DropOffer offers ways to add and communicate value: Tech Review

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DropOffer is a web and mobile off-market home sales solution

Platforms: iOS; browser
Ideal for: Buyer and listing agents; investors

Top selling points:

• Full browser-based version
• Consumer-facing search experience
• AI letter/campaign creation
• OffersSphere offer management solution
• Landing pages for offer reviews

Top concern:

Agents’ lack of comfort with approaching off-market owners and the industry’s lack of willingness to broach uncommon marketing tactics.

What you should know

DropOffer is a mobile and browser-based application for buyers to peruse off-market homes. Sellers can, on their own or with the help of an agent, post their property for consideration without officially putting it on the market.

Buyer agents can assist their clients with searching for alternatives to what’s on the local MLS by submitting tentative offers, or AI-crafted letters of intent, should a particular home spark their interest. Buyers “drop an offer” using the software that gets translated into a formal letter and mailed to the owner with a QR code that links back to the website.

If an email is available for the owner, that’s an option, too. Should both parties agree to move forward, the LOI terms will be used to drive the formally written offer.

Sellers wanting to promote their home on the site can claim it and build out their listing by choosing a number of predefined marketing templates that can describe their home as having “river views,” “golf course access,” or as a “horse property.” There are a lot of options. Users name a goal price, set low offer limits, offer agent compensation (or not) and then upload pictures and assets and employ an AI listing description.

Buyers can connect with an agent through DropOffer and also create a list of homes they’d like to pursue and launch outreach campaigns to gather responses. The software also provides capability for tracking responses and their history of offers made.

DropOffer gathers its listing data via REapi, a national property data feed. The search experience is pretty similar to most portals but could use a good front-end overhaul. Some more calls to action and an updated UI will help a lot in engaging buyers and giving listing agents a good argument for using it to post their sellers’ homes.

The company announced its new web application in September. The press release stated, “This maximizes exposure and ensures sellers receive offers from genuinely interested buyers, reducing the time and stress typically associated with the selling process.” So there’s that, which is nice.

But I agree with company CEO Greg Burns when he told me recently that the best reason for using a solution like DropOffer is that it can give sellers a chance to soft-market a home out from under the pressure of the “days on market” penalty.

Of course, the value of that feedback relies on it being exposed to a wide enough subset of buyers, and that’s on DropOffer. It needs to get in front of consumers. Still, I maintain that if agents want to begin to add real value to their buyer clients, then ensuring they exhaust every search option in this low-inventory market is one way to do that. Maybe the best way.

We all know that traditional search practices are getting elbowed a little in the mosh pit of buyer needs. Artificial intelligence is a part off that, and is ready to throw haymakers. Even though DropOffer doesn’t use AI in its search experience, its offer to the market is the the off-market. And there’s a lot of untapped value in that.

DropOffer is probably best suited for buyers with above average buying power. If you need to push someone to sell, it helps to have the money to do it. On the flip side, there isn’t a seller anywhere who won’t pack up for the right amount.

Drop ’em an offer and find out.

Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe

Craig C. Rowe started in commercial real estate at the dawn of the dot-com boom, helping an array of commercial real estate companies fortify their online presence and analyze internal software decisions. He now helps agents with technology decisions and marketing through reviewing software and tech for Inman.