If you own or manage a real estate agency, chances are your team is busier than ever. Working smarter, not harder, is essential for success.
The reality is, many agents spend hours every week on tasks that could be automated or streamlined. Ranging from small, daily drags to huge process inefficiencies, it all adds up and costs you deals, service quality, and profit.
We’ve identified 10 common time wasters estate agents deal with – along with how a smart property CRM, like Alto, can help.
1. Property research
The problem: To build trust with clients and grow their portfolio, agents need to be well-informed. Gathering property insights takes time, especially when juggling multiple sources and it’s easy to lose track.
The fix: Alto prefills property information for you. Agents simply enter the address and sit back as the platform prefills the record, including number of rooms, square footage and tenure plus the map location. We use data from Zoopla and Hometrack to get you the latest insights to facilitate better market conversations.
2. Manual data entry
The problem: Endless admin bogs down agency teams. They spend too much time duplicating and updating all the necessary forms.
The fix: There’s no excuse for repetitive manual data entry in the current digital climate. The right CRM is there to cut down this time waster and use technology to automatically pull data into all the necessary places to avoid duplication work.
Alto includes a digital property questionnaire covering all the material information needed to make your listing compliant with National Trading Standards requirements. Share with your client and once complete you’ll receive a notification allowing you to import the data in two clicks. All the required fields are populated for you and eradicating the need to send paper forms or manually entering this information.
3. Client paperwork
The problem: In a modern world, it’s still common for estate agents to still be using traditional methods to share, store and update client paperwork. Not only is this an administrative nightmare, it also leaves your business at risk of compliance issues.
Too often do we hear of agents having to print, scan, upload or re-type documents; it’s a big drain on the team’s resources.
The fix: Digitise the whole process using CRM integrations and e-signatures that cut admin time dramatically. Get important documents signed in minutes and automatically stored in a secure online hub that’s accessible anywhere and anytime.
Client success: Baker & Chase cut their admin time down by 70% by automating client paperwork with Alto.
4. Creating your listing
The problem: Writing up a property listing from scratch is time-consuming, especially when juggling multiple instructions or trying to keep tone consistent across the team.
The fix: Alto reduces the process of creating a listing to a couple of clicks. Agents can even use AI to draft the key points for the listing and generate the summary. By inputting some prompts to reflect your agency’s tone and standards, the AI can take it from there. It’s fast, accurate, and easy to tweak if needed, saving agents time without losing your brand voice.
5. Media uploading
The problem: It may seem simple, but organising the media for your listings is costing you time, clicks, and consistency.
The fix: With Alto, you can upload all your media items for the listing (photos, floorplans, brochures) in one go. Alto’s AI will auto-categorise them for you, separating out the media into the section of the listing . There’s no need to manually label images as Alto’s AI recognises photo content and tags it correctly. That means faster uploads, a more polished listing, and over 2 minutes saved and 20 fewer clicks per listing.
6. EPC checker
The problem: Verifying Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) status often means leaving your CRM, searching government databases, and interrupting your workflow.
The fix: Without needing to leave the platform, Alto customers can benefit from a 1-click journey to the government’s EPC checker to verify if the property needs a new EPC ordering. The certification can also be automatically populated into Alto straight from the onboarding tool.
7. Listings approvals
The problem: Every piece of client feedback requires a full brochure redesign and lengthy email chains. This is drastically slowing down the process and frustrating for both the agent and the client.
The fix: Gone are the days where you need to design a PDF brochure to email across to your clients for approvals. With Alto, you can share a web draft of the listing in one click.
Your client can review and approve, add comments for any requested changes – all of this comes back directly into the property record in Alto avoiding the need to send out and review emails. There are also built in quality checks to help prevent errors, minimising any back and forth.
8. Conveyancer quotes
The problem: Generating accurate conveyancer quotes or coordinating referrals manually can eat into your team’s time and delay the sales process.
The fix: Alto offers a simple solution. Agents can quickly and easily generate conveyancer quotes from market-leading conveyancers for both sales and purchases directly within the platform.
Better still, with Keyflo – our client onboarding tool, quotes can be automatically triggered through a seamless user experience and without any extra effort from the agent. From a tedious manual process, to zero clicks in zero time.
9. Reporting and insights
The problem: Visibility is a big issue in the property industry. In such a fast paced environment it’s hard for leaders to find the time to identify core issues that could be wasting time. In fact, managers lose hours each month building reports..
The fix: With Alto you can schedule reports to land straight into your inbox with no spreadsheet juggling required. Going a step further, reports can be automated to keep you updated at a time that suits you.
10. People management
The problem: In a busy agency, standards can slip. Different team members send different styles of communication, miss key steps, or duplicate each other’s work. This leads to inconsistencies and wasted time.
The fix: Alto is designed to help drive operational professionalism. Automated templates and auto-prompted letters ensure consistent, on-brand communication with clients across the board. Everyone knows what’s been said, what’s next, and how to deliver a great experience.
Time is money
Running a high-performing estate agency means focusing your team’s energy on what matters most: winning instructions, closing deals, and delivering standout service. If you’re slowed down by repetitive admin or disjointed systems, it’s time to stop.
With a property CRM like Alto, you can free up your agents time, streamline your processes, and stay competitive in a fast-moving market.
Want to see how much time you could save? Book a demo and let’s walk through it together.
