Best Real Estate CRM

Contributor, Editor

Updated: Dec 6, 2023, 11:41am

Laura Howard

Editor

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A real estate CRM is a customer relationship management (CRM) system that helps manage all communications with both leads and clients. CRM tools are becoming more important to the daily work of real estate agents and the success of their brokerages every year. The best real estate CRM will be specific to the industry with features, such as email and text messaging, lead follow-up tools and click-to-call capabilities.

Many CRM platforms can be customised to fit the needs of real estate agents, even if they aren’t made specifically for the industry. However, there are some CRMs that are more effective for real estate agents. Forbes Advisor has put together a list of our favourite CRM software for real estate agents today, all of which are built for their specific needs.

Our Guides

Best Real Estate CRM of 2023

monday.com: Best real estate CRM for automation
Realvolve: Most customisable real estate CRM
Propertybase: Best for end-to-end real estate management

Why you can trust Forbes Advisor Small Business

The Forbes Advisor Small Business team is committed to bringing you unbiased rankings and information with full editorial independence. We use product data, strategic methodologies and expert insights to inform all of our content and guide you in making the best decisions for your business journey.

We reviewed a number of CRMs using a detailed methodology to help you find the seven best real estate CRMs. Our ratings considered many factors, including the depth and quality of features, reviews by actual users, several metrics around pricing and an overview by our panel of experts. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

BEST REAL ESTATE CRM FOR AUTOMATION

monday.com

Starting Price

£10 per user per month for the Basic CRM plan (billed annually)

Top Features

Unlimited pipelines and contacts, automation tools, AI email generator, sales forecasting

Free Trial

14 days

Learn More

On monday.com’s Website

Starting Price

£10 per user per month for the Basic CRM plan (billed annually)

Top Features

Unlimited pipelines and contacts, automation tools, AI email generator, sales forecasting

Free Trial

14 days

Why We Picked It

monday.com stands out as a versatile CRM solution which can be easily adapted for real estate via industry-specific templates. However, like many of its competitors, this workflow platform offers much more than just CRM.

Even monday.com’s basic plan comes with an unlimited number of customisable pipelines – where agents can keep track of leads and opportunities – and an unlimited contact management board that links properties to respective potential clients.

Each agent can list their individual tasks on the shared task management board which creates a full and visible workflow.

The platform offers analytical tools which allow agents to gain insights and improve processes – and built-in customisable automations which reduce repetitive tasks such as lead follow-ups or scheduling appointments.

However, estate agencies looking for additional functions such as reporting or invoicing will need to look at higher-tiered plans.

Monday.com’s 24/7 customer support via email, live chat or phone is reassuring when it comes tailoring the platform to your business’ needs or just learning the ropes.

Who should use it:

Teams or agents looking to automate internal operations and client communication, as well as gather detailed insights into sales cycles, forecasting and team performance, may find this CRM a worthy choice.

Pros & Cons

Unlimited pipelines, boards and contacts
AI-powered email generator
Automated client management and sales processes
Can be operated by app on iOS and Android

Fees charged on a ‘per-seat’ basis rather than a flat fee (billed at a minimum of 3 seats)
Takes time to learn the programme
Lead scoring only available with the Enterprise plan

MOST CUSTOMISABLE REAL ESTATE CRM

Realvolve

Starting Price

£74.70 ($94)* per month

(billed annually)

Top Features

Workflows, customised dashboards, library of templates for workflows and campaigns

Free Trial

14 days

Starting Price

£74.70 ($94)* per month

(billed annually)

Top Features

Workflows, customised dashboards, library of templates for workflows and campaigns

Free Trial

14 days

Why We Picked It

Realvolve is a great CRM choice with a lot of great features that real estate agents need. It takes this a step further by offering customised workflows that help you get both your workspace and your communications exactly how you would like them to be. Plus, in case you’re not sure how to set things up, Realvolve has put together a library of templates to spark your ideas on everything from the workflows themselves to actually how you should reach out to leads.

Who should use it: Individual agents who need either a lot of customisation or are looking for help in determining how and when to communicate with leads or clients.

Pros & Cons

Workflows to automate your communications
Some of the strongest customisation options available
Templates for everything

Can be difficult to learn how to use efficiently
No drag and drop option to build out your workflows

BEST FOR END-TO-END REAL ESTATE MANAGEMENT

Propertybase

Starting Price

Contact sales team

Top Features

AI-powered lead assistant, bulk texting, customisable fields

Free Trial

None without a demo

Starting Price

Contact sales team

Top Features

AI-powered lead assistant, bulk texting, customisable fields

Free Trial

None without a demo

Why We Picked It

Propertybase is a full-featured platform that provides much more than just traditional CRM solutions. It is built to manage an end-to-end real estate business. It is a robust solution that can be more expensive than other CRM options and is really for a specific target audience of a larger brokerage or team. You can manage everything from lead generation to MLS postings and website development within the same system. Like Market Leader, the company doesn’t list pricing on the website and requires you to speak to a representative for details.

