7 essential real estate CRM features

A CRM (customer relationship management) is an incredibly important aspect of real estate. It’s importance within the industry has been recognised and as such, several software solutions have been created in an effort to help agents become more organised and efficient. A real estate CRM solution, however, is far more than just a piece of software. In many ways it is a core strategy that all real estate agents should be using. 

A CRM allows agents to track the various people that they come in contact with, including buyers, vendors and potential vendors in one centralised and easy to manage location. As a real estate agent, your daily tasks can be grouped into four main categories, sales, lettings, property management and client accounts.

Your real estate CRM features will allow you to manage all the contacts you have and all the information you have about them. However an in-depth real estate-focused CRM will go above and beyond simply tracking leads, allowing you to automate smaller tasks as well as actively driving your various marketing efforts. 

While an incredible tool, a CRM can’t replace you as a estate agent, but it can help you do your job more effectively.  

1. Generate and Segment Leads 

It’s possible for your CRM to do some prospecting for you and highlight certain vendors or groups of vendors who might be eager to list their property in the near future. The ability to generate and segment your leads more effectively ensures no new leads will slip through the cracks. Research shows that most sales processes fail when a lead is not followed through. If you continue to follow up on various leads, then the likelihood of converting these leads rises dramatically. A CRM will help keep this process moving forward by eliminating the risk of human error and prompting you to follow up with your leads.  

This ability to segment certain groups, and match buyers and sellers is also very valuable when it comes to marketing your current listings. A good CRM should be able to manage all your current and past properties and generate lists of active buyers that might be suited to new listings. 

2. Across the Entire Industry 

Real estate CRM features are not just for sales agents. A good CRM is useful in many different roles including property management, administration and even customer support roles. A CRM is the ideal tool for anyone within real estate that is regularly dealing with multiple contacts and driving sales or customer support in various forms. 

Each position within a real estate agency is important, and often those positions are intertwined directly with each other. If an individual in one sector is underperforming, it is likely to effect others in the agency, as everyone is somewhat reliant on others within the agency. Great CRM’s are designed with this in mind, with different sections of the site customised for various positions. When all members of the agency are actively using their CRM together, they are much more likely to experience success with a streamlined process.

3. Grow with Your Business

However, to grow your business as an agent you need to be able to manage hundreds, if not thousands of contacts all from different areas into one centralised location. That’s where a CRM can really make a real estate agents’ job not only more manageable, but far more efficient in comparison to doing all the work manually. 

4. Automation

Time is a luxury that few within the real estate industry get to enjoy. Implementing a quality CRM will help create more free time by automating processes and taking the hard work out of manually processing requests and other documents.  

In order to excel, a real estate agent needs to be focused on relationship building activities that drive new business and assist in the sale/letting of properties. A CRM will take care of a lot of the backend work, so you can take control of the interpersonal business, which is where most agents shine. 

5. Integrating with Other Systems 

As the technology in the real estate sector grows at a rapid pace, it’s vital that your CRM is able to integrate easily with third parties. 

You need to be able to bring in leads from other marketing activities easily, and ideally in an automated fashion. Your CRM is designed to make your life more efficient, and that efficiency should include removing as many mundane tasks as possible. Considering that successful CRMs are designed with the purpose of helping those within the real estate industry to save time, a CRM which doesn’t easily integrate with other platforms is essentially obsolete.  

6. Profiling Active Buyers 

The best CRM’s will allow you to collect details about your active buyers and help you to build comprehensive profiles.  

You can even go as far as surveying your buyers in terms of what they may be looking for including locations, property types and budgets, and then utilising your CRM to help match them with properties in your database. 

This feature is especially helpful when it comes to your agencies marketing efforts. By profiling active buyers into their likeliness of purchasing, as well as their necessary criteria, you are easily able to contact these potential buyers when a property that suits them comes to the market. This will not only assist you in selling properties quicker, it will also help you to develop relationships with potential buyers as you are helping them by sending property options straight to their email.  

7. Save Time and Money 

The most valuable commodity that most real estate agents lack is time. A CRM will make your job more manageable and free your time to focus on the most important work, which is building relationships. CRMs are highly cost-effective tool which should be used to grow your business effectively. The ability to become more efficient at your job while building success is invaluable. 

Contact MRI Software  

For comprehensive and innovative real estate CRM solutions that will transform the way your agency does business, contact MRI Software today on +44 (0)20 3861 7100 or click here to schedule a personalised demonstration.