Choosing the best CRM for real estate business

Real estate agents are the quintessential small business owners; whether they’re self-employed or working for a firm, the structure of the job requires the agent to build a client base via real estate lead management, organize their client list, keep track of correspondence such as emails and phone calls, organize their contracts and other signed documents, have a list of available properties ranging from tract homes, condominiums, apartment buildings, private businesses, etc.

To keep all of that information organized, choosing the right CRM, also known as customer relationship management for someone who’s in the real estate business can help streamline their daily operations. The needs of the real estate industry are unique to any other line of business. Real estate agents heavily rely on leads and referrals to keep their business alive and one way to simplify this is via automated lead generation in real estate that can be accomplished with the help of a proper CRM.

What is a Real Estate CRM?

A CRM helps business owners keep track of every important detail that helps operate their organization. With a CRM, you can automate all of your daily business tasks in one centralized location on your computer and/or your mobile device. Knowing how to manage real estate leads via CRM is a game changer for the real estate business. When it comes to the real estate industry, some examples of daily tasks that can be automated with the use of a CRM system include:

Tracking lead follow-up email in real estate transactions by integrating whichever platform you use such as Outlook or Gmail

Tracking commission and expenses

Business calling and texting

Automating monthly newsletter updates to clients

Creating a sales pipeline for properties, investors and buyers

Keeping track of correspondence

Taking notes on property information and client requests

Organizing listings

Keap’s real estate automation software can help real estate agents organize and grow their businesses while making the best use of their time so they can focus on generating leads, nurturing clients and closing deals.

Learn how Keap’s CRM can streamline your real estate business

Benefits of using a top real estate CRM

Now that we’re well into 2020, the face of CRMs has changed a lot since the inception of the software. CRM adoption by the real estate industry has seen some changes as well. This year, we can expect to see the software focus more on artificial intelligence (AI), customer experience, immersive abilities, social media and omnichannel.

Creating a more immersive experience for real estate clients is conducive to the nature of the job, which is to exhibit homes and businesses for sale. Real estate agents can now put their clients right in the middle of their new home thanks to virtual and augmented reality.

Having a CRM in one’s arsenal better equips them for the challenges they will inevitably encounter in the real estate industry such as low inventory, heavy competition, keeping up with and learning new technology trends, expensive lead generation and fostering a solid database of clients. A CRM can help real estate agents overcome these challenges with the following benefits:

Accurate reporting on inventory

Lead follow-up automation to ensure no client gets left behind

Agency pipeline management to ensure the sales process is executed smoothly

Real estate appointment software to ensure no double bookings or missed meetings occur

Real estate marketing automation to enhance promotion strategies

With Keap’s CRM, real estate agents and small business owners alike can organize all of their company’s information, automate their follow-up patterns to ensure they nurture their contacts to their fullest ability, systematize their daily tasks and above all, impress clients.

Real estate agents can leverage CRMs so they can free up time to go above and beyond for their clients by sending over dinner on move-in day, sending a welcome home basket, sending cards and gifts on important dates such as birthdays and move-in anniversaries, offering them a tour of their new community, etc. Real estate agents who make an effort to “wow” their clients are also more likely to build their business through organic referrals.

Setting up a Real Estate CRM

One thing that sets Keap’s proprietary CRM apart is the ability to customize. Real estate agents can leverage Keap, which provides the best real estate CRM software. These CRM setup tools complement real estate agents’ individual business models. Everyone runs their business differently and Keap understands this, giving small business owners the option to tailor their daily tasks into a consolidated system.

Getting set up is easy with Keap’s CRM onboarding, which helps real estate agents move their clients through the sales funnel with the following steps:

Navigating your dashboard – this is your birds-eye view of your business, assisting you in seeing your leads, active deals, pending closures, paid invoices, outstanding invoices, etc.

Importing and organizing leads – any time you meet a new prospect or collect a business card, this is where you would enter their contact information and categorize them as to where they are in their sales journey such as a lead, client, buyer, investor, etc.

