CRM software - best products?

Question

I am an investor that is just starting a real estate brokerage and want to use the most dynamic software to capture leads and manage them through a relationship lifecycle to closure. I would like to get feedback from other professionals on their opinion of the best CRM software packages for the real estate market. I am interested in your opinions both from the broker/agent perspective and the customer/third party perspective - in other words, ease of use and value.

Also, if you are willing to discuss privately, please also let me know, provide a phone number and I will call to collect more data.

Thanks to all for the help.

Also, if you are willing to discuss privately, please also let me know, provide a phone number and I will call to collect more data.

Thanks to all for the help.

Zach Sikes · Answer

I've had several, including Top Producer, Market Leader's eEdge (KW), and third party IDX sites.  I've always heard that the best CRM is the one that you use - so make sure that you will actually use what you pick.  I recently switched over to a real geeks idx site, and it has a fantastic back end CRM.  You can have multiple agent accounts and link it to Mail Chimp for drip campaigns.

Scott Costello · Answer

A couple of other solutions you can think of are...

Aweber - for keeping your lists and sending out drip emails/email blasts/etc...

Leadpages.com - for creating landing pages that can integrate with Aweber/mail Chimp/etc...

OptimizePress.com - for creating landing pages that can integrate with Aweber/mail Chimp/etc...

Account Closed · Answer

Infusionsoft and the other products mentioned are for CRM / online marketing in general. You mentioned opening a real estate brokerage firm, so typically the website's main goal is to show houses using an IDX provider and making people sign up so you can follow up with them via email and phone.

The other CRM's aren't really designed for that.

Some of the bigger ones are Market Leader, Real Geeks and.. well I guess there's more but I forget what they're called. Just google looking for IDX providers and you'll find the bigger ones.

I'm not sure if you can use market leader's thing if you're not with one of the national firms.

The best of the best websites are custom made but the time and cost involved isn't worth it unless you have a big, established firm. If it was me I'd try Real Geeks as their websites are known to convert a lot. The downside is they host it themselves so you're held hostage.

When I became an agent I made a wordpress website with IDX plugin and the conversion rate was very low, so I started sending traffic to the KW provided website (which they get from market leader) and people started signing up.

Bob Lowry · Answer

To all who replied, THANKS!

I have used SalesForce products in a prior business and found them VERY customer unfriendly and their software rather difficult to use.  They also did not support 3rd party integration - it was their way or the highway.  IMHO, the mindset for entreprenaurs.

I will check out infusionsoft as well.

Any comments on MarketLeader?  Seems they have a customer lifecycle perspective and supporting embedded tools: website, email tracking, MLS integration, etc.

Thanks to all.  Make it to San Francisco and I'll treat you on the wine!

Dev Horn · Answer

We also use Infusionsoft.  It's a little pricey and not particularly intuitive - there is a learning curve for sure in order to really take advantage of their capabilities.  We use this platform mostly for email drip campaigns vs. using it like a CRM.

We are customizing an implementation of Zoho which is integrated with our lead gen system.  It's very capable and integrates nicely with landing page sites like Unbounce.  So, Zoho is really our chosen platform for CRM.

Both of those solutions are generic and require some serious "development" - but you don't have to be super techy.  If that development is not appealing, you may be better off with a 3rd party solution that is already customized for real estate.

RIchard Roop · Answer

Bob,

I use a CRM called Infusionsoft for my real estate business and for my training business.  It's very flexible and can be designed for any business.  It handles everything under one hood (CRM, marketing, web page creation, etc.)  It can be a bit cantankerous at times, but I haven't heard of any that aren't.  It's also a bit pricey, but keeps you from having to upgrade later.

My other recommendation would be realeflow which is out of the box specifically for real estate investors and easily adapted to broker business.

Best,

Richard

Account Closed · Answer

To my great surprise, the Market Leader websites (used by KW and some others) are actually good at capturing leads. It's very basic looking but if you send traffic to it people do sign up.

CRM software - best products?

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