Best CRM for real estate agents

As a real estate agent, managing multiple clients, listings, and transactions while maintaining strong relationships can be overwhelming. To stay ahead in the competitive real estate market, you need a CRM that can adapt to your specific needs. The right CRM can help you organize client information, automate follow-ups, track leads, and manage multiple sales pipelines — all from a single platform.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the best CRM options for real estate agents like you, highlighting the features that will help you boost efficiency, stay organized, and close more deals effectively.

Why real estate agents need a CRM

Managing a real estate agency can be challenging without the right tools. A CRM can streamline your operations and boost efficiency.

Challenges without a CRM

Below are a few challenges you might already be facing without realising.

• Disorganization: Without a centralized system, tracking client interactions and property details becomes chaotic.
• Missed opportunities: Leads can slip through the cracks, resulting in lost sales and revenue.
• Inefficient processes: Manual tasks consume valuable time that could be spent on more strategic activities.
• Lack of insight: Limited visibility into agent performance and client preferences hampers decision-making.
• Inconsistent communication: Without a unified platform, maintaining consistent and timely communication with clients and agents is challenging.

Benefits of a CRM

If you're still wondering whether or not it's worth investing in a CRM, there are a few benefits below you can expect from having the right one.

• Centralized information: A CRM consolidates all client and property data, making it easily accessible for the entire team.
• Enhanced efficiency: Automating routine tasks frees up time for agents to focus on closing deals.
• Improved customer relationships: Track client interactions and preferences to provide personalized service.
• Better decision-making: Gain insights from data analytics to make informed business decisions.
• Increased sales: Efficient lead management and follow-up processes boost conversion rates.
• Consistent communication: Ensure timely and uniform communication with clients and agents through integrated tools.
  

How to evaluate and choose a CRM platform

With a lot of CRMs to comb through, it can be hard without clarifying what your requirements of one are, and the budget you can accommodate. Below are a few other points you should consider in your decision making process.

1. Define your requirements

For real estate agents, identifying the key features needed in a CRM is crucial. Look for functionalities like lead management, property tracking, automated follow-ups, and integration with MLS (Multiple Listing Service). These features streamline your workflow and ensure you can manage client relationships efficiently.

Key features of a CRM for real estate agents

• Automated processes: Streamlines tasks by automating repetitive workflows, saving time and reducing errors.
• Contact enrichment: Automatically finds Leads, Investors, Customers, and Investment opportunities' email addresses and contact information, enhancing efficiency and ensuring you have up-to-date details at your fingertips.
• Structured pipeline: Tracks Leads, Investors, Customers, and Investment opportunities through defined stages, ensuring process clarity and effectiveness. This helps you stay organized and focused on closing deals.
• Mail merge and email sequences: Increases communication efficiency with follow-up templates and automated sequences. This feature ensures consistent communication with prospects and clients, improving your chances of conversion.
• Social media integration: Seamlessly imports leads, investors, customers, and investment opportunities from social media and get all contact information within the CRM. This integration allows you to leverage your professional network more effectively.
• Analytics: Provides essential data analysis and predictive insights for better planning. With detailed reports and forecasts, you can make informed decisions and strategize for future growth.

2. Budget considerations

Balancing cost and return on investment (ROI) is essential when choosing a CRM for your real estate business. Evaluate the pricing plans of different CRM platforms and consider how their features can enhance your agents' productivity and sales. An affordable CRM that offers essential tools can provide significant ROI by helping you close more deals and manage clients better.

3. Selection process

Researching and selecting the right CRM vendor involves several steps. Start by reading reviews and testimonials from other real estate professionals. Request demos or trials to understand how the CRM works in a real-world setting. Additionally, consider the vendor's customer support and training resources, which can be vital during the onboarding process.

4. Get a demo

Trial and compare different CRM platforms to find the best fit for your real estate agency. Use the trial period to test key features, assess ease of use, and evaluate how well the CRM integrates with your existing tools. Gather feedback from your agents and make a decision based on which platform offers the most comprehensive solution for your business needs. To get a demo of folk, click here.

3 tips for implementing a CRM

Once you're ready to implement a CRM, keep these three things top of mind to get the most out of it.

1. Import your data in your new CRM

Transitioning to a new CRM can seem daunting, but importing your existing data makes the process smoother. Make sure to export your customer data as a .CSV file - most CRMs can support this document file and this will save you from manually adding contacts one by one.

