Top 5 Real Estate CRMs in 2023
Most real estate marketing strategies focus on cold lead generation, from door-knocking to cold-calling, drive-by signage, and direct mail. In reality, however, sphere of influence (SOI) marketing is far more effective, with email marketing, in particular, boasting the highest conversion rate and the highest return on investment for small businesses. That means that managing the information of the folks in your SOI – friends, family, former clients, and warm leads – should be the foundation of your marketing. That requires a well-organized, robust real estate CRM.
What is a real estate CRM?
A CRM, or customer relationship management platform, allows you to organize the contact information, pertinent facts, and transaction details for your sphere of influence. In addition, you’ll be able to integrate outreach so that you can communicate consistently and stay top of mind with these important sources of new business and referrals.
The cost of acquiring a new customer can be five times that of retaining an existing customer. In addition, the conversion rate for retained customers is 60-70%, while that for new customers is 5-20%. Yet most real estate agents spend too much time seeking out new business rather than continuing to nurture those relationships with people who already know, like and trust them.
By effectively implementing SOI marketing, you are at the forefront of the conversation whenever a member of your sphere is talking about real estate with a friend, family member, co-worker, or neighbor. When a member of your sphere of influence refers that person to you for their real estate needs, you’ll enjoy the added authority that comes from their personal recommendation.
Content distribution with a real estate CRM
Value-added content is an effective way to build your professional profile and your authority as the local real estate expert for your market. Whether you write blog posts, host a podcast, or create video content, value-added information about the home buying or selling process and market conditions helps to increase your brand authority, raise your professional profile, and improve search engine rankings for your website and other platforms.
However, content is not always a case of “If you build it, they will come.” You need a distribution plan to get your content in front of potential clients. While building an audience on social media and through search engine optimization takes time, direct distribution to your sphere of influence through your CRM offers a faster way to get your content to the warm leads in your sales pipeline. In addition, when they share your content with members of their own sphere, you broaden your audience and reach more potential clients.
Top 5 real estate CRMs
Finding the right CRM – one that’s specifically tailored to the needs of your real estate business – is an important part of implementing a plan that works for your marketing strategy and for your budget. Here are five of the top real estate CRMs and their top benefits – so that you can make a more informed decision.
RentSpree Rental Client Manager (RCM)
As home prices continue to rise and affordability continues to challenge markets across the country, the rental market is poised to experience exceptional growth and increased activity in the years to come. There has never been a better time than now to work with renters and landlords in your market. That’s where RentSpree comes in with their industry-leading rental management services combined with a powerful real estate CRM designed with rental-related clients in mind.
Top Benefits: RentSpree’s RCM integrates information from your existing RentSpree account, new contact information, and imports from your current database to create an all-in-one solution for SOI marketing. The best part? It’s currently free to use for RentSpree-associated rental agents.
Wise Agent
Wise Agent is a full-featured CRM offering transaction management, commission monitoring, and team management capabilities. Wise Agent is a good option for teams and smaller brokerages, though it is less effective for single-agent businesses.
Top Benefits: Wise Agent provides an affordable option for larger organizations who are just starting out with integrated customer management systems.
LionDesk
LionDesk offers an affordable real estate CRM product designed for individual agents, teams, and smaller brokerages. It includes tech automation including an AI chatbot to help qualify leads and a variety of third-party integration options.
Top Benefits: LionDesk offers easy onboarding and affordability while retaining a full array of services.
Top Producer
Top Producer is considerably more expensive than many other real estate CRM options and many of its most impressive features are only available in the higher-priced service tiers. Still, as one of the oldest CRM providers, it has a great customer service experience and an impressive, customizable user interface.
Top Benefits: As its name suggests, Top Producer’s dashboard is well-designed for busy, in-demand real estate professionals, though you’ll pay more for many of its best features.
Follow Up Boss
Follow Up Boss is the most expensive option on our list, though it has many fans and plenty of features in exchange for the price. While its desktop version is well-regarded, its mobile app is far less functional, making it harder to use for agents who are on the go and working with minimal administrative support.
Top Benefits: Follow Up Boss is a full-service real estate CRM with many integrated features, though you’ll pay plenty for its capabilities.
Do more and grow your business with the RentSpree rental client manager (RCM). Optimize your agent profile so that you can reach renters and landlords, buyers, sellers, and investors in your market and stay top of mind with your sphere of influence. Integrate your contact management with the platform you already love for your rental property management. It’s just one more way that RentSpree helps to make your real estate marketing and client management more effective.
