What is a CRM in real estate?
Our explainer on what a CRM in real estate is, and what it can do
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So what is a CRM in real estate? Customer relationship management (CRM) software lets you manage every interaction and aspect of your client relationships. When you’re providing one of the most important services of all—helping your clients buy, sell, and rent property—CRM becomes even more critical.
Thebest CRM softwareenhances your client communications, puts the buyer or seller front-and-center, and helps you increase closings and revenue.
What is a CRM in real estate, and what does this software do?
The best CRMs for real estate support your property business in multiple ways:
How can your real estate teams use a property management CRM?
The best real estate CRMs provide value across multiple departments. We’ve covered some of the central functions in a real estate business, specifically:
Realtors and real estate agents
Real estate agents are the public face of your property business. Realtors will use a CRM to:
Real estate administration
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A successful real estate business relies on streamlined and efficient administration processes. Your admin team will use a CRM to:
Property and client marketing
Your marketing team raises awareness of your real estate firm and property listings. A marketing and promotional team will use a CRM to:
Real estate sales and closings
Your sales team will manage properties and clients from the buying decision to closing. A real estate CRM will help them in several ways:
Real estate customer service and support
Buying, selling, or renting a property is a huge commitment. Your customer service and support teams will use a CRM to:
What are the main features and benefits of a real estate CRM?
CRMs exist in many flavors, from software that manages client information and interactions through to applications that can run your entire real estate business. Although features do vary, you’ll find some of the most important ones below.
Storing property information
When people are buying selling, and renting property, details matter. A real estate CRM will collect together all of the most important information about a property in a concise, consistent, reliable, and accessible way. You’ll be able to filter and sort property using multiple criteria so you can find the perfect match for your client. You can build your real estate processes around each property to ensure complete and comprehensive management.
Storing information about interested parties
Real estate businesses thrive from connecting the right clients with the right properties. The best CRMs will capture details about your clients and help you to build a comprehensive profile. You can ask questions to define their needs, budgets, and other areas, then run reports to identify the most appealing properties. You can integrate clients with important property activities and ensure customers are properly managed through every inquiry, interaction, and transaction.
Managing property leads, deals, and sales
You want to maintain a steady pipeline of healthy leads, rent or sell property, and manage everything through to closing. A real estate CRM lets you manage the entire process from start to finish. You can gather leads and interested clients from your marketing efforts, track the statuses of properties and deals, and ensure that clients close in an effective and streamlined way.
Building healthy relationships, communications, and interactions
Trust matters, especially when people are making the biggest financial commitments of their lives. A real estate CRM lets you manage all of your client communications from one place. It gives you a central view of the truth, and ensures every team member is on the same page for every interaction. A CRM helps you tweak and improve your client management processes, optimizing opportunities to drive sales and get customers to close.
Integrating with other systems, stakeholders, and third parties
Real estate management, rentals, and sales are complex, interdependent processes relying on many third parties and data stored across multiple systems. A real estate CRM brings all of that together. It integrates with software and information, and provides a central way to manage relationships with buyers, sellers, developers, attorneys, and other stakeholders.
How much does real estate CRM software cost?
CRM software costs do vary widely, depending on the breadth and depth of the features you need. We’ve analyzed some of the best CRMs out there to create a price guide:
You can easily customize CRMs for your real estate business.
Real estate CRM FAQs
What is a CRM in real estate?
Real estate CRM software is an application that helps you manage relationships with individuals and businesses who want to buy, sell, rent, or manage property. There are different types of CRM software—general CRMs that can be customized for real estate businesses, and specialized CRM software that’s built for realtors. You can use either approach when you’re looking for a CRM solution—specialized real estate CRMs do more “out of the box” but may not be as customizable. More general CRMs do require some configuration, but can easily be adapted for multiple use cases.
What are the main features of a real estate CRM tool?
Features do vary widely between CRM tools, but some of the main ones include:
What is the best real estate CRM software?
Opinions do vary on the best CRM software out there. If you’re looking for a comparison of general CRM software that you can customize for your real estate business, then our guide to thebest CRM for real estateis a great place to start. If you’re looking for CRM software built for real estate businesses, then you might want to take a look at Boomtown, iHomeFinder, Contractually, or FirePoint.
Where can I read reviews of CRM software?Right here on TechRadar! We’ve got you covered with ourbest CRM for small business; reviews of leading providers includingSalesforce,Microsoft Dynamics 365,Freshworks,Insightly, andHubSpot; and much more.
How will real estate CRM software help me grow my property business?
Real estate sales are all about relationships. Individuals and businesses are making some of their most important financial decisions, and they want to work with people they can trust. A CRM helps to build that trust—by solving problems, sharing information, matching people and properties, and ensuring everything goes smoothly. CRMs build your reputation as a realtor, putting the client front-and-center, driving sales and closings, and increasing your revenue.
What are the main takeaways for real estate CRMs?
Further reading
Learn more aboutwhat CRM software is, see seven reasons why aCRM for businesscan drive customer growth, and find outthe main reasons your small business needs a CRM.
Paul is a professional writer who creates extensively researched, expert, in-depth guides across business, finance, and technology. He loves the challenge of taking complex subjects and breaking them down so they are easy to understand. He can quote ‘The Princess Bride’ in its entirety and believes the secret to good writing is Earl Grey tea.
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