Best CRM for real estate businesses

As a real estate agent, your day involves diverse tasks, such as hosting open houses, evaluating properties, negotiating house closures, and managing legal work. Staying organized during all of these tasks is critical to your success as a realtor.   

This is where a real estate CRM (Customer Relationship Management) plays an important role in your day-to-day; it acts as the central system for your real estate business, helping you stay focused and organized. 

What is real estate CRM? 

A real estate CRM is a system that tracks every client interaction, collects customer insights, manages property listings, handles transactions, automates internal operations, and more. In a nutshell, a CRM integrated with a mobile app for your real estate business will transform how you manage and operate your business.

Sustainable growth centers on building strong client relationships and meeting their needs, preferences, and expectations. A CRM that improves customer management can be a game-changer for real estate businesses. It can lead to increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and, ultimately, more referrals and closed deals.

Why do real estate agents need CRM software?

Real estate agents need CRM software for several reasons:

1. Capture leads easily

A CRM system elevates your prospecting game by capturing leads from various sources like web forms, chat widgets, and more. Your agents can filter and access leads through Kanban views, and add tags for easy classification based on interest and location. For instance, a potential homebuyer fills out a web form expressing interest in properties in a specific location. The CRM system not only records this lead but also allows the agent to categorize it with tags like 'first-time buyer' and 'urban area.'

2. Nurture leads automatically

With a CRM system, you can easily set up automated sales sequences for lead nurturing. You can generate a range of emails such as welcome emails, follow-ups and even set reminders for tenants whose lease is near completion. Moreover, during the lead nurturing stage, your real estate agents can set task reminders for themselves to call a customer at the discussed time.

3. Automate to boost productivity

“I want to do non-sales tasks” –said no salesperson ever. With a real estate CRM, you can easily harness the power of automation to save time and resources. An advanced CRM like Freshsales can help you save time spent on repetitive and non-sales tasks. You can schedule tasks, automate emails, and manage reminders within the CRM, allowing you to focus on building relationships to accelerate deal closures. With its native AI engine, Freshsales helps you craft highly personalized emails for contacts.

4. Deeper relationship building 

Modern customers prefer using multiple channels of communication. A real estate CRM is integrated with your other data sources–email, SMS, and chat. Unified access to various communication channels in one place can empower your sales team with in-depth customer context, including past interactions such as previous chats. When your teams gain a complete view of customers, they can participate in meaningful conversations and build deeper relationships.

 5. Data-backed insights

A real estate CRM leverages built-in analytics to better understand your market and clientele. Some CRMs like Freshsales come with native AI that enables you to analyze lead quality, monitor conversion rates, and identify trends to optimize your marketing strategies and make data-driven decisions for maximum impact. Freddy AI in Freshsales analyzes each deal and assigns it a tag based on its probability of closure to help prioritize the right deal at the right time.

6. Better management with in-built CPQ functionality 

CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) functionality is crucial for real estate agents to efficiently draft and share essential documents such as purchase agreements, rental agreements, home inspection reports, loan-related documents, and more. A comprehensive CPQ system integrated with a real estate CRM enables agents to create standardized templates for various documents, ensuring consistency and accuracy in the content. In fact, Freshsales comes with a built-in CPQ system. It allows for easy customization based on property specifics, client details, and regulatory requirements.

7. Comprehensive 360-degree view of customers

An advanced CRM system can optimize your sales funnel by monitoring prospect behavior on your website. A CRM offers a comprehensive view of all prospect activity, bridging sales and marketing efforts. This includes:

• Prospect behavior on your site 

• Records of emails, call transcripts, and chat conversations

• Engagement with marketing materials

• Salesperson notes, upcoming appointments, and meetings

You gain a comprehensive view of customers. CRMs like Freshsales offer lead scoring that helps identify which leads have better chances of conversion. This in turn, helps build a stronger pipeline.

8. Faster deal closure with AI

Without a CRM, deals often suffer from incomplete data or lack of information. You have to hunt for critical insights in spreadsheets that can make or break your deal. With a CRM system like Freshsales, you can prioritize your sales pipeline effortlessly because it categorizes deals as ‘likely to close,’ ‘trending,’ ‘at risk,’ ‘gone cold,’ or ‘neutral.’  You can utilize AI to analyze lead interactions, which suggests optimal next steps for maximum impact. 

