Winslow & Company uses Backpack for Commercial Real Estate Searches

Paul Maass, Associate Broker at Winslow & Company, a commercial real estate firm, wrote to us about how he uses Backpack to keep clients in the loop during their hunt for office space...

I use Backpack for several functions in my life, but recently I have been using it as a tool to keep my commercial real estate clients up to date on their search for office space in Manhattan. I have clients all around the country, often in multiple offices, that need to see floorplans, info on spaces we’re considering for them, pictures of spaces, lists of spaces we’ve already researched and more.

I upload the company’s logo to the page so they know its their own page, I embed a Google Map with the locations we’re considering, and then I upload info on the space, pictures about the space, and my contact info. It’s a quick way to disseminate info to my clients without cluttering their inbox and it is a level of personalization and communication they’re not used to seeing. Also, as we sometimes get phone calls from people looking for office space, but haven’t met them until they come into town, we can give approximate addresses in the divider bar (37th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues) so we can protect ourselves and the time we spend researching spaces. Some people will go ahead and send that information to their broker, a different broker, or just walk directly into a building with the list we used to give them from our listings database. They erroneously feel that landlords not paying us a commission will filter down to them, so this has been a great way to protect myself.

I also upload offer files, lease documents, and more to their page, which the client cannot see but it gives me instant access the paperwork I need to complete a deal.

Here’s a page I recently put together for someone.

Do you use a 37signals product in an interesting or noteworthy way? Let us know.