Only 28% of Brokerages Say Their Tech Drives Productivity. Here Is Why.
16% of brokerages say their tech just checks a box. The fix is not more tools. It is connecting the ones that matter.
We asked 92 brokerage leaders whether their technology actually makes them more productive. The honest answer from most of them: not really.
Only 28.26% said their technology drives productivity. Meanwhile 16.30% said it simply checks a box. That is one in six brokerages admitting their tech does not do anything meaningful for how they operate.
These numbers come from the 2023 State of Real Estate Brokerage Technology Survey, conducted by TotalBrokerage in collaboration with T3 Sixty.
The problem is not a lack of technology. Brokerages have plenty. The problem is that most of it was acquired reactively, without a plan for how it all connects.
The full picture on how brokerages view their tech
Here is how respondents described the role technology plays in their brokerage:
| Response | % of Respondents |
|---|---|
| Integral in operating our business | 39.13% |
| Used to drive productivity | 28.26% |
| Simply checks a box | 16.30% |
| A unique differentiator | 7.61% |
| Other | 8.70% |
The 39.13% who said technology is integral to operations is the largest group. But integral does not mean productive. It means the brokerage depends on these tools to function. That is a very different thing from those tools actually making people faster, reducing errors, or giving the broker better visibility into the business.
And then there is the 16.30%. These brokerages bought the software, set it up, and it sits there. It exists on paper. It might show up on a vendor spreadsheet. But nobody would say it changed how the brokerage runs.
83% added new tools. Productivity did not follow.
Over the past two years, 83% of brokerages rolled out at least one new technology tool. Here is the breakdown:
| New tools added (last 2 years) | % of Respondents |
|---|---|
| None | 17.39% |
| 1 | 16.30% |
| 2 | 21.74% |
| 3 | 13.04% |
| 4 | 11.96% |
| 5 | 3.26% |
| Greater than 5 | 16.30% |
More than 16% of brokerages added five or more new tools in two years. The average brokerage now runs 20.4 tools. But only 28% say any of that drives productivity.
That gap between tool count and productivity gains tells you everything. Brokerages are not short on software. They are short on connection between the software they already have.
Why adding tools does not fix the problem
When a brokerage acquires technology reactively, it usually looks like this. A problem shows up. Maybe compliance reviews are taking too long or commission disputes keep happening. Someone finds a tool that handles that one thing. They roll it out. The immediate pain goes away.
But now you have another system. Another login. Another place where data lives. Another thing your staff has to maintain and your agents have to learn. And none of it talks to the transaction management system or the accounting software or the spreadsheet where someone tracks commission splits.
This is how brokerages end up with 20 tools and no productivity gain. Each tool solves a narrow problem in isolation. Nobody planned for how the pieces would work together.
We wrote about this pattern in more detail in Rolling Out New Brokerage Technology Without Strategy.
The tools brokerages actually rely on
When we asked which tools brokerages find most effective, the responses clustered around a familiar set: MLS systems, transaction tools like DotLoop and DocuSign, and platforms like KvCORE and Follow Up Boss. Canva came up for marketing materials. Various forms tools appeared.
These are the tools that brokerages use every day. The pattern is worth noticing. The tools that got named were the ones tied to daily workflows: getting transactions done, keeping agents compliant, managing documents. Nobody listed the fifth webinar platform they signed up for or the analytics dashboard nobody opens.
The tools that earn their keep are the ones embedded in how the brokerage actually operates. Everything else is overhead.
Productivity comes from connected systems, not more systems
The brokerages in the survey that reported the strongest outcomes from technology had something in common. They were not the ones with the longest list of vendors. They were the ones where information flowed between systems without someone manually moving it.
Think about what happens in a typical brokerage when a transaction closes. Someone updates the transaction management system. Someone else enters the commission calculation in a spreadsheet. Another person re-enters numbers into accounting software. Compliance reviews happen in a separate tool. The broker finds out what the deal actually produced days later, if they even check.
Every handoff between disconnected systems is a chance for errors, delays, and wasted time. Multiply that across hundreds of transactions and you have a brokerage where the staff spends more time on data entry and coordination than on running the business.
That is operational drag. And no amount of new software fixes it if the new software does not connect to what you already have.
What the 28% figured out
The brokerages where technology actually drives productivity share a common thread. Their operational systems are connected. Transaction data flows into commission calculations. Commission calculations flow into accounting. Compliance checks happen inside the transaction workflow, not in a separate tool after the fact. The broker can pull a report on any office, any agent, any time period without asking someone to build a spreadsheet.
This is not about having the best individual tools. It is about having an operational backbone that ties the critical workflows together: transactions, commissions, compliance, and reporting.
When we talk to brokerages about what they actually want from technology, the same answers come up. Integration. Consolidation. A single place where the numbers are right. Not more features. Fewer systems that actually work together.
TotalBrokerage was built to be the backbone, not another box to check
TotalBrokerage exists because the founders ran a brokerage and lived this exact problem. Too many tools. Too much manual work moving data between them. Too many commission errors. Too little visibility into what the business was actually producing.
The platform handles transactions, commissions, compliance, e-signatures, reporting, and agent management in one system. Not because bundling features is interesting, but because these workflows depend on each other. A commission calculation that does not pull from the actual transaction data is just another spreadsheet with extra steps.
You keep your existing tech stack. TotalBrokerage is the operational layer underneath it all. The single system of record for back office operations that gives you control over what your brokerage is doing and producing.
If your technology checks a box but does not drive productivity, the answer is not tool number 21. It is connecting the ones that matter.
Book a demo and see how it works.
FAQ
Why do only 28% of brokerages say their tech drives productivity?
Most brokerages acquire tools reactively to solve isolated problems. Each tool works on its own, but data does not flow between them. Staff ends up re-entering information across systems, reconciling numbers manually, and spending time on coordination instead of productive work. The tools exist, but they are not connected in a way that actually makes the operation faster or more accurate.
What does it mean when 16% of brokerages say their tech just checks a box?
It means the technology was purchased but is not producing meaningful operational outcomes. The brokerage has the software on paper, maybe even pays for it monthly, but nobody would say it changed how the business runs. It exists to satisfy a perceived requirement rather than to improve how things actually work.
How many technology tools does the average brokerage use?
The average brokerage uses 20.4 tools according to the 2023 survey. That is up from 12.4 in 2020. In the past two years alone, 83% of brokerages added at least one new tool, and 16.30% added more than five. Despite this growth in tool count, productivity gains have not kept pace.
What is the difference between technology being integral and technology driving productivity?
Integral means the brokerage depends on the technology to operate. Productivity means the technology makes the operation faster, more accurate, or more efficient. A brokerage can be completely dependent on a set of tools that still require extensive manual work, data re-entry, and workarounds. The tools are necessary but not productive. The gap between those two categories is where most operational waste lives.
How can a brokerage improve productivity from its existing technology?
Focus on connection over collection. Instead of adding another tool, evaluate whether the systems you already have talk to each other. Can transaction data flow into commission calculations without someone re-entering it? Can compliance checks happen inside the transaction workflow? Can the broker pull financial reports without waiting for someone to build a spreadsheet? The brokerages reporting the best outcomes from technology focused on consolidating and connecting their existing tools rather than buying more.
What is TotalBrokerage and how does it address the productivity gap?
TotalBrokerage is a back-office operating platform for residential real estate brokerages. It centralizes transactions, commissions, compliance, e-signatures, reporting, and agent management in a single system of record. It was built to be the operational backbone that connects these dependent workflows, so data flows between them automatically instead of being moved manually. It works alongside a brokerage’s existing tools rather than replacing them.
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