In a recent episode of the RealTrending podcast, Eric Elfman, CEO of MoxiWorks, shared his thoughts on the current state of the real estate industry and the role of technology in addressing its challenges. Elfman, who comes from a SaaS background, emphasized that while technology is important, it’s not the ultimate solution to the issues faced by the real estate market.
Elfman pointed out that the industry has experienced significant challenges in recent years, with home sales dropping from 7 million in 2021 to just 4 million in 2024. This downturn has pushed MoxiWorks to focus on growth-oriented transformation as the company moves into 2025. However, despite the rapid evolution of tech tools, Elfman believes the key to success in real estate still lies in the fundamentals — building relationships and doing the hard work of connecting with clients.
“Technology is not going to solve the problems in the real estate industry,” Elfman said. “What we’re seeing in our successful customers today is getting back to basics and tackling what it took to be a successful real estate agent 10 years ago. It’s just the hard work of filling the database and nurturing your contacts.”
MoxiWorks, which offers sales and marketing software for real estate agents, aims to empower agents by combining technology with traditional relationship-building. Elfman explained that agents who apply technology and, at the same time, invest time in personal connections — making calls, maintaining databases, and following up — will gain an edge in the competitive market.
Overcoming Adoption Barriers
During the podcast, Elfman also discussed the roadblocks many real estate agents face when adopting new technologies. One major challenge is the relationship between agents and brokerages. Since agents are contractors, they can easily take their contact databases with them to another brokerage, creating distrust toward the tools provided by their current brokerage. Additionally, the difficulty of transferring data between platforms often discourages agents from fully utilizing new technology.
MoxiWorks is working to address these issues by making information portability easier, ensuring that agents can move their data without breaching confidentiality. This, Elfman noted, is part of the company’s broader effort to ease the transition for agents who may be hesitant to adopt new systems.
Meeting Market Needs with Flexible Solutions
As margins tighten for brokerages, largely due to agents receiving a larger portion of commissions or lower home sales, the willingness to pay for technology has decreased. In response, MoxiWorks has adjusted its approach by offering basic capabilities to agents through brokerages, while creating a paywall for more advanced features that agents can opt into if they are willing and able to pay for them.
“We’ve visualized a world where we deliver base capabilities to agents through brokerages, alongside a paywall where agents that want to use the advanced capabilities, and can afford to do it, have access,” Elfman explained.
With a big launch of the next version of their software planned for the summer, MoxiWorks continues to make significant investments in both technology and its go-to-market strategy, working closely with customers in a beta program to refine its offerings.
In conclusion, Elfman’s message was clear: while technology can offer tools that help real estate agents be more efficient, it is the combination of these tools with hard work, relationship-building, and a deep understanding of client needs that ultimately leads to success in the industry.
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