2. Create your first pipeline

Once your data is imported, set up your first pipeline. For real estate agents, this could include stages like "New Lead," "Contacted," "Property Viewing," "Negotiation," and "Closed Deal." Tailoring the pipeline to your specific workflow ensures that you can track and manage leads effectively.

3. Onboard your team

Having your team on board is essential for the successful implementation of a new CRM. Schedule training sessions to familiarize them with the new system. Highlight key features that will help them in their daily tasks, such as lead management, client communication, and property tracking. A well-trained team will maximize the CRM’s potential, leading to better client relationships and increased productivity.

The 5 best CRMs for real estate agents

1. folk

folk is a modern CRM platform for managing contacts, workflows, and relationships, offering customizable pipelines, AI-driven tools, and integrations to enhance deal management and prospecting.

Key features

• Contact enrichment: Automatically enriches contact details by finding emails and LinkedIn URLs, enabling efficient outreach without manual data entry or additional costs for email services.
• Social media integration: Seamlessly import contacts from LinkedIn, track conversations within folk, and use templates for quicker, streamlined communication.
• Mail merge: Full email sync, templates, and tracking features, enabling users to manage all communications directly from the CRM.
• AI-powered features: AI tools assist in managing contacts and relationships, automating routine tasks, and suggesting actions to improve productivity.
• Integrations: folk integrates seamlessly with over 6,000 apps, including Gmail, Zapier, and Make, allowing users to centralize their workflow and reduce manual data entry.

Pros

• Ease of use: folk is praised for its intuitive interface, making it accessible even to non-technical users with quick onboarding and a minimal learning curve.
• All-in-one: folk streamlines your workflow by allowing you to import contacts from LinkedIn, automatically find their emails, reach out through customizable email sequences, and track interactions in a pipeline, eliminating the need for multiple tools and saving time and money.
• Customizability: Custom fields, dashboards, multiple pipelines across different business functions , and workflows.
• Integrations: folk integrates seamlessly with over 6,000 apps, including Gmail, Zapier, and Make, allowing users to centralize their workflow and reduce manual data entry.

Cons

• Reporting: Currently lacks reporting features, but there are plans for future implementation.
  
  

Price and plans

You can try folk for free with a 14-day free trial. After that, a monthly or annual subscription plan is as follows.

• Standard: $20 per user, per month.
• Premium: $40 per user, per month.
• Custom: Starts from $60 per user, per month.

2. HubSpot

Hubspot CRM is a user-friendly, scalable platform offering integrated tools for managing sales, marketing, customer service, and operations efficiently.

Key features

• Marketing Hub: Includes email marketing, ad tracking, landing pages, and lead generation tools, essential for attracting and nurturing leads and investors.
• Sales Hub: Provides deal tracking, pipeline management, sales automation, and reporting, crucial for managing customer relationships and investment opportunities.
• Lead scoring: Prioritize leads with predictive scoring to improve sales efficiency and focus on high-potential customers and investors.
• Operations Hub: Syncs and automates business processes across different systems, ensuring seamless management of various real estate transactions and client interactions.
• Service Hub: Offers customer service tools like ticketing, live chat, and knowledge bases, enhancing client support and satisfaction.

Pros

• User-friendly interface: HubSpot's intuitive interface makes it accessible for real estate agents, even those with basic CRM knowledge.
• Marketing tools: Integrates smoothly with marketing, sales, and service hubs, creating a unified platform for managing leads, investors, and customers.
• Automation capabilities: Provides powerful automation tools for tasks like email marketing and lead nurturing, helping agents save time and improve efficiency.
• Resources: HubSpot Academy offers free courses and resources to help agents maximize the platform's potential.
• Dashboard and reports: Allows agents to create customized dashboards and reports to track metrics and gain insights into business performance.

Cons

• High cost: The pricing can become expensive as you move to higher tiers, which may be prohibitive for smaller real estate agencies.
• Limited customization in free plan: The free plan has limited customization options, restricting flexibility for growing agencies.
• Complexity in advanced features: Advanced features like custom reporting and workflows have a steep learning curve, requiring additional training.
• Email marketing limits: The free plan restricts the number of emails you can send, which can be a drawback for agencies with larger contact lists.
• Additional costs for add-ons: Many useful features come as paid add-ons, increasing the overall cost for agencies seeking advanced CRM capabilities.
  

