SaleFish Software was born more than 15 years ago in the conference room of RN Design, in Toronto, Canada. Rob Nicolocci started doing design work for residential real estate developers back in 1991, and over the years he kept hearing the same complaint from his clients…

Rob would deliver all the renderings and floorplans for a subdivision or condo project, but the developers never had a way to organize those and sync them up with the available lots, restrictions, options, and other variables. Pre-siting was a mess.

Keep in mind, the residential real estate market at that time, was very hot. The sales offices were jam-packed and the sales managers had no way to keep track of anything. There was tons of paperwork and mass confusion… deals were getting lost in the shuffle.

Rob and Rick Haws, current SaleFish CEO, both had some experience with software development, and thought there might be an opportunity in that mayhem… a chance to devise some sort of programmable fix for that problem.

They started talking with the RN Design clients to learn about their frustrations with the sales process, with the existing tools and with technology in general. It turned out to be a much bigger issue than they ever imagined.

Talk about a can of worms. The more they dug, the more problems they exposed that needed fixing.

Start ups can be messy, especially when you’re trying to keep your day jobs, like Rob and Rick were. Their initial inclination was to solve everything, all at once. But the problem was just too complex… too nuanced. The more they worked on it, the bigger it got.

But when it comes to design and technology, you have to keep things simple.

They always refer back to that famous Einstein quote: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

So through a process of trial and error, they started weeding out the issues they couldn’t realistically address and honed in on the required elements…

It had to be intuitive, easy to learn and easy to support. So elegance was very important.

As Rick likes to say, “If the software is elegantly designed and programmed, you hardly need any support.”

It had to easily manageable from the back-end, so they developed an “Active Matrix” system that displayed the entire residential real estate project at a glance.

It had to provide comprehensive, real-time data, so salespeople wouldn’t duplicate their efforts or lose a sale.

It had to be user-friendly for prospective buyers, so we built it originally for iPads. Just touch and click.

In 2012 we released the first version of SaleFish Software with considerable success. Our beta testers were our clients at RNDesign, and the feedback they provided was invaluable.

Then it was just, iterate, upgrade and listen. Iterate, upgrade and listen. We’re still doing that today.

The latest iteration of SaleFish real estate technology is  better than ever.

We’re taking all the inventory from our developer clients and we’re putting it online for people to browse, select and purchase. So if you’re a real estate investor looking for new construction that’s sure to have a great ROI, you’ve come to the right place.

Or if you’re dreaming of a new home for your family, and you want an alternative to Zillow or the other online real estate buying options, you’ve come to the right place. 

• Maximize revenue
• Reduce costs
• Mitigate risk
• Elevate customer experience

SaleFish streamlines every step of the real estate purchasing process. Within minutes, and with minimal staff assistance, a client can become a homeowner.

Through our software, users can select lots, homes, and add ons, move quickly through automatically generated paperwork, import their required ID, and electronically sign all documents. For example, at a sales office or opening event, using only a tablet, a prospective buyer could complete nearly every stage of the purchasing process instantly on site. 

Information is updated in real-time through our software, meaning that sales teams are all instantly updated on which properties have sold. This process eliminates any confusion, including double selling a home, which could lead to disappointment and frustration for customers.

Using SaleFish, buyers and sellers across the world can stay connected – all closing documents, signatures, and transactions can be completed from anywhere globally. 

Through our software, architectural restrictions are also fully automated, meaning any streetscape designs or neighbourhood pre-sets are automatically figured into purchases.

SaleFish reduces costs by automating a process that used to require dozens of staff and hours of work. The very real risk of human error when creating and processing documents is also removed – no more risk of a simple typo derailing an entire purchase.

Sales teams love SaleFish as well: our software eliminates complicated paperwork tasks and provides a quick and simple experience for buyers. An easier process translates to happier customers and better sales. 

Most importantly, SaleFish is adaptable – we can easily integrate into your existing sales software, or provide a full suite of sales options. Our mission is to provide you and your team with exactly what you need.

To learn more about how SaleFish could work for you, request a demo today.

I’ve considered writing a blog in the past. I even started a couple of times but never continued. I didn’t feel I had anything interesting to say, so it was forced, inauthentic, painful to write, and most surely painful to read.

Recently, though, I’ve come to appreciate where I am and how I got here. I’m formally trained in architecture. It’s amazing to me how similar the design of software is to buildings when it comes to attention to detail, form and function. It’s an art as much as it’s a technical skill. I’ve also come to take pride in the fact that we’re creating something very special, something that’s one-of-a-kind. This chapter of my life has allowed me to meet and work with many exceptional people and it’s a privilege to do so. 