For instance,  you can prioritize ‘likely to close’ deals and close them faster. And when AI categorizes a deal ‘at risk,’ it could be due to delayed conversations or loss of interest, and you can always revive the conversation by sending appropriate sales material or taking the next-best-action recommended by AI.

With AI, you can even spot bottlenecks and shorten the sales cycle with insights on deals, customers, and proactively nurture them to move them through the funnel.

The next question is, how do you choose the best CRM for your real estate business? Should you consider mainstream CRM solutions with versatile customization or industry-specific CRM only?

To make this process easier for you, we have analyzed 25+ CRM solutions through our evaluation process and then shortlisted the 9 best CRM systems for the real estate industry so that you can choose the right solution for your business. 

Now, let’s take a closer look at our top picks—9 best CRM for real estate. 

9 Best CRM for real estate businesses 

1. Freshsales — Best for agents seeking AI-powered lead scoring

2. Pipedrive — Best for sales pipelines

3. Zoho CRM — Best for workflow automation 

4. Wise Agent — Best for transaction management

5. Realvolve — Best for customization

6. Follow Up Boss — Best for integrations

7. LionDesk — Best for AI tools

8. HubSpot Sales Hub— Best CRM for automation

9. Salesforce — Best for reporting and analytics

1. Freshsales

Best for agents seeking AI-powered lead scoring 

Freshsales is a comprehensive CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform designed to help business professionals manage their sales pipeline and client relationships more efficiently. 

It helps build a sales pipeline with high-intent leads, strengthen customer relationships with smart insights, and accelerate revenue growth with faster decision-making processes. While it is a mainstream CRM system, it offers versatile customization that helps real estate brokerages, individual agents, and property management companies customize real estate sales software.

Freshsales brings Freddy AI to your sales team. It can help find potential customers faster by analyzing data points and behavior patterns. From managing mundane tasks such as resolving duplicate contacts to giving deal-specific insights and other risk signals such as lowered property viewings, Freddy learns via your data in a few days and helps agents work smarter, not harder.

Freshsales is to make selling easier and faster. Let’s see how. 

Key features: 

• Contact management: Organize leads, clients, and other contacts based on criteria such as location, buying/selling preferences, and engagement history.

• Unified view: Single window view into customer behavior, trends, and patterns across all touchpoints.

• Deal management: Manage and track deals across stages with a Kanban view and have the key details you need to dive into your day without wasting time.

• Pipeline management: Build a strong pipeline by capturing and qualifying high-intent leads with the help of your copilot, Freddy AI.

• Communication channels: Engage with prospects via their preferred medium, including email, SMS, phone, and social media channels, all using one platform. However, note that the limited emails can be a challenge for bulk requirements. 

• Custom dashboards: With Freshsales' custom dashboards, you can effortlessly track lead generation, nurture promising deals through the pipeline, and monitor projected revenue—all from a single pane.  

• User-friendly interface: An intuitive interface and simplified setup process help real estate agents manage operations efficiently, saving resources and time.

• Workflow automation: Automate repetitive activities like sending follow-ups and reminders, creating and sending invoices, and updating records.

• Third-party integrations: Integrate with the readily available 100+ third-party apps on the Freshsales marketplace.

Pricing details:

Key takeaway:

Freshsales is the best real estate CRM to manage the entire sales process. Its advanced lead-scoring feature, recognized by Forbes Advisor, can significantly enhance your sales efforts. 

2. Pipedrive 

Best for sales pipelines

Pipedrive is cloud-based CRM software designed by sales professionals. As the name indicates, the system focuses on pipelines. It offers unlimited and customizable pipelines, helping professionals organize sales efficiently. In addition, real estate agents can create, track, and manage contacts entirely through the pipeline only.

Pipedrive is known among beginners because, regardless of its extensive feature set, it is simple to operate and manage. However, its entry-level plans have a limited feature set, which may restrict beginners from making the most of the CRM solution. 

Key features:

• Sales pipeline and deals: Effortlessly move deals through different stages of your pipeline for clear visualization and progress tracking 

• Sales assistant: Offers smart suggestions on upcoming deals using machine learning 

• Automation: Free up valuable time by automating repetitive tasks like sending follow-up emails to leads

• Mobile app: Access your sales data and manage your pipeline on the go with Pipedrive's mobile app 

Pricing details:

Key takeaway: 

Pipedrive is a user-friendly CRM that is most suitable for small teams and solo agents who want to build strong sales pipelines.

