Most real estate firms will agree that their investor relations operation isn’t running as smoothly as they’d like.

These firms usually manage their fundraising and investor relations in one of two ways:

  • They keep track of records with spreadsheets, file documents in folders on Google Drive, and interact with real estate investors and leads via emails, texts, and phone calls without a task management system.
  • They do have some sort of real estate investment management software solution (i.e., an investor portal and a CRM) or dispersed solutions for specific operations (like Asana, to manage tasks or Slack to communicate internally). But the overall workflow is clunky, unintuitive, and involves too many bells and whistles. They’re not using half the software features they’re paying for, and their investor management quality suffers.

If any of these options ring a bell, this article is for you.

This blog post will explore the problems of not having a proper investment management solution in place, and the costs incurred due to these problems.

Let’s start with identifying the problems first.

The Problem: disjointed solutions

Firms often use separate tools and software for different aspects of their investment management operations. They can use as many as five or six platforms and services:

  • An Investor Portal to display investment information to their investors.
  • Emails to communicate, send reports, or receive subscription documents.
  • A separate project management software (like Asana) to manage tasks, assign investor requests, and collaborate internally between team members.
  • Yet another, different solution (such as Google Drive or Dropbox) to file documents.
  • A bank service to send distribution funds.
  • Spreadsheets to keep track of capital calls, commitments and distributions.

While each solution may be fine as a standalone, they are not part of one cohesive operation. And so, documents, tasks, and financial data are scattered across multiple platforms and services.

The Problem: manual processes

Another problem real estate firms face when they have no proper investment management software is excessive reliance on manual processes.

For example, they have to manually take their investors through the subscription process:

  • collect the investors’ information
  • Send the agreements.
  • Ensure the investment documents are properly signed.
  • Track the entire process for each investor.

Similarly, for each investor report or statement, the team members have to feed the investor information manually and send it to that respective investor. The more investors – the more labor and time it takes.

The Problem: Reactive and inconsistent investor communication

Investors often reach out with requests and inquiries, especially during the hectic tax season. But what happens when there’s no efficient investor management system in place is that there’s a constant lag between

A third problem that real estate firms face without proper investment management software is reactive investor communication. Without proper software, firms may not have a centralized platform for communicating with investors, leading to reactive and inconsistent communication. This can create uncertainty and mistrust among investors, leading to decreased investor satisfaction and potentially lost investment opportunities.

For example, if a firm relies on email to communicate with its investors, it may not have a centralized platform for managing investor communications. This can lead to missed emails, inconsistent communication, and delays in response times. As a result, investors may become frustrated and lose trust in the firm, potentially leading to lost investment opportunities.

The Costs of not having an investment management software

The problems mentioned above are not theoretical. They manifest in high, tangible, everyday costs:

Increased overheads

Inefficient workflows force team members to work and communicate across multiple dispersed platforms, leading to increased manual work, requiring more resources, and ultimately resulting in increased overheads.

Errors, inaccuracies, and oversights

The lack of one source of truth and an efficient way for team members to collaborate, assign tasks, and track open investor requests necessarily leads to more errors, inaccuracies, and oversights.

Lower investor satisfaction

Investor satisfaction is influenced by additional factors other than purely ROI. Lack of transparency vis-a-vis investors and delayed responses result in more friction and lower investor satisfaction and might eventually translate to an increased drop-out rate.

The solution – an effective investment management software

An effective real estate management solution functions as a holistic platform that covers all aspects of investor relations management and functions as a single source of truth for both the firm and its investors.

Such a platform can radically improve efficiency, cut costs, eliminate errors, and increase investor satisfaction.

Ultimately, firms that adopt an investment platform like Agora have shown to triple the equity they raise and save up to 25 hours a week on operational processes.

Ready to learn what Agora can do for you?