Skip to main content

How to Choose the Best CRM for Your Real Estate Team

The success of a real estate business hinges on several key factors, including experience, knowing the housing market, and, most importantly—the ability to effectively manage and communicate with clients.

While building a good relationship with your clients and continuously growing your clientele is easier said than done, luckily, you no longer have to rely on handwritten notes or spreadsheets to have all your client information in one place the old-fashioned way.

Customer relationship management (CRM) systems have been developed to simplify and streamline all real estate client interactions, from initial outreach to closing the deal. Real estate CRMs take care of the details, helping your team easily record, sort, and find client information, so you can focus on growing your business.

Well, what makes a good real estate CRM, and how do you choose the best CRM for your real estate team?

In this blog post, we will take a look at the benefits of CRMs for the real estate industry, all the tools, and features that set a good CRM system apart from the rest, and end with a step-by-step guide to help you find the right CRM for your needs.

What is a real estate CRM?

What is CRM? CRM stands for customer relationship management, and CRM solutions are utilized in many industries, such as healthcare and ecommerce, to oversee all communication with both leads and clients.

Biggest reason real estate companies don't use a CRM

CRMs for real estate businesses have features and tools specific to the real estate industry, catering to the needs of real estate professionals.

For example, a realtor CRM may have a more thorough contact management tool compared to an ecommerce CRM.

Rather than just jotting down the phone numbers, emails, and addresses of multiple clients, a great real estate CRM will also have fields that document other details conducive to building rapport with the buyer or seller, such as marital status and the name of their pet. A real estate CRM can give your team an edge over the competition.

Benefits of using real estate CRM software

For real estate agents, having a CRM system to support client interactions in every step of the sales process can make all the difference. Juggling cold calls, open houses, and demanding clients, a real estate CRM can alleviate your stress of having to remember every little detail. Some benefits of real estate CRMs include:

Contact management

At its core, a real estate CRM shines the brightest as a contact database. Rather than using spreadsheets or post-its, all of your important client information is in one place. With a real estate CRM, remembering the personal information and must-have home features of each client becomes effortless.

With search and sort functions, you will never have to page through a long document or scramble to find a phone number ever again. The best real estate CRMs will also have easy referral and client-sharing functionalities, making intra-team collaborations easy.

Lead generation

An important email can easily get lost in your inbox, but a good real estate CRM makes following up with clients a breeze. Stand out from other real estate agencies and generate more leads by providing a stellar customer experience.

Many real estate CRMs also have the ability to sort leads from different marketing campaigns and automatically assign leads to different real estate agents on the team, allowing you to divide and conquer.

72% of real estate agents use CRM software, with over 30% who log into their CRM every day.

Marketing automation

Real estate CRMs can get the name of your real estate business out there and even advertise individual real estate agents on your team. Through automated marketing tools such as personalized mass email automation and real estate flyer and brochure generators, you can grow your business without the busy work.

Transaction management

For real estate companies, it’s important to keep track of every transaction from the very start to avoid costly mistakes. A real estate CRM will typically have checklists for each transaction, making sure every step is completed by the deadline. Some real estate CRM software also offer cloud storage options for important documents. Seamless transaction management can help you stay organized.

Time and goal tracking

Real estate CRM systems tend to include calendars, to-do lists, and goal-tracking tools to help your real estate agents stay on track. A market-leader CRM will go the extra mile and feature functionalities that allow you to sort by event type, attach files to events on your calendar, and create a timeline of your sales process.

How to Choose a CRM for real estate

Are there real estate CRMs that check everything off your list? Follow these general steps to find a CRM that suits your real estate team.

8 Reasons real estate companies need a CRM

Determine your needs

The first step to choosing a real estate CRM is determining your needs. What areas do you need help in? Do you have an experienced team of real estate professionals but can’t seem to score new clients?

A real estate CRM with marketing automation tools may be able to increase your reach. A CRM system that supports landing page creation for individual listings and real estate agents may also be a good choice to generate real estate leads. Get started by considering your needs in these areas:

  • Contact organization
  • Marketing campaigns and outreach
  • Document storage
  • Task management
  • Team collaboration
  • Performance tracking

Of course, there are also many other areas to consider. If you need some ideas, ask a team member. After all, you want to empower them and give them all the help they need to succeed. Survey your real estate agents to see if they need tools to manage contacts, capture leads, schedule phone calls, or easily share property listings.

Create a budget

After you figure out the features you want in a real estate CRM, it’s time to create a budget that makes sense for your business and allows you to get a return on your investment.

While a more complicated CRM system tends to come with a higher price, there are also a number of free or affordable CRM options. Fortunately, while some of the best real estate CRMs are paid, they come in a variety of price points.

The most common pricing models for realtor CRM software are either monthly or yearly. Monthly prices range from as low as $8 to $99 per user, depending on the level of subscription you choose. Remember, a higher price does not always mean a better fit.

If you are getting realtor CRM software for your entire team, you must also decide whether you wish to have a team account or individual accounts. While team accounts may seem expensive, if you run a large agency with a lot of real estate agents, they can end up saving you money.

Evaluate different software

In this step, take time to try out different real estate CRM software. A lot of the options available on the market offer free trials, so you can get a feel for their many CRM tools. Ask yourself the following questions:

  • How does the user interface look?
  • Does the navigation and user journey make sense?
  • Are there customization options?
  • Can all features be easily accessed?
  • Is the software easy to learn and use?
  • Is the software available for multiple platforms?
  • Can the software be used on the go?
  • Does the CRM offer customer support?
  • Is support available at all times?
  • Is the software reliably online at all times?
  • Does the software offer capabilities specific to real estate?

After analyzing your needs and budget, this step is all about intuition. Have your entire team join in this process for the best results.

Enhance your business with a real estate CRM

A CRM can be an invaluable asset to your real estate business. From lead generation to transaction management, real estate CRMs support your communication with your clients at every step of the sales process.

If you want to learn more about real estate CRMs and CRMs in general, Mailchimp’s Marketing Library provides a variety of resources on free CRM tools and free CRM software for small businesses.

Looking to make a website for your real estate agency? Mailchimp’s free, user-friendly website builder can create well-designed real estate agent websites in under an hour.

Share This Article