3. Zoho CRM 

Best for workflow automation 

Zoho CRM is an entry-level solution focused on delivering an unforgettable customer experience. It is a good platform to start with for beginners or agents who are not familiar with CRM solutions and how they work. It provides a forever-free plan with basic features like contact management and lead tracking, which can help achieve valuable sales results. 

In addition, Zoho also offers advanced features like sales forecasting, AI tools, and automation to support them in the next steps of their journey. 

Key features:

• Workflow automation: Automate repetitive tasks using the "if this, then that" (IFTTT) logic, freeing up time to focus on building relationships and closing deals

• Document management: Store and manage all your property documents, contact information, and transaction details in a single location for easy access

• AI assistance: Enables agents to identify sales trends and weak areas that can be improved

• In-built analytics: Gives 40+ prebuilt reports to get a complete insight into contacts, agent productivity, property sales, and trends 

Pricing details:

Key takeaway:

While Zoho CRM is one of the mainstream platforms, it is more useful for new or small real estate agencies or solo agents who need a system that grows with their business. The automation tools can help users streamline workflows.

4. Wise Agent

Best for transaction management

Wise Agent is a cloud-based real estate CRM designed to assist businesses throughout the entire sales process, from initial contact to closing. It's a beginner-friendly platform with features and is known for its competitive pricing. Unlike most other real estate CRMs, it provides 24/7 support via phone and email.

Wise Agent offers 100+ integration options, including Google Contacts, Zapier, Zillow, Mailchimp, Home Junction, and more. 

Key features:

• Transaction manager: Provides a pre-built system to manage all real estate transactions with status-sharing capabilities

• Contact management: Helps organize contacts with detailed summaries and search filters while providing unlimited document storage

• Sharing and distributing leads: Enables sharing leads with details like notes, categories, and statuses with outside members, too, making it useful for brokers 

• Referral tree: Offers a platform to track referrals along with the origins and contact summary.

Pricing Details:

Key takeaway: 

While Wise Agent is a CRM built specifically for real estate businesses and provides all the necessary functionalities, it does not offer mobile access, which can limit real estate agents who often manage their tasks on the go.

5. Realvolve

Best for customization options 

Realvolve is residential real estate CRM software built for individual agents and teams to set up and automate processes for internal and client-facing management. It is known for its workflows that automate communication, helping real estate agents determine how and when to communicate with prospects and clients.

Realvolve has also set up a comprehensive library containing templates for workflows and campaigns to help agents navigate easily.

Key features:

• Custom widgets: Helps agents track their year-to-date revenue with customizable boards 

• Communication: Easily manages communication history by helping send and save all emails along with the people portfolio 

• Centralized platform: Helps manage people, escrow correspondence, documents, and events in one place

• Opportunity and pipeline management: Tracks leads at every stage and shares the probabilities of a close

Pricing details:

Key takeaway:

Realvolve is the best real estate CRM solution for solo agents who manage leads independently and need assistance in communication to make it easy and effective.

6. Follow Up Boss

Best for multiple types of integrations

Follow Up Boss is a leading real estate CRM solution built for businesses of all sizes, from solo agents to top-performing teams and larger brokers. It has been well-known in the industry for years now because they have been consistently offering excellent features like unlimited leads and contacts, automatic follow-up, and drip emailing to clients. 

The platform is highly customizable and provides many integration options, making it a perfect choice for businesses with dynamic business processes. 

Key features:

• Integrations: Provides 250+ integrations with lead sources (Zillow, Ylopo, Real Geeks), website providers, marketing platforms, and more

• Lead capture: Never miss a potential client. It captures leads from Zillow, Ylopo, Real Geeks, Facebook, and more

• Personalized follow-up: Helps automate personalized communication via texts and emails 

• Report: Provides agent reports to analyze business growth and agent performance

Pricing details:

Key takeaway:

Follow Up Boss is an excellent option for managing real estate operations, but it requires technical know-how to set up integrations effectively.

7. LionDesk 

Best for AI-powered lead assistant 

LionDesk is a real estate CRM solution that functions as a business relationship management platform for all company processes. Designed for realtors and brokerages, it provides comprehensive communication options, versatile custom fields, and a user-friendly interface.

LionDesk stands out for its affordability and features, such as a power dialer, click-to-call, bulk texting, and drip campaigns. 

