Real estate pros are increasingly turning to technology tools to save time, improve their clients’ experience, close more deals and stay ahead of the competition, according to the newly released 2025 REALTORS® Technology Survey, which compiled responses from more than 1,200 agents about how they leverage technology in their business.
But as the proptech field rapidly expands, which tech tools should you use for lead generation, customer relationships, transactional management and more?
The 2025 REALTORS® Technology Survey shows that National Association of REALTORS® members are using an increasing variety of options to enhance their business, with the most popular technology being electronic signatures, followed by marketing and prospecting tools such as social media, drone photography and video.
“These results show a profession that is adapting quickly to technological change while prioritizing client satisfaction,” says Jessica Lautz, NAR’s deputy chief economist. “Technology continues to be a powerful force in real estate, driving efficiency and marketing innovation. But at the heart of it all remains the trusted relationship between the agent and client.”
Clients appear to value agents who embrace high-tech tools: Consider, 47% of buyers cite an agent’s technology skills as “very important” to them in choosing whom to work with, according to NAR’s 2025 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends report. What’s more, 82% of clients respond positively when agents integrate more technology in the buying and selling process, according to NAR’s latest tech survey.
The Most Popular Tech to the Least Popular
So, what’s in an agent’s toolbox lately? Agents are divvying up their business budgets specifically to support more technology: One-third of agents spend, on average, $50 to $250 monthly on technology; 20% spend between $251 to $500 per month; and about a quarter of agents devote more than $500 on technology monthly to use in their business.
Here are the tech tools that agents say they use the most, according to the 2025 REALTORS® Technology Survey.
Favorite Lead Generation Tools
Social media remains the top lead-generating tool for real estate agents, with nearly 40% saying that it provides them the highest number of quality leads, the survey finds. Overall, here are the top lead-generating technology tools agents say they use:
- Social media: 39%
- Customer relationship management (CRM): 23%
- Local MLS: 17%
- My brokerage’s website: 13%
- Digital ad campaign (e.g., Google AdWords, Facebook Business, display ads): 12%
- My business website: 12%
- Email marketing tools (e.g., Constant Contact, MailChimp, etc.): 11%
- Listing syndication/portal (e.g., realtor.com): 9%
- AI and Other Emerging Tech Spark Curiosity
Most agents have dabbled in emerging tech—like AI and cryptocurrency—but few have gone all-in yet. Nearly six in 10 agents surveyed by NAR say they’ve tried emerging tools but are still learning more before they fully commit, while about one in five admit they’ve heard of the tools but haven’t tried to use them yet.
AI continues to generate plenty of buzz for its potential to shake up real estate and other industries, with applications including chatbots and virtual assistants, property valuation models, automated marketing, predictive analytics and more. One in five agents say they use AI daily for their business, and 22% use it weekly, while 32% say they haven’t tried it yet.
For those who do use it, the top AI tools used by agents are: ChatGPT by Open AI, followed by Gemini by Google, Copilot by Microsoft and Apple Intelligence by Apple, according to the NAR tech survey.
Dalton Brewer, a Kansas City, Mo., broker with Coldwell Banker and co-founder of CD Technologies, believes AI can be a major asset in making the homebuying process more transparent, informed and efficient. By providing the ability to stage vacant homes and generate predictive analytics and instant CMAs, AI will become transformative for the industry, he says.
“At the end of the day, AI makes everything faster and simpler,” Brewer says. “Approvals come more quickly, documentation moves faster, and closings become faster and smoother.” (Read more: Real Estate Startup Aims to Help Clients Make Smarter, Data-Driven Decisions)
The following are the emerging technologies real estate agents are using the most—and watching closely as they continue to evolve:
- AI/generative AI: 41%
- Predictive consumer analytics: 6%
- Smart contracts: 5%
- IoT (smart homes/voice tech): 3%
- Augmented/virtual reality: 2%
- Cryptocurrency: 1%
- Blockchain: 1%