Price and plans

Prices and plans on the CRM suite for an annual subscription are as follows.

• Starter: $15 per user, per month.
• Professional: $450 per user, per month.
• Enterprise: $1,500 per user, per month.

3. Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a web-based CRM for small businesses, offering lead management, automation, email integration, and customizable pipelines to optimize sales.

Key features

• Lead and deal management: Centralized tools to manage leads, investors, customers, and investment opportunities, helping real estate agents act quickly on potential deals.
• Sales automation: Workflow automation to handle repetitive tasks like lead routing and follow-ups, allowing agents to focus on closing deals.
• Email integration: Full email sync, templates, and tracking features, enabling agents to manage all communications directly from the CRM.
• Advanced reporting and analytics: Real-time data analytics and custom reporting tools to track performance, forecast revenue, and gain actionable insights.
• Customization and security: Options to customize pipelines, fields, and user permissions, with robust security measures to protect sensitive data.

Pros

• User-friendly interface: Known for its intuitive and visually appealing interface, making it easy for real estate agents to navigate and manage their sales pipelines.
• Sales pipeline focus: Specifically designed for managing sales pipelines, offering a visual approach that helps agents track deals and activities effectively.
• Customization: Allows for a high degree of customization, enabling agents to tailor the platform to their specific sales processes with custom fields and workflows.
• Affordability: Offers competitive pricing, making it accessible to small and medium-sized real estate agencies without sacrificing essential CRM features.
• Automation features: Includes automation tools that help streamline repetitive tasks, such as sending follow-up emails and moving deals through the pipeline, saving time and boosting productivity.

Cons

• Limited advanced features: Lacks some of the more advanced CRM features, such as extensive marketing automation and AI capabilities, which are available in other platforms.
• Basic reporting in lower tiers: The reporting and analytics features in the basic plans are somewhat limited, requiring upgrades to access more in-depth insights.
• No built-in email marketing: Does not include built-in email marketing features, requiring users to integrate with third-party email tools for such functionality.
• Limited customer support hours: Customer support is not available 24/7, which can be inconvenient for real estate agents operating in different time zones or needing immediate assistance.
• Price increases with add-ons: The cost can increase quickly when additional features or integrations are added, making it less cost-effective for agencies with growing needs.
  
  

Price and plans

An annual subscription plan basis is as follows.

• Essential plan: Starts from $24 per user, per month.
• Advanced plan: Starts from $44 per user, per month.
• Power plan: Starts from $79 per user, per month.
• Enterprise plan: Starts from $129 per user, per month.

4. Salesforce

Salesforce is a robust CRM platform for large enterprises, offering tools for sales, marketing, service, and analytics, with extensive scalability.

Key features

• Comprehensive ecosystem: A unified platform offering CRM, marketing automation, customer service, and custom app development, suitable for the varied needs of real estate agents.
• Customization and scalability: Highly customizable and scalable, allowing real estate agencies to tailor the platform to manage leads, investors, and customers effectively.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) integration: Salesforce Einstein offers AI-driven analytics and automation, providing insights that help real estate agents optimize their strategies and manage investment opportunities.
• Extensive integration capabilities: With Salesforce's AppExchange, real estate agents can integrate the platform with a wide range of third-party applications, ensuring seamless operation across different business systems.
• Robust security features: Provides strong security measures, including data encryption and two-factor authentication, ensuring the protection of sensitive client and investment data.

Pros

• Comprehensive feature set: Offers an extensive range of features covering sales, service, and marketing, making it a powerful tool for managing all aspects of real estate transactions.
• Highly customizable: Allows real estate agents to tailor the platform with custom fields, objects, and workflows to suit their specific needs.
• Advanced analytics and reporting: Provides powerful analytics and reporting tools, allowing agents to gain deep insights into their data and make informed decisions.
• Mobile accessibility: Offers a robust mobile app that allows agents to manage their CRM on the go, with full access to all key features.

Cons

• High cost: Can be expensive, especially for small to medium-sized real estate agencies, with high licensing fees and additional costs for add-ons and customization.
• Steep learning curve: Due to its extensive feature set and complexity, Salesforce often requires significant time and training for users to become proficient.
• Complex setup and customization: Initial setup and customization can be challenging and often require expert help or certified consultants, which adds to the overall cost.
• Overwhelming for small teams: Robust features may be overkill for smaller teams or agencies, leading to underutilization of the platform’s capabilities.
• Integration complexity: While offering extensive integration capabilities, integrating Salesforce with third-party applications can be complex and require technical expertise.
  

