How a CRM for real estate can transform your business

You may have heard of the transformative power of CRM within the context of e-commerce or retail, but you may not have realized that CRM principles can just as easily be applied to a real estate company workflow, with many of the same value-enhancing effects.

In this article, we’ll cover different ways a real estate CRM adds value to your business, including how it works, which platforms to consider, and how monday sales CRM can help you close more deals.

What is CRM in real estate?

A CRM, or customer relationship management, system allows real estate agents and brokerages better manage their leads and clients in order to foster stronger relationships with them, leading to potentially closing more deals.

A CRM for real estate provides an organizational approach to establishing more meaningful relationships with clients by ensuring all aspects from communication to scheduling viewings are managed efficiently. When customer relationships are properly nurtured, important business metrics like marketing ROI, customer lifetime value, and customer defection rate can be significantly improved.

As a real estate agent, your primary responsibility is to guide your clients through each stage of the sales process, from lead generation to completion. This means you need to juggle a lot of tasks simultaneously for multiple clients, such as:

• Develop a deep understanding of each of your client’s needs and preferences
• Organize and schedule a busy calendar of appointments
• Maintain effective communication
• Manage the inflow of new leads

CRM may be the single most powerful tool in a real estate agent’s arsenal because it provides a central platform for performing all of these duties. Add intelligent data crunching and software automation into the mix, and the possibilities open up even further.

Why use CRM for real estate?

Thanks to increasingly open and customizable configuration options within CRM technology, the list of benefits for their use by a real estate professional is only increasing. In the real estate industry, the following are often cited as the most valuable benefits of using CRM software:

Never lose track of a client

As a realtor, you’ve probably got multiple clients, all with widely different needs and preferences that evolve over time. It’s easy to lose track, but a CRM for real estate can smooth out the confusion and manage the mess by providing real estate agents with a bird’s-eye view of their entire client portfolio, enabling real-time monitoring of each client’s progress and sales pipeline activity.

Improve relationships by centralizing customer information

Understanding the budget and other influential factors of your prospective buyers informs the strategy you will take in securing a home they love. CRM platforms enable this by collating detailed information about the client into a central location. You can add relevant information on the go and refer back when making recommendations and planning a course of action.

Streamline communication in one place

You can preserve both with contemporary CRM software. A good CRM solution should allow you to integrate a wide variety of communication tools and use them directly from the interface where all the data is stored. Communicate by Zoom, Slack, email, or phone, and capture all the essential information in your fully integrated CRM — which you can easily access on your mobile device.

Automate marketing and sales initiatives

Connect elements of your marketing and sales operations directly to your CRM software. This means you can set up automations that could, for example, trigger a lead-scoring evaluation to determine which new prospect will respond best to certain campaigns.

Features to look for in a CRM for real estate

There are many CRM products out there, from generalized relationship management platforms to focused, industry-specific CRM tools. Whatever direction you choose, make sure it has the following CRM features.

Full pipeline management

Your CRM tool should be able to capture and distill information relating to all stages of a typical real estate agency sales pipeline, including lead capture, engagement, deal completion, and post-sales follow-ups. Look for tools that allow you to visualize and manage your entire pipeline in different ways. You can enjoy time-saving efficiencies when everything you need is connected and actionable from one digital location. This is what integrated CRMs enable.

Detailed client profiles

You don’t have to spend hours constantly searching through emails and texts to stay on top of all your client’s needs — it’s taken care of with advanced client profile management. Your CRM tool should be able to synchronize all the information you have on your client in one place — and allow you to filter or sort it — so that you have all the relevant data ready as and when you need it.

Automations to make your life easier

Automations allow you to set up custom actions that are triggered upon a specified change, like lead management, posting to social media once a property is successfully closed, sending timely website analytics reports, or auto-responding to a new sales lead.

4 best CRMs for real estate

There are a few different CRM for real estate tools out there, but sorting through them can be a costly and time-consuming process. As a real estate agent, we know that your time is better spent with clients, so we’ve briefly summarized a few of the top CRMs for real estate so you can get a good overview of your options. Let’s take a closer look.

1. Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a popular tool with real estate businesses thanks to its easy visual interface, helpful integrations, and workflow automations. What makes Pipedrive a good platform for real estate agents is that it has a number of built-in features that make managing a real estate business a breeze. With an integrated meeting scheduler and the ability to connect VoIP tools directly to the platform, Pipedrive makes for a strong CRM for real estate tool.

Pros

• Easy to use and learn the platform
• Improves communication between teams
• Visualize all your leads, clients, and sales progress in one place

Cons

• Not as customizable as some other popular CRMs for real estate
• Fewer reporting and analytics tools than other CRMs
• Limited customer support for small accounts

2. Wise Agent

Wise Agent is a cloud–based CRM platform that provides a suite of features to help agents stay organized, manage contacts, market their business, and close more deals. Wise Agent includes automated marketing tools, customizable workflows, and integrated communication tools to help agents stay in touch with their clients.

