How Proptech Is Shortening Time-to-Contact for Investors

The success of off-market deal flow has always depended on timing.

Whether they work in acquisitions, listings, or investment-focused outreach, anyone familiar with behind-the-scenes real estate work has seen this scenario play out all too often: an interesting property appears, they begin their research, and then attempt to contact the owner hours or days later.

As a result, someone else gets there first.

In today's market, waiting can be the difference between making contact and losing an opportunity.

This is where property tech (proptech) is creating change behind the scenes. It's closing the time gap between uncovering a potential property and making first contact with the owner.

Rather than having to sift through several different systems, manually cross-check records, or wait to initiate outreach until they can get back to their desk, professionals can verify ownership, pull accurate contact information, and reach the decision-maker within minutes.

As a result, this frees up time spent dealing with incomplete owner records and calling renters who can't approve a sale. Now, real estate teams can focus on talking to actual property owners.

The Traditional Bottleneck: Outdated Records and Fragmented Systems

People who work in real estate know the feeling: they view a property that either has potential or shows visual signs of distress. They write down an address, look up ownership, and then immediately encounter a series of barriers.

They may be left with outdated tax records, duplicate entries, and a massive list of phone numbers that mostly lead nowhere. If a tenant is occupying the property, the investor may not know at first glance whether the person answering the door or phone can authorize a sale.

If the owner lives elsewhere or uses a mailing address in a different state, it may take chasing down several leads before the potential buyer can begin communications.

Each hurdle extends the delay. So, even if they have teams set up and systems in place, they may be reverting to spreadsheets or toggling between dozens of tabs, which takes valuable time away from connecting with the correct owner.

This is what the proptech industry is attempting to solve. It reduces the number of tools needed to complete time-consuming tasks. It also consolidates ownership verification and skip tracing within a single workflow, making for a more predictable process.

Real-Time Skip Tracing: Moving from Hours of Research to Minutes

One of the largest advantages of off-market prospecting is that real-time skip tracing is readily available to investors when they discover properties. Instead of exporting addresses, uploading CSV files, or running searches through third-party databases, they can immediately pull contact information right after identifying a potential property.

This matters because:

1. It reduces research time dramatically. Traditional skip tracing involves conducting online searches, purchasing data tools, and analyzing the results manually. Real-time proptech systems reduce all those steps to a single action. Something that would take an hour or more to accomplish can be accomplished in seconds.
2. It's far more accurate. Contact information is continually updated as owners move, inheritances occur, and property transfers take place. Real-time skip tracing is more likely to reveal the most current contact information because it sources updated records.
3. It supports immediate outreach. The quicker a professional is at discovering leads, the better their chances of gaining a competitive advantage. Getting to the decision-maker first before everyone else starts calling makes for a more open, more productive, and more timely conversation.

While real-time tracing doesn't eliminate the need for thoughtful outreach, it provides the foundation for it by delivering more accurate, up-to-date information.

Integrated Data Pipelines: Where Prospecting Solutions Become Operating Systems

Proptech is more than faster skip tracing and better mobile tools. There's something larger at play, in which systems that in the past handled different tasks are at the forefront of off-market prospecting.

Instead of treating skip tracing, outreach, and entering CRM information into systems as separate steps, integrated platforms combine all three into a single continuous pipeline. Previously fragmented processes become a structured system where every step connects to the next.

The way forward is easily demonstrated with platforms like DealMachine. It enables real-time skip tracing, owner filtering, mobile-first actions, and CRM connections. Real estate teams gain access to a centralized hub that brings property discovery, data verification, and outreach under one roof.

As David Lecko, Founder & CEO of DealMachine, explains:

"Platforms like DealMachine are becoming the operating system for investors. It's not just about finding a deal—it's about managing your data pipeline, optimizing campaigns, and scaling responsibly. We see ourselves as the central hub where investors combine accurate data with the best price to grow sustainably and remove barriers to growth that previously existed with the old $.10-per-property data pricing."

Removing Renters and Non-Decision-Makers Before Outreach Begins

Speed is essential, but accuracy is equally important. Attempting to contact tenants, adult children, or extended family takes time and often results in errors.

Even having a brief conversation with someone who can't approve a sale can slow down the process and hinder efforts to reach the actual owner later.

Proptech solves this through ownership filters, which remove those who can't make decisions from a real estate professional's calling list. Such filters analyze multiple data signals to determine whether:

• The person residing in the home is the owner
• The person at the property is a renter
• The owner lives elsewhere
• The person listed in public records is indeed connected to the property today
• The mailing address is the same as the property address.

This type of pre-touch filtering helps everyone save time.

It also helps boost team morale and productivity. Since outreach is directed to the right people, follow-up is more meaningful, and conversions rise as a result.

Mobile-First Prospecting: Acting at the Moment of Discovery

Many high-quality off-market leads come from desk work, whether driving through a neighborhood, checking listings, or observing market activity. In the past, someone may have taken a photo, written a reminder, or jotted down a note that they'd later add to a spreadsheet.

Today's mobile-first processing tools remove that delay. Real-time skip tracing, owner lookup, and integrated outreach can all take place on a mobile device.

