Choosing a CRM for Real Estate

[Monte Riding]

I'm looking at finding a CRM to use for my real estate business. If you use a CRM - what do  you use and why? What features may be important that I'm probably not thinking about?

Thanks in advance!

[Taylor L.]

Totally depends on your business and its specific needs. I use Activecampaign and InvestNext. Activecampaign has the most powerful automation system that I've found. You can build incredibly robust systems that will do a lot of work for you. When someone joins our investor list or signs up to receive emails about real estate education, the Activecampaign automations kick in and handle the work to get us in touch. 

InvestNext is the best investor portal I found. There are other options, but InvestNext had the best combo of customer service, features, ease of use, and security.

Those two tools are great for the capital raising and syndication space. But, if you were looking for a wholesaling CRM (for example) there would be far better and more relevant options available.

[Chris Seveney]

@Monte Riding

Depends on your use. We use keap because that is what I liked and felt comfortable using, but they all pretty much do the same thing

[Richard Loniewski]

I used Podio in the past (basic) but I switched to Hubspot, the free version has every feature an investor needs and not too difficult to customize

[Nate Sanow]

I currently use KW Command, which is only for those at KW. In the past I’ve used Podio & Liondesk  and I can say they are all about as equally valuable and worthless - if you work them they work well if you don’t they all suck. Personal opinion.  

[Justin Silverio]

@Monte Riding can you share more about your business? Are you an investor or agent? Do you focus on SFH, MF, Commercials? etc?

[Alvin Slate]

Follow Up Boss is the best!

[Monte Riding]

Quote from @Justin Silverio:

@Monte Riding can you share more about your business? Are you an investor or agent? Do you focus on SFH, MF, Commercials? etc?

 @Justin Silverio I'm a novice investor, just looking to better track properties, contacts, and leads - primarily for SFH and MF. I can see that CRMs have evolved significantly since I last looked at them - I guess what I'm really after is primarily a contact manager, but also something that is real estate specific for handling properties. Preferably something that is simple to start, has an IOS app, can track texting and calls, has additional pro features (like integrations, marketing, skip tracing, etc...) and is cheap or free to start.

[Byron Henderson]

Quote from @Monte Riding:

Quote from @Justin Silverio:

@Monte Riding can you share more about your business? Are you an investor or agent? Do you focus on SFH, MF, Commercials? etc?

 @Justin Silverio I'm a novice investor, just looking to better track properties, contacts, and leads - primarily for SFH and MF. I can see that CRMs have evolved significantly since I last looked at them - I guess what I'm really after is primarily a contact manager, but also something that is real estate specific for handling properties. Preferably something that is simple to start, has an IOS app, can track texting and calls, has additional pro features (like integrations, marketing, skip tracing, etc...) and is cheap or free to start.

[Justin Silverio]

Quote from @Monte Riding:

Quote from @Justin Silverio:

@Monte Riding can you share more about your business? Are you an investor or agent? Do you focus on SFH, MF, Commercials? etc?

 @Justin Silverio I'm a novice investor, just looking to better track properties, contacts, and leads - primarily for SFH and MF. I can see that CRMs have evolved significantly since I last looked at them - I guess what I'm really after is primarily a contact manager, but also something that is real estate specific for handling properties. Preferably something that is simple to start, has an IOS app, can track texting and calls, has additional pro features (like integrations, marketing, skip tracing, etc...) and is cheap or free to start.

ok, got it. Thanks for clarifying. My recommendation is to sign up for the FREE plan at inveloapp.com. We have a partnership with BP too so if you have a BP Pro plan, you'll get free in-app wallet credits. Invelo can do everything that you would need plus we have a lot of education. I've been an investor for 10+ years and also own a large REI marketing company so this was developed based on best practices. If you have any questions along the way, we have a great support team or you can asks any questions here.

[Cody Lewis]

@Monte Riding Honestly I would use Excel until you start to feel any "pain" from not having a full CRM. It will help you understand what you need vs perceive you need. I've also found most email marketing companies have added/built on CRMs as an afterthought to their main platform. After some time in excel for the basics, I would find something like the Hubspot free plan to experiment with something more robust before paying any $ towards a platform. 

[Eliott Elias]

Podio, it's free until you put a few hundred leads in there. Cheap after than and simple to use