Virtual real estate brokerage models have been around for years, but because they fail to meet the social and collaborative needs of agents, they often are found to be isolating and uninspiring. Real estate agents fax documents to someone whose name they may not know and who they may never meet, and they miss out on meaningful relationships with brokers, peers, and mentors.

This lack of engagement has hindered the adoption rate of the virtual office even as a preference for cloud offices has started to emerge. A “cloud office” provides an aesthetically stimulating environment for professional development combined with customer relationship management and digital end-to-end document management via transaction flow and compliance.

In the cloud, geographic boundaries evaporate, allowing entrepreneurs to learn from the expertise, experience, and talents of realty professionals worldwide. They’re able to receive all of the training, education, support, and mentorship that they might find in a storefront brokerage, but cloud-based offices also nurture social and professional interaction via individual offices for agents; interactive functional rooms; and presentation aids, as well as social events such as birthday parties, book club sessions, and happy hours.

Agents, social people by nature, also benefit from a fully staffed transaction and administration office that they know and develop relationships with because they interact with them in the cloud on a daily basis.

Source: “Why a Real Estate Brokerage ‘Cloud Office’ Beats a ‘Virtual Office,'” Inman News (10/29/13)