Pros

• Integrated lead nurturing tools
• Create landing pages directly from the CRM
• Over 70 integrations to connect with existing work tools

Cons

• Functionalities lack depth and variety
• Older interface that doesn’t feel as sleek or appealing as other CRMs
• Longer learning curve compared to alternatives

3. kvCore

kvCORE features powerful lead generation capabilities and the ability to create customizable websites to help jumpstart your business. Its SMART CRM takes automation to the next level by notifying agents of the best times to get in touch with leads based on their interactions with your website, ads, and marketing campaigns. kvCORE also includes social media marketing tools, listings management, and back-office features to create a comprehensive tech ecosystem. 

Pros

• Helpful lead generation features
• Automated email generation tool to keep client communication constant
• Create a new website or landing page in minutes

Cons

• Complex system that takes time to learn
• Communications like generated texts and emails aren’t very customizable
• Cost of the platform and add-ons can be pricey

4. Market Leader

If you’re a real estate agent or broker that prefers cold calling, Market Leader might be the CRM for you. With integrated cold-calling features and integrations to capture, nurture, and manage your leads from different sources, Market Leader is a strong platform for growing real estate businesses.

Pros

• Automated lead generation features
• Helpful real estate training guides
• Marketing suite that integrates with other tools

Cons

• Limited customization options
• Generates leads that aren’t always the highest quality
• Interface isn’t as appealing or intuitive as other platforms

While many real estate businesses would automatically jump on a CRM that’s built for their industry, this doesn’t always provide the most well-rounded solution. A CRM that’s flexible to different industries will often come with a lot more features and customization opportunities, opening the door for real estate agents and brokers to manage a lot more in one CRM and scale the platform as their team grows. monday sales CRM is a tool that does just that.

Boost your real estate sales with monday sales CRM

Real estate teams, brokers, or independent agents can all use monday sales CRM as an end-to-end solution in customer and lead management. As a customizable solution, monday sales CRM doesn’t have a long learning curve and can be used by anyone without the need for a lengthy technical onboarding.

With monday sales CRM, there are many built-in tools that are ideal for real estate business, such as a sales pipeline view, automations, and client communication features to help you stay organized. Let’s take a closer look at the features that make it easier for you to take care of all your clients, from incoming leads to post-sales management.

Easy sales pipeline management

monday sales CRM allows you to build your own pipeline and even manage multiple pipelines at once. You can select from different pipeline views, such as Kanban or a funnel chart. With the customization options, you can easily add and edit columns for deal stages, deal amounts, files, and more to help you visualize your workflow and the deals you have in your current pipeline.

A world of automations

Utilizing information from client data, the sales pipeline, and your third-party integrations, you can whip up unique automation recipes to do nearly anything. This includes leveraging property management software to streamline operations, track property maintenance, and enhance tenant communication.

From creating an event on your calendar when a client requests a viewing, to assigning a specific agent to a new high-value lead — the only limit is your own creativity.

Smart lead capturing

With monday sales CRM, you can organize contacts with ease and enrich contact cards with layers of relevant data. You can bring up a client by clicking on their contact card and see the entire communication history with them. You also have easy access to their position in the sales pipeline, any files you’ve shared, and tasks related to clients that need your attention.

Oh, and if you’re out showing homes all day, you can still take full control of your pipeline wherever you are with our companion mobile app.

Centralized tool integrations

With over 70 available integrations, you can make sure nothing falls through the cracks by integrating your existing work tools with monday sales CRM. There are integrations for tools like Dropbox, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Calendar, Excel, Zapier, and more. With these integrations, you can control your workflow in one place by using third-party apps to help you schedule meetings, upload documents, and communicate with team members and clients.

FAQs about CRM for real estate

What is the best CRM system for real estate?

The best system will depend on your specific needs, such as how many team members need access, the marketing features you require, and whether or not you want to integrate other tools into your real estate CRM. Some of the best CRMs for real estate include Pipedrive, Wise Agent, kvCore, and Market Leader. However, one of the most well-rounded options is monday sales CRM, which offers a platform that gives you access to tools that will help you optimize all aspects of your real estate business.

What should be included in a real estate CRM?

There are many different tools to consider when shopping for a real estate CRM, but some particular ones to look out for include: lead tracking tools, automated follow-ups and communication, contact management, email marketing, reporting and analytics, pipeline management, and an easy-to-use interface.

Does a real estate agent need a CRM?

Absolutely. Real estate agents can benefit from using a CRM since it can help keep them organized, manage contacts, track sales activity, and generate reports, among other features.

The most flexible CRM solution for real estate

No two real estate agencies work in the exact same way. So, above all, the perfect CRM solution should allow you to be the architect of your own workflow, enabling a custom design that suits the needs of your business while opening itself up to enhancement via automations and integrations to empower your sales efforts.

That’s exactly what monday sales CRM offers. Test it out for yourself for free to see how it helps you manage your real estate business.

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