Discover The Tricks of Custom Real Estate CRM Software Development

What features do real estate agents want in a CRM? If you own a real estate agency, you can easily understand what functionality you need. However, we will help you and provide the main features to add to your CRM.

Dashboard

The dashboard provides a comprehensive overview of key performance indicators for owners, agents, and managers. It displays reports on closed deals, commission volume, sales stages, current leads, emails, calls, and meetings, allowing easy navigation and quick access to essential information.

A Page for Managing Deals

Real estate CRMs provide a deal management page where agents can create deals from the contact database. Deals can be filtered, sorted, and assigned to different stages in a sales pipeline. Agents can easily track the progress of each deal, update its status, and manage the entire deal lifecycle within the CRM.

Lead Management Page

The CRM system offers a dedicated lead management page where agents can generate and gather leads from various channels. In addition, agents can assign leads to specific agents, track their progress through the sales funnel, and maintain regular communication to ensure effective lead management.

Contact Management Page

The contact management page allows agents to view, create, edit, and delete contacts. It is a centralized repository for all contact information, including communication history, social media profiles, interests, and related tasks and notes. Contacts can be imported, exported, and automatically created through email integration.

Invoicing and Billing Management

Real estate CRMs include features for managing business transactions, including creating, storing, managing, and sharing invoices and bills. The CRM allows the creation of invoice templates for easy and efficient billing processes.

Tagging

CRMs support tagging capabilities, allowing agents to assign tags to contacts based on location, property type, budget, or goals. Tags help categorize contacts for targeted marketing and personalized communication, improving lead management and engagement.

Filtering 

Both deals and contacts can be filtered and sorted within the CRM. Advanced filters can be applied based on date, acquisition channel, lead stage, location, or other custom criteria. This functionality lets agents quickly find specific deals or contacts and streamline their workflow.

Project Management Page

The project management page enables real estate company management to create tasks, assign them to agents or managers, and track their progress. Tasks can be organized based on priority, due dates, ownership, or status. The page provides a centralized view of ongoing projects, facilitating effective coordination and collaboration among team members.

Reporting

Real estate CRM systems offer robust reporting capabilities, allowing users to generate various reports related to sales, marketing, agent performance, and more. Customizable templates enable users to tailor reports to their specific needs, and the ability to group, filter, and sort reports provide valuable insights for business analysis and decision-making.

Notifications

Customer relationship systems provide customizable notifications for various actions, such as prospect activities, deal closures, or task completions. Information can be displayed on the screen and accessed from a dedicated tab, ensuring users stay updated and informed about important events and activities.

Communication Page

Real estate CRMs integrate email functionality, enabling users to write emails, schedule follow-ups, and create email templates within the CRM platform. Users can track email opens and clicks, view email statistics, and utilize custom URLs for enhanced email conversions. This streamlines communication and eliminates the need to switch between multiple email accounts.

Listing Management Page

Systems can facilitate posting property offers on multiple platforms and consolidate the links to these postings in one system. Agents can create and distribute property listings across various channels, including MLS platforms and real estate listing websites. The CRM also supports the creation of marketing campaigns to promote listed properties.

Incorporation with Social Media Services, Email, and Calendar

The final feature offers integrations with MLS platforms, social media platforms, email services (such as Gmail or Microsoft Exchange), and calendar applications. These integrations enable seamless synchronization, allowing users to post listings, track social media behavior, manage emails, and plan schedules directly within the CRM platform.

Besides that, you can also add more features considering the latest real estate technology trends. 

Custom Real Estate CRM vs. Off-The-Shelf Software: Which One To Choose?

Even when you know how to build a real estate CRM system, you might consider using ready-made solutions. Why not? Yes, off-the-shelf CRMs also have their advantages. However, custom products prevail. Let’s check the pros and cons of both options. 

Developing a custom real estate CRM system can offer several advantages, but it also has its drawbacks. Here are some pros and cons to consider:

Pros of Custom Real Estate CRM Development

• Tailored to your specific needs.  A custom CRM allows you to build a system that meets your unique requirements and workflows. It can be designed to align with your real estate business processes, ensuring efficient lead management, property tracking, and client communication.

