In real estate, you are dealing with lots of clients at any given time when times are good. You have ongoing conversations with these clients, and they are answering questions and giving important information that will not only make your job easier, but will also allow you to be successful at fulfilling their needs. Our job is to ultimately make our clients happy and we are dealing with the largest purchase of their lives in most cases. Any software or device that can make us more effective at our jobs and increase our bottom line is a necessary tool for this industry.
Licensed real estate agents have several different forms of reminders and note taking to make sure you get your job done. Some people use date books, some use their outlook or google calendar, then there are some who use a CRM. A CRM, or Customer Relationship Management software, is designed to maintain the relationship you have with your client more efficiently by storing all of the data that is pertaining to that client all in one place. They are used in just about every type of sales job and that is because it makes the data searchable and easily accessible. So when you receive a call, email, or other form of contact, you can pull their file and speak as though you remember who they are and anticipate their needs in a faster manner than having to make them wait for you to pull up some calendar or notepad and flip through or find where you kept those notes which are often not in the same place.
So how does this make me more money? Other than being more efficient at your job which allows you to, market more, work more clients, and just give you more overall flexibility with your schedule, you can also set reminders which will notify you of important follow-up dates, like birthday’s, settled in, tax time, etc… This will assist in setting up referral bases along with just following up with your clients when you tell them you are going to is what makes you different than most of the other real estate agents. By collecting all of the important information and storing it in one place is going to save you time while trying to get your clients into the place they are looking for.
There are several CRM options out there that can meet these needs. Some are free and some cost subscription or licensing fees. The trick is to find one that will work the way you need so that you can be more effective with it. If they make you a more effective closer, then the cost is easily covered. There is nothing worse than struggling with a CRM while trying to take care of your clients which can actually make you worse off, but do understand that there is a transition period while you are getting used to it. It should be simply designed and once you get used to using a CRM you will wonder why you hadn’t started before
Here are Spirit Real Estate Group we have a proprietary CRM that was designed for apartment locators in mind. It flows well, has built in lease verifications, and customizable email forms, along with a very easy to read income sheet. You are able to track the status of your clients from new prospect all the way to paid out, and if you didn’t see it on the main page, we do all of the invoicing and payouts for you. You confirm the lease and we will take it from there.
