Whether you’re navigating economic disruption or the rapidly changing digital landscape, Wipfli can help you uncover inefficiencies, optimize systems and build a tech-enabled future. Talk to our real estate services team today about how to move your business forward.
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