Closing the deal – in the context of real estate sales funnel examples, this is where you would keep track of where everyone is in the sales pipeline to ensure clients are reflected correctly in each stage of the sales process. For the purposes of real estate business, you could organize them as leads, contacted, first appointment, follow up, searching, negotiating, closed and move them through the funnel as they progress with the drag and drop function in the CRM.

Getting paid – keep track of invoicing and payments, giving you a better idea of outstanding payments.

Staying connected – leverage real estate scheduling software to automate your communication with the Keap business line, freeing up your mobile device for personal calls only; you may also prompt the “do not disturb” feature after business hours. This is also where you create Keap messages, integrate your email from other platforms, design email templates and schedule email campaigns.

Reporting your progress and performance – this is where you can keep track of sales such as your commission and closed deals to generate a monthly trend report.

Personalizing your account – here is where you can customize your Keap account settings by adding your company logo to the business section, updating your profile should your business address change, adding an email signature with your contact information, etc.

If you were to use a CRM is that not conducive to the real estate industry, you may encounter certain roadblocks. For example, it may not:

allow you to maintain your contacts on your mobile device because it wasn’t structured with responsive design

enable you to create contact records so you can easily locate correspondence

give you the option to organize your clients into a real estate pipeline template

Keap’s CRM is not rigid when it comes to customization, it’s very sturdy and can help small business owners create the most ideal dashboard that would most benefit their companies’ structure.

Factors to Consider when choosing a CRM for Real Estate

While choosing the most ideal CRM for a real estate business, agents need to take into account that not all CRMs are created equal and some are made for more general contact records as opposed to market-specific needs, much like the housing industry.

A CRM for real estate can help agents observe and record market trends in the local economies affecting the price of housing and monitoring the behavior of the clientele as to who’s buying and who’s selling. This is where Keap’s CRM is set apart from the competition with its platform dependency, allowing small business owners to customize their dashboards to reflect their business needs.

Another thing to be aware of is limiting your real estate business by employing enterprise resource planning (ERP), which only allows agents to manage home purchase inventory, sales, marketing and finance within the confines of the business. A CRM allows you to do all of that and more by monitoring your business’ trends as well as the behavior and progress of your buyers.

Some functionalities in CRM software that would most benefit a real estate business include:

Social media: You can connect your CRM to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, which will allow you to keep track of anniversaries, birthdays, etc. for client relationship-building purposes.

Easier follow-up: Organize your prospects so you'll have an idea of who you need to contact and the best way to reach out to them via phone, email or social media.

Reconnecting with former clients: There’s always a chance that a former client would need to use you again to sell their home or maybe purchase another property; staying in touch will ensure you’ll be top of mind should they need you again.

Referral generation: Your CRM database should not only include your previous and prospective clients' names, but it’s also a good idea to gather the names of various professionals and vendors such as carpet cleaners and painters so you can recommend their business to other clients in hopes that they will do the same for you.

Managing closings: Leverage your CRM to stay on top of all of the tasks that need to happen before closing day such as home inspections, submitting a mortgage application before deadline, collecting keys, etc.

Integrations for Real Estate CRM Software

What is CRM integration? CRM integration is a huge time saver for real estate agents, adding extra functionality to their software so they can find everything all in one place.

The best CRM integration for real estate agents include:

Creating a business line, which is a built-in dialer so you don’t have to compromise your mobile phone and have it ring all day long.

Integrate your email platforms such as Gmail or Outlook to organize messages, create email campaigns and templates so you don’t have to type out the same email over and over again.

Integrate your spreadsheets from Excel that reflect your clientele and where they are in the sales funnel.

Integrate your SMS text messages the same way you would integrate your sales calls, keeping everything in one centralized communication list.

In Conclusion

With all of the other responsibilities real estate agents are preoccupied with such as generating leads, closing deals and making commission, the last thing they need to be worrying about is managing their business’ menial daily tasks. Implementing a reliable CRM will not only make doing business easier, but more enjoyable–it makes a huge difference when you feel organized.

At the end of the day, real estate agents are self-employed in a very volatile industry–you never know what kind of an effect the economy can have on the housing landscape, which is why it’s always wise to be prepared for anything and being armed with a streamlined way of doing business cuts a lot of the red tape out of the equation.

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