Who should use it: Teams or agents needing more than just a CRM to manage their business will find Propertybase as a potential solution. If you’re managing a large team or brokerage, then this could be a great solution to streamline internal operations and communications and make working with clients much more effective.

Pros & Cons

Many more features than most CRM options offer
Built-in MLS interface to use right inside the software
Advanced lead scoring that can be customised

It can be expensive compared to other options
No free trial readily available
Texting and in-app dialling are add-ons

Methodology

As we were choosing the best CRM for real estate agents, we considered all of the factors that make the needs of a real estate agent unique and important. We looked at everything from pricing and ease of use to the specific real estate industry features that are available. Let’s take a look at the most important criteria that impacted our recommendations.

Pricing

We wanted to make sure that all the options on this list were affordable for what each offered. The value for the amount you’ll have to spend was weighed to make sure that each solution is a viable candidate to use compared to the competition. Additionally, we looked at the range of prices between plans and the value that each higher-priced plan brings to the user. We also looked for transparent pricing by a provider as some require potential customers to contact their sales department to receive a quote. This accounted for 10% of our weighted scoring.

Features

We looked for how the features meet the specific needs of real estate agents and teams. Real estate agents need more direct messaging features with easy access to history since some customers won’t provide repeat business for years to come. Being able to easily communicate with leads, prospects and past customers in different ways was a necessity. Other features we considered for essential included pipeline management, analytics tools, custom dashboards, document libraries, third-party integrations, mobile apps and multicurrency support. We weighted features at 55% of our total score.

Third-party reviews

We researched reviews from real users to gauge their opinion of each platform. This entailed ranking both the overall score from customers and the number of reviews on site that included G2 and Capterra for these scores to give the fullest picture of reality and reduce bias. These accounted for 5% of the total score.

Expert analysis

Our experts preferred software that was not only easy to navigate and use without any customisations but also one that is easy to make needed changes without a tech team. Agents don’t have a lot of extra time to learn a complicated CRM system, so the more it just works with their natural workflow, the better.

Other factors we looked at include value for the money, popularity and stand-out features, such as customer support. Many real estate agents don’t have access to a tech team, so customer support on all software can be very important. Whether you might need help setting up integrations or just to get the software running, customer support plays a big role in finding any software – especially a CRM that you’ll be using every week.

Altogether, this analysis makes up 5% of the total score.

* conversion correct as of 6 December 2023

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is a CRM?

A CRM is a software platform you can use to gather customer data to share with others on your staff and internal teams. This makes it possible for your teams to create opportunities that will allow them to increase sales and create long-term clients for your business.

Who uses CRM software?

Companies that need to nurture leads or create effective and positive customer journeys at scale use CRM software. Many startups manage leads and customers using spreadsheets. As they grow, however, managing a growing list of leads and customers manually can become overwhelming, leading companies to miss out on sales opportunities. A CRM offers efficiency and data storage tools that make managing large lead and customer lists easy.

Why do real estate agents need a CRM?

A CRM system helps real estate agents manage communication and activity with prospects, leads and customers. It helps you keep all of your contacts and communication history in one place so you can easily convert new customers and retarget old ones.

How do I choose a good real estate CRM?

The best real estate CRM should be built specifically for the real estate industry and help you streamline your prospect and customer communications. It should have easy-to-use communication as well as contact and lead pipeline management tools. Make sure that the CRM you pick is made for the real estate industry and matches your specific use case.

How much does a real estate CRM cost?

The costs of real estate CRMs vary and can cost anywhere from £7 per month to more than £800 annually, and many depend heavily on how many users you put on the platform. Most options have a free trial that lets you test drive whatever solution you think might be the best fit for you.

Does CRM require a large IT investment?

There are plenty of cloud CRM solutions that information technology (IT) novices can employ. You don’t have to make a large investment in physical IT infrastructure or hire IT staff to manage your CRM. Many CRM solutions are available as software as a service (SaaS), which means that you only pay for what you use and can stop using it at any time.

Our Guides

Information provided on Forbes Advisor is for educational purposes only. Your financial situation is unique and the products and services we review may not be right for your circumstances. We do not offer financial advice, advisory or brokerage services, nor do we recommend or advise individuals or to buy or sell particular stocks or securities. Performance information may have changed since the time of publication. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

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Jeff White Contributor

Jeff is a writer, founder, and small business expert that focuses on educating founders on the ins and outs of running their business. From answering your legal questions to providing the right software for your unique situation, he brings his knowledge and diverse background to help answer the questions you have about small business operations.

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Cassie is an assistant assigning editor, collaborating with teams around the world while living in the beautiful hills of Kentucky. She is passionate about economic development and is on the board of two non-profit organizations seeking to revitalize her former railroad town. Prior to joining the team at Forbes Advisor, Cassie was a Content Operations Manager and Copywriting Manager at Fit Small Business.