Brokers, are you doing everything you can to help your agents succeed in a crowded market? Even if you've only been paying minimal attention to real estate marketing talk during the past few years, chances are good that you've heard someone use the term "local expert."

It's more than just a trendy marketing phrase, though. Just like consumers need agents to guide them through the maze of paperwork that comes with buying a home, they also need an agent's wealth of community knowledge to help them find the right home.

While there are plenty of things that agents can (and should) be doing establish their local credibility, brokers can help their agents get a boost on the competition. Below, we've listed three simple tools that brokers can start using now.

Lifestyle Property Search

Ninety percent of all consumers search for properties online during the home buying process. They have myriad search options to choose from, too--everything from giant portals like Zillow, Trulia, and big box brokerages to small town realty offices and agent websites.

That's why it's important that your brokerage's IDX search solution stands out from the crowd. If you're just offering boring, run-of-the-mill data, buyers have plenty of other places to look online.