Price and plans

• Starter Suite: $25/user/month provides basic CRM features for small businesses
• Pro Suite: $100/user/month includes advanced tools for growing businesses
• Enterprise Plan: $165/user/month offers extensive customization and automation for large companies
• Unlimited Plan: $330/user/month provides comprehensive features for large enterprises
• Einstein 1 Sales: $500/user/month provides AI-driven insights and advanced features for large enterprises

5. Zoho

Zoho is a CRM system with a strong sales focus. Its got features such as journey orchestration, sales process management and workflow automation. There's also something for marketing teams, including lead hurting, event management and customer segmentation.

Key features

• Lead and contact management: Manages customer information, tracks interactions, and segments contacts for targeted campaigns.
• Sales pipeline management: Visualizes and manages sales pipelines with drag-and-drop functionality.
• Customizable dashboards and reports: Allows users to create and customize dashboards and reports for in-depth analytics.
• Multi-channel communication: Integrates with email, phone, social media, and live chat to manage customer interactions.
• Mobile CRM: Offers mobile apps for managing customer relationships on the go, with features like offline access and GPS tracking.

Pros

• Affordability: Zoho CRM offers competitive pricing with various tiers, making it accessible to small and medium-sized businesses as well as larger enterprises.
• Customization: Extensive customization options allow businesses to tailor the CRM to their specific needs, including custom fields, modules, and workflows.
• Integration with Zoho Suite: Seamless integration with other Zoho products (like Zoho Books, Zoho Projects, and Zoho Campaigns) creates a comprehensive ecosystem for managing different business functions.
• Multi-channel communication: Zoho CRM supports email, phone, social media, and live chat, enabling businesses to manage all customer interactions from a single platform.
• AI-powered features: Zia, the AI assistant, provides intelligent insights, predictive analytics, and task automation, helping to improve sales and marketing efficiency.

Cons

• Steep learning curve: The extensive customization options can be overwhelming for new users, requiring a significant time investment to master the platform.
• Complex setup: Initial setup and configuration can be complex, particularly for businesses without technical expertise or dedicated IT resources.
• Performance issues: Occasional reports of slow performance, especially with large datasets or complex operations, can hinder productivity.
• Limited third-party integrations: While Zoho integrates well with its own suite of products, integration with third-party applications can be limited or require additional effort.
• Data migration challenges: Migrating data from other CRMs to Zoho can be difficult and time-consuming, often requiring manual adjustments.
  

Price and plans

Zoho's free plan limited isto three users suitable for small businesses. After that, an annual subscription plan is as follows.

• Standard: $20 per user, per month.
• Professional: $35 per user, per month.
• Enterprise: $50 per user, per month.

Conclusion

Choosing the best CRM for your real estate agency is crucial for streamlining operations, enhancing client relationships, and boosting sales. Platforms like Folk, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, and Zoho offer unique features tailored to the needs of real estate professionals. Whether you prioritize ease of use, advanced analytics, affordability, or robust customization, there's a CRM that fits your specific requirements. Evaluate your needs, budget, and the specific features each platform offers to make an informed decision. Start with a free trial or demo to see firsthand how the CRM can transform your business. Try for free and take the first step towards optimizing your real estate operations today.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do busy real estate agencies use as a CRM?

Real estate agencies often use CRM solutions like folk, Hubspot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, and Zoho to manage their operations efficiently. Among these, folk is particularly favored for its intuitive interface and comprehensive features tailored to real estate needs.

Do I need a CRM?

Yes, depending on the complexity of your process. A CRM can significantly streamline your operations, improve lead management, and enhance customer relationships, making it an essential tool for growing real estate agencies.

How much does a CRM cost?

The cost of a CRM typically ranges from $20 to $500 per user per month, depending on the features and scalability required. For example, folk starts at $20 per user per month, while more advanced platforms like Salesforce can go up to $500 per user per month.

Does folk’s CRM respond to real estate agents' needs?

Yes, folk’s CRM is well-suited for real estate agents. It offers features like contact enrichment, LinkedIn integration, customizable pipelines, and AI-driven tools that enhance deal management and prospecting. Its ease of use and all-in-one capabilities make it a comprehensive solution for real estate professionals.