Should Real Estate Agents Use BYOD?

Bring Your own Device (BYOD) is a growing trend across all industries because it offers high levels of flexibility for users. With BYOD, users can work from any location and from a device they are most comfortable with.

One of the industries that has benefited immensely from BYOD is real estate. Since the real estate agents have to be mobile all the time, BYOD is their perfect technology partner as it helps these agents to view listings, reach out to potential clients, connect with colleagues, and do everything that they would do in an office.

However, BYOD has some risks too. When real estate firms allow their agents to use their own personal devices, there is no central record of the conversations and transactions that take place between the agent and clients. Moreover, the contact details of clients are lost when the agent leaves the firm. For these reasons, real estate firms are increasingly looking beyond BYOD options.

One option they have is SaaS (News - Alert) in the cloud. This technology allows agents to access a particular software from the cloud without installing it on their own device. As a result, they can do the same functions that they were doing before, but all of the data and applications are in the cloud. This option allows agents to use their own devices, and at the same time, allows companies to stay on top of agents' activities.

Another option is to use business phone systems that come with cloud-based PBX (News - Alert) where the businesses' network connects with the public network to integrate all devices through a centralized phone, according to a report in Realty Biz News.