To say real estate is a competitive landscape would be about as cliche as describing that tiny studio apartment you just listed as ‘cozy.’
It is, though, and that presents a very real problem for real estate agents who are trying to build a business.
The biggest tool in your arsenal of weapons for residential and commercial real estate success? A memorable customer experience.
If you can form a strong bond with your clients, they’re not only more likely to continue to work with you; they’re also more likely to come back to you next time — and send you referrals.
You’ve got a lot of clients though (well, hopefully), so remembering every detail about them and their three kids and four dogs isn’t so easy. Unless, of course, you implement a real estate CRM.
What is a CRM for real estate?
CRM stands for customer relationship management. In real estate, CRM might refer to the discipline of managing customer relationships, though it more commonly refers to software platforms that are designed to help agents with this process.
A CRM platform houses all of your customer and prospect information, including their contact details, but also historical information like previous purchases and conversations.
In short, real estate CRM software helps real estate agents improve contact management, maintain a healthy pipeline of leads, and gives them an overview of these leads, so they know which to work next. In addition to knowing the market and being personable, an understanding of tools like CRM is essential if you want to become a successful agent in the digital era.
Real estate agents are one of the key users of CRMs worldwide, with 50% of CRM users being involved in either consulting, distribution, insurance, or real estate.
Why do you need real estate CRM software?
In short, you need a real estate CRM platform because it will help you close more deals and earn a greater commission!
Real estate agents earning over $100K are twice as likely to be using a tool like a CRM to manage their sales pipeline.
A CRM tool offers real estate agents these benefits:
- Better follow-ups and lead management
- Ability to manage email campaigns
- Enhanced productivity
- Workflow tracking
- Superior payment collection
What does a real estate team need from a CRM?
A CRM’s ultimate goal is to make real estate agents’ lives easier. Choosing a real estate CRM software that’s clunky and difficult to use is not going to be conducive to that.
One feature to look out for in choosing a commercial real estate CRM software is the ability to customize your workflow view.
CRM platforms that offer multiple views allow individual agents to visualize their workflows in the way that works best for them, speeding up processes and streamlining teamwork.
Agents should choose a real estate CRM software that offers a number of customizable templates so you can get started right away.
“We could not work efficiently without this template as it joins all of the team members together and allows constant trace-ability of all of our orders.” James Evans – Right Stride.
The nature of selling real estate is that your customers (and the properties you’re selling) are spread out across the city you’re based in. They might even be outside of your normal area!
In any case, it’s important to be able to immediately visualize the location of each of your properties. A real estate CRM software with a map view is going to be essential to improving your workflow.
Which CRM is best for real estate?
Looking for a CRM as a real estate agent is like choosing a new cereal at an American supermarket: you’ve got more choices than you could ever need. There are even more free CRM options out there to sift through.
So, which is the best CRM for real estate agents?
#1: staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud
A CRM solution like staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud can completely transform real estate broker productivity.
staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud’s digital workspace allows you to customize real estate management in ways that work most intuitively for you and your brokerage.
For example, use staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud’s Real Estate Listings Manager to list all your currently available properties and maintain an updated database when keeping track of closed deals.
Use the interactive maps view for enhanced visualization of your current market.
Easily add file sharing for property photos, or even contracts — keep them organized and ready to be easily shared externally with clients and agents.
You can customize your boards to add an Agent Database so that you have the contact details of any real estate agent at your fingertips.
Create personalized task management boards for you and your agents, automate reminders, and easily manage calendar bookings with a calendar share feature (no more back and forth).
You can make calls from directly within your CRM platform whether on mobile or desktop — and record all customer interactions. Retain a diary of customer relations and take your customer service to the next level.
And you can gain insights from your data to track your productivity, improve processes, and retain an overview of business operations at any time.
staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud’s CRM solutions provide you with a world of options to create a customized real estate management system solution that keeps you competitive in one of these most competitive sales landscapes.
#2: Pipedrive
Pipedrive is one of the most intuitive and easy to use real estate CRM software platforms out there, with a simple drag and drop functionality that even your three year old could use.
Some of the epic features offered by Pipedrive include pipeline automation functionality, an in-built meeting scheduler, and the ability to set reminders when properties hit the market.
Using Pipedrive, Northwest Weatherization was able to lift revenue by 15%, so it’s a pretty powerful little tool.
Both residential and commercial real estate professionals spend a significant portion of their time on the phone. With Pipedrive, agents can automatically log calls and notes, and there are even a number of VoIP integrations that allow you to make calls from directly within the cloud CRM.
“As a long time user of SFDC and other CRMs, I love the simplicity and intuitive nature of Pipedrive. My favorite feature is the automated pop-up forcing the next step.” – Ryan Roberts Founder & CEO, Bustld, LLC
#3: Wise Agent
It’s safe to say that Wise Agent knows their customers well. Salesforce automation is the most called for feature in real estate CRM software, and Wise Agent goes hard on this feature.
From marketing automation to automated lead management, Wise Agent allows reps to do what they do best: talk the talk.
Wise Agent also offers transaction management functionality and their very own landing page platform for creating dedicated lead capture tools.
“I’ve been recommending Wise Agent and Brandon Wise for over 5 years. Their newest version is the most exciting EVER. As a Coach, I know that your Database is the single most important tool for consistent business and growth, with the least cost and effort. What Brandon has done is give you a $10K a year product for just $29/month. Unbelievable.” – Donna Stott – Real Estate Coach
#4: Market Leader
Another CRM platform designed specifically for real estate professionals, Market Leader even sells leads that you can plug directly into your real estate CRM software and get to cold calling.
If that’s not your thing, you can still use Market Leader to deal with inbound leads, hooking it up to your website and social media marketing campaign efforts to automatically capture prospect information.
Market Leader also offers training courses and ongoing support to help agents new to CRM technology with a seamless transition.
What’s more, they even offer a website builder tool, allowing the realtor to essentially manage their entire online presence from a single platform.
“Market Leader is the growth engine behind my entire business,” – Aubie Pouncey of Keller Williams Realty
#5: Follow Up Boss
What makes Follow Up Boss the Tony Soprano of the CRM mob is its ability to bring all of your communications into one platform, be it phone, text, social media, or email campaign.
Follow Up Boss allows you to integrate the real estate CRM software with all of your existing tools and listings, meaning your leads flow into one centralized location. You can even automate lead distribution among agents in your team.
Perhaps the most powerful way to use Follow Up Boss is to schedule post-sales follow up calls. Given that around 41% of real estate agent leads come from referrals, this is not a sales activity you want to be forgetting about!
“We would be lost without Follow Up Boss. From Contact Management to Contract Management, we have attempted to use it to its full potential! Love love love the customer service response, attitude, and resolution experience!” – Michele Herndon. Partner – Ben Kinney Team Tampa Homes
Conclusion
Whether you’re looking to improve marketing automation, master client lead management, ramp up your sales process, or reach more potential buyers and sellers, you need quality customer relationship management software.
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