My inaugural blog would be missing something significant if I didn’t mention my friend, business partner and SaleFish co-founder Rob Nicolucci. We’ve worked together for many years and we’re proof that yin and yang is a thing. Working together has been and continues to be a great time!

To get to know SaleFish will be to get to know Rob and me, our staff, our clients and the challenges that we face. For people who know me, they’ll be shocked to learn that this blog won’t be at all planned out or pre-canned. 

There will likely be TV and movie references (like the title), it won’t be about the state of the industry at large (I think there’s enough of that), the blogs will be short (sometimes), they won’t be vanilla, they may be polite and apologetic from time to time (because we’re Canadian after all) and they’ll be raw and unedited. I think they’ll be insightful, and I hope they’ll get easier to write (one down). 

This blog will be dedicated to the life and times of the people and things that have touched SaleFish. Please stay tuned and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn to get the latest blog notifications.

If you have questions about this blog or anything else, please email me at rick@SaleFishSoftware.com.

Are You a Victim of These Common Inefficiencies?

Imagine that it’s opening weekend. The grand opening. Finally. After months of planning and hard work, your real estate development is ready to open its doors. You watch the line-up of buyers and investors waiting at the door. They have brochures in hand and are glancing at their smartphones. Finally the smiling sales agents pull open the heavy front doors, and the crowd rushes in. Everyone makes a beeline for the site plan display. Within a few seconds, dozens of people are pointing at the units they want and pulling sales agents aside. There’s a buzz throughout the sales centre, a buzz of audible excitement.

It’s mayhem. A happy mayhem – exactly what you planned and hoped for. Everyone wants to buy a new home at this project. The sales are coming in hot. But do you have the technology to make a busy opening event a great experience for everyone involved? Will buyers come away smiling and satisfied? Will the sales agents meet the buyers’ exacting demands? Will your company make as many sales as the market allows?

Or will you get tripped up by inefficiencies, costly errors, and the inability to close as many deals as you want to?

If you’ve dreamed of a more streamlined sales process, SaleFish is the solution. Our sales management software allows you to close deals in a way so smooth, your boss won’t believe it.

As a real estate vet, you already know the glitches and challenges of selling real estate:

• Having all of the pertinent details at hand for a specific unit or home can be hard to do. Think siting, architectural controls, add-ons, what’s sold vs. available and more.
• Purchase agreements are slow and tedious to fill out – not to mention, easy to make typos and mistakes on.
• Details often get mixed up on the floor, creating frustrations for both buyers and sales agents

With SaleFish software, the sales process is completely streamlined: – Let buyers select lots, homes and add-ons on their own, without needing a sales agent to figure out all the details.

• Move through the sales process smoothly and improve efficiency by 75% with fully-automated documents and paperwork production.
• Centralize all your closing documents and capture electronic signatures.
• Change pricing, availability, documentation, and workflow from any device.
• Access real-time sales data for fast, accurate oversight of all your sales processes with full analytics and metrics.
• Integrate SaleFish with your CRM or ERP software for seamless data transition.
• Over 50 Billion in sales and counting, close more deals faster than ever with SaleFish, anywhere in the world.

You want to close more deals, have happy buyers and streamline the sales process. SaleFish is your secret weapon to make it happen.

To learn more about how SaleFish could work for you, contact us today for a demo. And make sure to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for more news and tips.

One of the questions we get asked most frequently is how we came up with the name SaleFish and what it means.

I wish I could say that there’s some deep-rooted meaning, some grand historical significance, or that SaleFish is the long lost ancient god of real estate sales, but alas none of this is true. 

The name came about as a part of an elaborate rebranding exercise. SaleFish was one of the three best name options that were chosen to be printed and pasted onto foam core boards and ceremoniously revealed to Rob and I by our marketing agency. To be honest, I’ve never understood why three is the magic number of things that get presented, but it’s a marketing thing. I’ll have to ask our friends at COOLAID Studios. However, I suspect the answer is that too much choice is overwhelming, and less than three just isn’t enough choice.

Of course we had to know, so we asked, “What does it mean?” We waited with anticipation, our minds racing with the impending significance. The answer was dropped on us like a ton of bricks. “It has no meaning, we just liked it!”

So there it was… in a stroke of sheer marketing genius (or maybe they just ran out of time), we were left with something that was both nothing and everything – a blank slate. We were presented with the opportunity to create SaleFish out of nothing. When people ask, I still say it has no meaning, mostly because it’s fun to watch as they struggle with the concept. But in all seriousness, what have we created? And what does SaleFish mean to us? SaleFish is integrity, ingenuity, commitment, contribution and fun. These are our values. This is who we are. 

If you have questions about this blog or other things, please email me at rick@salefishsoftware.com.