Key features:

• Transaction management: Manage all your real estate transactions from a single, centralized dashboard

• Lead generation and import: Provides social media integrations and third-party apps such as Zillow and Trulia to generate, import, and nurture leads 

• Power dialer: Enables agents to connect to 4x more clients and leads

• Automated drip campaigns: Provides pre-built drip flows and email templates

Pricing details:

Key takeaway: 

LionDesk is recommended for beginners or growing teams because of its simple interface and pay-as-you-grow model. 

8. HubSpot Sales Hub

Best for automation

HubSpot Sales Hub is a comprehensive sales automation and CRM solution that enhances the sales pipeline, automates workflows and ultimately improves the bottom line. It is part of the customer platform and provides a free plan with core sales functions that can benefit small sales teams. It helps them eliminate manual work, automate mundane tasks, and manage contacts, deals, transactions, etc., efficiently. 

HubSpot is a mainstream solution built to prospect smarter and scale insightfully with an easy and comprehensive system. 

Key features:

• Sales automation: Helps create workflows for leads, tasks, follow-ups, etc. 

• Lead management: Enables smart capturing, prioritizing, and nurturing of leads efficiently

• Forecast management: Uses AI to predict future sales accurately 

• Custom dashboard: Customizes workspace for quick access to essential data and insights

Pricing details:

Key takeaway: 

HubSpot Sales Hub provides per-user plans that can be expensive for small businesses, as compared to other CRM solutions in the market.

9. Salesforce 

Best for reporting and analytics

Salesforce is a well-established CRM solution widely used by businesses across various industries. It is designed for sales teams to help manage leads and contacts, improve sales efficiency, and close more deals. Because it is difficult to set up, Salesforce also provides customer support to get started and maximize its benefits. 

In addition, Salesforce offers an extensive feature set with customizations and integrations, making it the best choice for large, complex, and rapidly scaling businesses. 

Key features:

• Lead auto-assignment: Enables lead distribution to the respective team members using auto-assign rules

• Lead management and scoring: Enhances accuracy of the lead forecasts 

• Sales AI: Provides the power of generative AI and predictive intelligence 

• Integrations: Integrates with over 3,000 platforms, allowing you to connect various tools and applications used within your real estate business

Pricing details:

Key takeaway:

Salesforce is an all-in-one CRM, and therefore, with many benefits, it also comes with a couple of challenges. It is complicated to set up and time-consuming to maintain.

How to choose the right CRM for your real estate business?

Now that you have explored the mainstream CRM solutions and real estate CRM systems, it’s time to pick the right CRM for your business. We have compiled a list of things you must look for while evaluating CRMs.

1. Key features to look for

• Lead scoring: Look for a CRM that offers lead scoring capabilities to prioritize leads based on their likelihood to convert. It will help your team focus their efforts on the most promising prospects.

• Automated workflows: A CRM with automated workflows can streamline processes such as lead nurturing, follow-ups, and transaction management, saving your team time and improving efficiency. 

• Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI-powered features such as predictive analytics, intelligent lead routing, and personalized recommendations can enhance your sales efforts by providing valuable insights and automating tasks.

2. Key experiences to look for

• User-friendly interface: Choose a CRM with an intuitive interface that is easy to navigate and use. It will reduce the learning curve and save you time.

• Comprehensive customer support: To make the most of a platform, look for a CRM provider offering robust customer support. If they offer one-on-one onboarding assistance or access to an account manager, it will help you get started quickly without much hassle. 

• Scalability: Ensure the CRM can grow with your business by offering scalability options such as customizable features, additional user licenses, and flexible pricing plans to accommodate your changing needs.

3. Key specifications to look for 

• Seamless integration with existing systems: If you already use other software tools or systems in your real estate business, choose a CRM that offers seamless integration capabilities. And if the integrations are not readily available, you can check if they can be custom integrated.

• Data security: Since real estate companies manage sensitive client data, it is important to check for data security measures such as access controls, regular security updates, and regular compliance. 

• Pricing and structure: Check the pricing and payment structure of the CRM, including subscription fees, licensing costs, and any additional charges for extra features or services. You can pick a pricing plan that fits your budget while offering the features and support you need.

Make a giant shift with a simple solution — CRM

Managing properties, listings, leads, clients, and other brokers and vendors manually can be challenging. A real estate CRM can help you streamline them and enhance your sales efforts. From automating complex and repetitive sales functions to expanding a client base, AI-based CRM can help you open doors to new clients and close more house deals.

With Freshsales, we can help you organize your data better, close deals faster, and ultimately scale stronger.