The Best CRM Software for Real Estate

The right customer relationship management (CRM) system is essential for Realtors who want to stand out in a crowded marketplace and deliver best-in-class service to their clients. The best CRM software helps real estate professionals find buyers, arrange property showings, handle negotiations, manage mountains of paperwork, and guide each deal to completion. CRM solutions keep you organized and streamline the complexities of buying and selling property. We’ve reviewed dozens of CRM platforms and analyzed their features and functionalities to pinpoint the CRM solutions that best fulfill the needs of real estate professionals.

CRM system costs for your real estate business will vary widely depending on your agency’s size and needs. While you may be able to start with a free option from HubSpot or monday Sales CRM (workforce management platform only), growing and more established real estate agencies and professionals will likely need higher-level features.

Our top CRM systems for real estate incur the following costs:

Higher subscription levels unlock more features, including analytics, automations, reporting tools and AI functions. Each CRM provider we’ve highlighted has an app store where you can add more functionality to the platform. However, add-ons will likely cost you more. For example, the Property Strength app on Salesforce costs an additional $150 per user per month.

Some CRM systems also offer paid onboarding, implementation and training services. For example, HubSpot offers advanced and premium onboarding services that start at $10,000. Additionally, some vendors have premium customer service options that incur additional charges. For example, Zoho’s Premium support option costs 20 percent of your license fee and provides remote assistance, onboarding, configuration assistance and 24-hour support five days a week.

CRM platforms have a broad range of features that can handle numerous and complex business needs. For real estate agencies specifically, the following features are must-haves.

Marketing

According to the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials, the U.S. is home to over 3 million real estate professionals. Marketing is crucial in such a competitive industry, and your CRM platform should boast extensive marketing features to make your brand stand out.

At the very least, ensure your platform offers must-have CRM integrations, such as social media integrations and integrations with tools that streamline email marketing. Consider a platform that provides a live chatbot that allows you to capture contact details on your website.

Lead Management

CRM systems are crucial for lead management because they centralize customer data. For the best results, migrate your existing data into your CRM immediately. Then, synchronize the CRM with your other business apps to create one centralized system.

Ensure that your CRM system logs all interactions with buyers and sellers and updates deal stages. To improve communication with clients, integrate options for email, phone, SMS (text message), WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger into your CRM.

Analytics and Reporting

Every real estate agency, no matter how big or small, can improve by understanding what it does well and what’s not working. To stay ahead, choose a CRM that can monitor performance and outcomes to gain valuable insights.

Your CRM platform can tell you which advertising channels pull in the most inquiries and which staff members persuaded potential sellers to sign up with your agency. This can help you allocate company resources and bring on more customers.

Workflow Automations

Managing buyers, sellers and the sales process is complicated. Employee error and forgetfulness are two big threats to confidence in a real estate business’s brand and customer satisfaction.

Take the pressure off your staff and provide better service by automating repetitive and time-consuming work. Create CRM workflows for tasks such as scheduling home inspections and post-sale email follow-ups, and facilitate other duties, like reviewing closing documents and starting a title document search.

To ensure you select the right CRM for your real estate agency, follow these steps:

1. Understand what you want your CRM to do.

Determine your top goals for your CRM. While you likely know you want to manage customer relationships, create a detailed list of the areas where you need help, such as contact management, deal tracking and email campaigns.

Examine your marketing processes and assess your e-commerce, project management and communication needs. You want the CRM you choose to facilitate your real estate business.

2. Evaluate available CRM products on the market.

Not all CRMs will have the features you need. It’s crucial to check out any potential CRM platform’s app store to ensure you’ll get the functionality you want. For example, Salesforce has more than 20 real-estate-focused apps, while Zoho has two. These apps may provide you with convenient shortcuts to ensure your CRM meets your expectations immediately.

3. Ask vendors for a demo or free trial.

After you create a shortlist of vendors with promising CRM software, it’s time to get some hands-on experience. Each CRM solution highlighted here offers a free trial, which is a great way to get a feel for a platform before you commit to it.

If you choose a vendor without a free trial option, request a demo. On the video call, ask questions and request demonstrations on how to perform the specific tasks you’ll need. For example, ask them to show you how the platform handles lead segmentation and how it integrates with your current email marketing tool.

After you go through the free trials and demos, whittle down your shortlist.

4. Get quotes for promising CRMs.

Get as many quotes as possible from the vendors you’ve approached. Be specific about what you need; ask which service tier would be the best fit and whether you’d need paid add-ons to access certain CRM features. Determine if the vendor charges fees for training, onboarding and customer support.

If you run a large, multibranch real estate agency, consider getting quotes from different vendors. This may encourage them to enter a bidding war to secure your business.

5. Read online reviews of prospective CRM vendors.

Before you commit to a vendor, seek online reviews, expert opinions and customer feedback on website forums. Pay particular attention to CRM reviews from other real estate professionals, as their experiences and needs will be similar to yours. Ease of use and customer service are important, so look out for comments on these subjects.

It’s almost impossible to run a successful, efficient real estate agency using multiple apps, databases and spreadsheets that don’t communicate. A real estate CRM provides oversight of staff activities, agent performance and deals in the pipeline.

Consider the following key benefits of CRM software for your real estate business.

Streamlined Client Communication

Buying and selling property are stressful for homeowners. Your ability to keep clients in the loop and contact them when needed can make or break your brand.

From the initial inquiry to the property handover, a real estate CRM streamlines and improves customer communication. All client details are available immediately in the client history; colleagues can acquaint themselves with a particular client in seconds and offer the help and guidance they need. You can also free up staff members’ time by automating communications and setting reminders at different pipeline stages.

Tip: Ensure your CRM supports text message marketing as well as phone and email communications. According to the National Association of Realtors, 93 percent of real estate professionals communicate with clients by text, 90 percent via phone and 89 percent via email.

Centralized Database

A single database ensures you and your staff see the latest customer information and deal progress in real time. Clients will be impressed and appreciative when they contact your agents and receive prompt, informed help.

Additionally, CRM software records every conversation, action and deal stage so you and your team can see both successes and bottlenecks.

Better Marketing and Ad Experience

CRM software includes integrated marketing and sales suites for distributing social media and email advertising campaigns to entice new leads. The built-in communication platforms help you stay in touch with leads until they become clients and beyond.

CRM software also plugs into home listing sites, like Zillow, and pay-per-click platforms, like Google Ads. With a CRM, you can promote your agency in various ways and monitor the performance of every campaign.

Improved Productivity

CRMs streamline and automate communication with buyers, sellers and everyone involved in a property transaction. They also free up your employees’ time by taking over mundane but necessary administrative tasks.

When human intervention is needed, you can set up alerts to spur action from your staff. For example, you can prompt colleagues to set up a showing, organize an open house or retrieve paperwork from a buyer’s lawyer.