This allows professionals to verify ownership and initiate initial content while the property's condition and context are fresh in their minds. This is similar to the way field-based discovery works. Plus, it minimizes the risk of losing a promising lead in follow-up tasks later.

Mobile-first prospecting isn't unique to one platform. A variety of other available proptech tools give teams the ability to capture properties in the field, append ownership details instantly, and trigger outreach directly from a mobile device.

Having those capabilities available outside the office helps field-based investors prevent leads from piling up or slipping through gaps in follow-up routines.

Mobile-first design also enables:

• Fast categorizing and tagging of properties
• Note capturing that goes directly into a CRM
• Automating follow-up sequences
• Sending direct mail with one tap
• Making quick calls from verified numbers

Shortening the time between seeing a property in the field and making first contact increases the likelihood of reaching the owner while motivation is high and before other parties become involved.

CRM Integrations: Turning Outreach into a Long-Term Pipeline

The best outreach efforts will fail without consistent follow-up. This is exactly what CRM integrations can help with.

Ownership data, notes, contact attempts, and property details go directly to a CRM, which makes for a smoother workflow.

CRM integrations support:

• Sending timely follow-up communications
• Accurate status tracking
• Visibility into communication history
• Assigning tasks to team members
• Reporting to identify where deals are progressing
• Creating long-term nurture campaigns for leads not yet ready to sell

Rather than storing leads in a phone, spreadsheet, or field notebook, all leads flow into the same system. This allows investors to easily visualize the status of each property and establishes a long-term pipeline that reflects the real state of engagement.

Why Speed-to-Contact Matters in Today's Market

The value of proptech tools becomes even clearer when you think about how timing influences how homeowners respond. Also, according to PwC's Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2025 study, 80% of respondents expect mortgage rates to fall, which means more competition.

Speed-to-contact delivers three measurable advantages:

1. Increased likelihood of a live conversation. Property owners tend to respond to the first person who connects with them because it feels tied to a real moment in time. They experience less skepticism, more curiosity, and a more meaningful connection.
2. Better recall and relevance. Imagine that an investor contacts an owner soon after a property issue occurs, whether it's a vacancy, code violation, distress indicator, or a simple change in circumstances. They'll be more open to conversation. The situation is still fresh in their mind, and they're thinking about options. Taking advantage of that opportunity increases the odds of the owner engaging, asking further clarifying questions, or considering solutions.
3. Reduce competition. Information about properties travels quickly once it enters the ecosystem. If a professional connects with owners before their information is passed around or sold, there's a clear benefit to reaching owners sooner than others. Early contact gives teams the time and space to build rapport, describe their value proposition, and create a connection without noise from competing outreach.

Building a Workflow That Supports Sustainable Growth

Technology can accelerate contact, but an effective plan is still a necessity. Teams benefit most from proptech when they implement it along with tools and a clear workflow that outlines:

• How properties are flagged
• The time taken to verify ownership
• The tracking of contact attempts
• How follow-up is assigned
• What criteria determine readiness for a campaign
• How leads are nurtured over time

Proptech can enhance these processes, but it won't replace them. At its best, the technology supports the systems that real estate teams already rely on. It streamlines day-to-day operations without changing the foundation of relationship-building work. The true value comes from creating a system of integrated workflows.

As a result:

• Leads are less likely to fall through the cracks. Opportunities remain in sight. Each property and each conversation has a dedicated place to live, rather than being inscribed in a notepad, kept in someone's head, or juggled in an email. All team's tools can raise reminders, identify next steps, and keep priority contacts at their fingertips, so nothing gets lost during busy weeks.
• Accurate data drives outreach. Professionals working behind the scenes don't have time to pursue dead ends. Clean, confirmed data reduces guesswork, back-and-forth communication, and keeps outreach focused on individuals who actually own the property and are reachable. Clean data promotes clarity, making every call, text, or visit more purposeful.
• Teams collaborate instead of duplicating work. When everyone has access to the same data, teams stop re-tracing each other's steps. Collaboration becomes easier and more seamless because all activity feeds into one shared record. This means a lot more time saved, fewer awkward double calls, and better consistency.
• Follow-up happens consistently. Deals often happen in follow-up, not on the first call. Automating reminders, task lists, or communication sequences allows teams to stay in the present, without the pressure of tracking all conversations manually. Consistent follow-up builds trust, and trusted relationships lead to connections.

Data Hygiene as a Competitive Advantage

Despite today's technology, effective off-market outreach is all about the ability to manage data.

The highest performing teams consistently keep their contact lists up-to-date and organized to minimize waste and optimize follow-ups.

Data hygiene is more than verifying correct phone numbers. It also includes:

• Removing duplicates
• Tagging property types
• Updating status after each contact
• Sorting leads based on their motivation
• Maintaining address and ownership information

When there's a clean database in place, each campaign becomes more efficient, each call is more relevant, and each follow-up has more meaning. Improved accuracy allows teams to reach the right people with the right information at the right time.

The Bigger Picture: What This Means for Today's Real Estate Professional

The modern real estate environment rewards responsiveness. Off-market opportunities are no different. They require persistence, timing, and professional outreach that respects owners.

Proptech helps turn these often difficult tasks into smooth processes.

No, it won't replace the human element. However, it will enable real estate professionals to reach that human element faster, with fewer obstacles, and with clearer information in hand.