Real Estate CRM: What can it do for your business?
CRM stands for client relationship management. A real estate CRM is a software platform that agents can use to—as the name implies—manage relationships with their clients. Every real estate CRM is different, but many feature tools for generating, nurturing, and converting leads; managing a real estate transaction from contract to close; and maintaining relationships with past clients. The most robust real estate CRMs enable users to build out automated workflows and streamline every aspect of their business.
Because this type of software is cloud-based, you can access your data from any device, anywhere, anytime.
There are many CRMs on the market that can be used by many different industries (Salesforce is a popular example). A real estate CRM is one that is built specifically for real estate agents (Realvolve, for example).
A real estate CRM is one of the most important investments an agent can make for their business. So let’s take a closer look at what a real estate CRM can do for you. (Please note that every real estate CRM is different, and not every CRM will include the features discussed below. However, these are some great tools to look for as your shop for your perfect real estate CRM.)
Client Relationship Management Tools
With a real estate CRM, you’re not just managing your relationships with your clients; you’re also nurturing your relationships with past clients, leads, vendors, and other agents.
Manage your database of contacts:
As a real estate agent, your database of people is your most important asset. With a real estate CRM, you can keep all of your contacts and their information safely stored and organized. Your CRM will also help you keep a record of all communications you have with a contact. More robust systems will track a contact’s behavior (website visits, emails opened and clicked, etc.).
Segment your contacts:
Common categories for segmenting your contacts in a real estate CRM include Contact Type (client, agent, vendor, etc.), Stage (aware, know, like, trust), Status (suspect, prospect, lead, client, past lead), and Source Type (active prospecting, advertising, agent referral, etc.). You can also typically label your contacts however you want with custom tags. So if you wanted to create an email list of past clients who love golfing, you could create the custom tag “golf.”
Nurture relationships with drip email and texting campaigns:
Once you’ve segmented your contacts, you can start them on targeted drip email and text messaging campaigns. You can create email templates that pull in certain data, like a person’s first name, to personalize messages. And you can schedule emails to send weekly (or any other frequency), as well as on special occasions like a birthday or home purchase anniversary.
Get reminders to reach out to contacts:
Some real estate CRMs will notify you when a contact requires your attention. The contact might have signified their interest by opening an email or viewing a listing. Or it might be that you haven’t called them in 6 months and its time to follow up.
Lead Management Tools
A real estate CRM can be used to move leads down the sales funnel, from suspect to prospect to client.
Collect data from lead generation forms:
You can connect a form on your website to deliver leads directly into your CRM database. No more manual data inputting for you!
Create lead nurturing workflows:
If your real estate CRM includes workflow automation, you can program your leads to be automatically added into a lead nurturing workflow, through which they can begin receiving drip emails. Another action in that workflow might be a notification for you to give them a call or invite them to your Facebook group. The ability to customize a workflow to fit your unique process is what it so powerful.
Monitor lead status:
Many real estate CRMs have tools for monitoring the status of your leads. By segmenting your leads into categories, you can see how many are a “suspect” versus a “prospect.” And through contact tracking, you can also see which leads are more engaged and have a higher likelihood of converting.
Track ad campaigns:
Integrations allow you to incorporate other platforms into your CRM. Through an integration with Facebook Ads or LinkedIn Ads, you can use your real estate CRM to track your campaigns and import leads.
Transaction Management Tools
Your real estate CRM will ensure that every transaction runs smoothly and nothing slips through the cracks.
Build workflows to streamline your process:
Whether you’re on the buyer or seller side of a transaction, you can create customized workflows that streamline your entire process, from contract to close. Every action you need to take, every document the client needs to sign, every tiny detail of the transaction—it can all be built into a workflow.
Set flexible dates:
Many real estate CRMs allow you to set conditional dates in addition to static dates. That means you can set activities to occur on a specific date (March 3), after a delay (3 days later), or once another activity is completed.
Real estate transactions are unpredictable. With flexible dates, if one date gets pushed back, you won’t have to manually change every other date; everything will automatically recalibrate.
Get your whole team on board:
Your real estate CRM can have multiple users. That means every agent on your team—as well as your listing manager, transaction coordinator, marketing director, and anyone else you have on staff—can log into the CRM, see their assigned tasks, and stay on process.
Never miss a task:
When every step of your process is detailed in a workflow, you can be sure that nothing will fall through the cracks. Whatever needs to happen next in a transaction, it will be assigned to the right person at the right time.
Manage client documents:
You can upload documents into your real estate CRM, request e-signatures, and sometimes even compose and edit contracts.
Send listings to clients
Through an integration with an MLS app, you can use your real estate CRM to browse listings and send them to your clients.
Learn more about Real Estate CRM software
A real estate CRM can transform the way you do business. With the right CRM, you can generate more leads, earn more clients, ensure that every transaction runs smoothly, and—most importantly—do an even better job of nurturing your relationships.
Check out some of these resources to learn more about real estate CRMs:
How To Find The Best CRM For Your Real Estate Team
7 Reasons Why Transaction Management Is Easier With A Real Estate CRM
[VIDEO] How Your CRM Can Be Programmed To Work Around The Clock