• Enhanced efficiency and productivity. Customizing the CRM to suit your business operations allows you to streamline processes and automate repetitive tasks. This can save time and effort for your team, enabling them to focus on high-value activities such as closing deals, nurturing relationships, and providing excellent customer service.

• Integration capabilities. Custom CRM development allows you to integrate the system with other tools and applications in your real estate operations. For example, you can connect it with property listing platforms, email marketing tools, accounting software, or document management systems. This integration can create a unified ecosystem, reducing data duplication and enhancing accessibility.

• Scalability and flexibility. As your real estate business grows, your CRM needs may evolve. With a custom CRM, you have the advantage of scalability and flexibility. The system can be designed to accommodate future expansion, handle increasing data volumes, and incorporate new features or modules as required.

Cons of Custom Real Estate CRM Development

• Cost and time investment. Developing a custom CRM involves significant upfront costs and time investment. You need to hire experienced developers or a development team, which can be expensive. The development process may also take longer than implementing an off-the-shelf CRM solution.

• Technical expertise requirement. Custom CRM development requires software development, database design, and system architecture expertise. You either need to have an in-house development team or hire external experts. Maintaining and supporting a custom CRM over time may require ongoing technical resources.

• Limited third-party support and updates. Custom CRM solutions may lack extensive support and regular updates with popular off-the-shelf CRM software. Instead, you’ll need to rely on your development team or hire external experts to address any issues, implement enhancements, or fix bugs in the system.

Now, let’s talk about off-the-shelf CRM systems available in the market. Here are some pros and cons:

Pros of Off-the-Shelf Real Estate CRM

• Cost-effective. Off-the-shelf CRM solutions are typically more cost-effective compared to custom development. These systems have a pre-built framework designed to cater to the needs of a wide range of real estate businesses. They often offer flexible pricing plans, allowing you to choose a package that aligns with your budget.

• Quick implementation. Implementing an off-the-shelf CRM is generally faster than custom development. The system is already built, and you can start using it after configuration and data import. This can be beneficial if you need a CRM solution up and running quickly to manage your real estate operations.

• Ongoing support and updates. Reputable off-the-shelf CRM vendors typically provide regular updates, bug fixes, and technical support. They have dedicated teams focused on maintaining and improving their product, ensuring that you have access to the latest features and enhancements without additional development costs.

Cons of Off-the-Shelf Real Estate CRM

• Limited customization. Off-the-shelf CRMs have predefined features and workflows, which may not align perfectly with your specific business requirements. While they offer some level of customization, it is often limited to configuration options within the provided framework.

• Compatibility challenges. Integrating an off-the-shelf CRM with your existing systems, such as property listing platforms, email marketing tools, or accounting software, may present challenges. These systems might not have built-in integration capabilities, and you may need to rely on third-party tools or custom development to establish the required integrations.

• Lack of flexibility for unique workflows. If your real estate business has unique workflows or processes that deviate significantly from industry norms, an off-the-shelf CRM may not accommodate them effectively. As a result, you might have to adapt your strategies to fit within the limitations of the CRM system.

• Data security and ownership. With an off-the-shelf CRM, your data is stored in the vendor’s system. Therefore, it’s important to consider data security measures implemented by the vendor and review their data ownership and privacy policies. You may have less control over your data than with a custom-built CRM solution.

• Vendor reliance. By choosing an off-the-shelf CRM, you rely on the vendor for ongoing support, updates, and bug fixes. Suppose the vendor discontinues the product or fails to meet your evolving needs. In that case, you may need to switch to a different CRM solution, potentially resulting in data migration challenges and additional costs.

Thus, custom software development can be a beneficial option if you strive to take the utmost of your CRM system. To achieve this, you need to hire a talented and skilled real estate CRM software development company like Binerals, and our company will build your CRM system from scratch.