My personal experience with FreedomSoft

A few months ago, I posted in the forums urging people to stop assuming anything about FreedomSoft based on any experience other than actually using it themselves. I said this in July:

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Disclosure: I JUST signed up for a free trial, and haven't even logged in.

I gotta say...I'm pretty disgusted with the amount of people who are not FreedsomSoft members, and never have been, but have contributed their completely uneducated opinions about this system as a way to discourage others. Don't let your own insecurities and potentially negative experiences with "marketing hype" cause you to be a slanderer.

This system could be awesome. This system could suck. Until you've actually figured it out for yourself, please don't contribute your baseless opinions.

Now, there is a 30-day free trial I just signed up for, and I was hit with 3 up-sell opportunities before I could even get my password to log in. To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of using slick marketing to pull on people's emotions and encourage them to spend money before they even know what the system is about...I'll say that much about my experience so far. But I'm giving this system a shot with a 30-day free trial and will contribute my thoughts based on MY EXPERIENCE, vs. just spouting off about something I have no clue about.

:: end rant ::

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After numerous messages from friendly colleagues on BP about my experience with the platform, I wanted to follow up with my experience. 

Bottom line, I ended up cancelling my membership. From my perspective, it's much more centered around marketing than it is a CRM. Preston Ely, whether you like him or not, is a stud marketer. He knows how to use emotions & psychology (not a bad thing in business, unless you abuse it for your own gain without providing benefits) to sell you on him and his product. Job well done, in that respect. I bet he kicks ass in his business (profit-wise), I just don't know how much value he's truly providing the REI community. My thoughts on him and his personal approach are also founded by having read his e-book, which is...meh. It's got some decent stuff, but it's full of motivational type stuff and he's just a bit too cocky for my taste (there's a not so fine line between confidence and arrogance). Again, just my personal opinion, don't think that about him just because I said so...you will connect with different people in different ways, make your own opinion. 

ANYWAYS, back to FreedomSoft, there are a couple cool features, but nothing you can't build out yourself with a more customizable solution (we've chosen to go with Podio, which was acquired by Citrix, and is extremely customizable...almost to a fault if you don't know how to, or don't want to).

Cool features of FreedomSoft:

• Step-by-step tutorials of how to maximize the FreedomSoft platform. If you actually like the platform, and decide to use it, they take pretty good care of walking you through. If you're a more experienced investor (or technical person), you may find it quite elementary - I did).
• Sellers and buyers lists. This is what is promoted by FS in their videos, which is an awesome IDEA! However, see my next list (disappointing things) for my actual thoughts on these lists.
• Tasks. You can set tasks based on certain properties, which is cool. Sorta (not automation available). 
• Reporting. If you actually use it, provides some cool tracking.
• Additional audio/video resources. He provides A/V from his live events, which has a pretty decent amount of general success and motivational spin to it. 

Disappointing things about FreedomSoft:

• "Gives you the sellers and cash buyers". This is a quote from Preston's promo video, and from what I could see, these lists suck. I'm in a pretty giant market (Chicago), and thought this list would be extensive. It totally wasn't. Cool idea, if it were actually a good list, but I didn't see it. REIs spend a LOT of time and money building a quality seller/buyer list, I doubt they'd give something like that up for a couple bucks/month.
• Not customizable. You get what you get, and if it's not what you like, there's nothing you can do.
• $199/month. Yeesh. At least take me to dinner before asking me to bed. I appreciate a platform that has different levels that you can graduate through as you grow your business. In my experience, this price is not sustainable for the average new investor, especially when that money could be used towards a marketing budget. For less than $199/month, you can get something WAY stronger than this (Podio, Zoho, etc) and have it customized to your needs.

Bottom line, for me, this is an REI system with a marketing focus (over CRM) for an absolute beginner with no technical background whatsoever, and no desire to try to build (or hire someone) their own automation. Perhaps my perception is a bit skewed because I'm incredibly strong technically and able to build out my own customized solution (through Podio), but it just wasn't for me.

My suggestion?

Take the trial and invest 30 days (which is a big ask when you're trying to get a deal going) to see if it's something that's helpful for you. If you think dropping $199/month into it is worthwhile, then give it a go! If not, try either Podio (my preference) or Zoho. These are the two most referenced CRM systems i've heard about through listening to NUMEROUS podcast interviews with successful REIs. 

Again, I decided against it, and would personally recommend using Podio due to the unlimited customization possible, and lower cost (although it's not as "easy" as FreedomSoft, it does offer a ton more functionality if you know what you're doing, or can hire someone to build it out). Podio integrates with Zapier if you want to get more advanced and build in some serious automation and work yourself out of the equation a bit. The combination of a flexible CRM + an automation tool like Zapier + VAs/employees is something that could REALLY work to lessen your personal involvement, and is the ultimate game changer, in my opinion.