CRM for real estate: A beginner's guide

The real estate market is unpredictable to say the least. As a real estate agent, you know that when the market is hot, you don’t have time to look through files to find client details. And when things are slow, you want to be able to spend more time connecting with leads instead of searching for their contact information.

Having all your client and lead information in one place, at your fingertips, is a necessity for a successful real estate agent — and that’s exactly what a customer relationship management (CRM) tool for real estate does.

“If you ask any agent producing at a high and efficient level, the right CRM is the heart of your real estate business,” says Erin Hybart, lead listing agent and lead investor consultant at Clients First Realty. “The benefits include having a place where all your client and lead notes go, tasks associated with the transactions, and client contact information. A highly utilized CRM will allow you to quickly find or log client, transaction, or lead information.”

In this article, we’ll dive into real estate CRMs in more detail, including what they are, how you can best utilize them, and which real estate CRMs are worth trying out.

How to leverage a real estate CRM

A customer relationship management (CRM) tool for real estate is an online software solution that enables real estate agents to capture, organize, manage, and analyze information about their clients and leads.

You can use a CRM tool throughout the life cycle of a client, from their first engagement with you — such as through a contact form on your website or an online ad — to their last. CRM systems act as a single source of truth for client data. They hold all the relevant details about your clients, such as contact information, preferences, needs, budgets, challenges, and so much more.

“A CRM should be used for most pieces of work inside your business,” says Hybart. “It should be a place to store client and lead notes, market properties, conduct lead prospecting outreach and follow-up, organize tasks for transactions, conduct email marketing, record business expenses, and collaborate with team members or assistants.”

Here are some of the many ways to use CRM software for real estate:

• Keep track of leads and current clients: You can make notes for each engagement you have with each client, so you and your team can gain a deep understanding of customers’ needs, challenges, preferences, and budgets.
• Manage your sales pipeline: With a CRM tool, it’s easy to see how many prospects you’re talking to and when you expect them to close.
• Reactivate past clients: You can use a CRM system for relationship management with clients you’ve worked with in the past to ask for referrals and keep your business top of mind should they need your services again.
• Automate tedious tasks: A CRM can automate outgoing email follow-ups, calendar reminders (such as for open houses), team assignments to specific clients, and much more.
• Understand lead behavior: Many CRMs have functionality to help you analyze leads’ website behavior (such as which pages they visited) or email behavior (such as whether they open emails from you and click on links).

Top real estate CRMs to check out

Hybart offers some expert tips for choosing the right real estate CRM: “Agents should look for a CRM with all the functionality they need now and one that will allow them to scale their business in the future. A mobile-friendly app is highly desirable because you can make notes in the field and find information on the go.

“A CRM that allows multiple users to collaborate with teammates for transaction tasks is also very helpful,” she says. “Your CRM should allow you to automate your business with email marketing and capture leads from property marketing.

“Making calls, sending texts, and connecting your emails is also a plus so you don’t have notes and details in multiple places. I have known too many agents who stopped using their CRM because it’s not user-friendly or they couldn’t get the customer support they needed. The UX and good customer support service are very important.”

Here are three leading contenders to consider.

1. Jotform

Jotform is a versatile online form builder realtors can use as a CRM platform for their real estate business.

With Jotform, real estate agents can collect lead and client information through forms, manage the details in a spreadsheet-powered database, and create visual reports using an intuitive report builder. Jotform integrates with many other business solutions, such as communication tools, cloud storage platforms, and project management tools.

Jotform has a free plan as well as four tiers of paid plans starting at $34 per month.

2. Salesforce

Salesforce is a CRM tool that helps real estate agents understand important insights about their leads and clients using AI analytics. Key features include sales performance management, team productivity tools, revenue intelligence, and highly personalized marketing campaigns.

Salesforce offers a free trial, as well as multiple paid plans for each of its CRM products.

3. Wise Agent

Wise Agent is a CRM built specifically for the real estate industry. Key features include lead automation, transaction management, time management tools, automation tools, marketing solutions, broker tools, and a centralized database.

Wise Agent has a free 14-day trial and three paid plans starting at $49 per month.

Jotform: An ideal CRM solution for real estate agents

For real estate agents who want flexibility and the ability to customize their customer relationship management solution, Jotform is the answer.

With Jotform, you can tailor your CRM forms to gather the information you need from your leads and clients, create automated approval workflows, and customize reports to spot trends and anomalies.

Jotform is highly intuitive to use, so anyone on your team can learn it with ease — even if they have no coding experience. And security is as important to Jotform as it is for your business, so your data will always remain secure. Plus, Jotform is optimized for mobile, enabling you — and your leads and clients — to use it on the go.

The real estate industry can be tumultuous, but you can manage the ups and downs of your business with Jotform as your CRM tool.

Photo by Sora Shimazaki