How a CRM Helps You and Your Business

How a CRM Helps You and Your Business

 March 9, 2018

What’s your favorite part of being a real estate professional? If you’re like most, it’s working with customers and clients, showing listings, and helping people get to the closing table. And the worst part? Marketing, administration, and keeping with your leads is likely at the top of your list. That’s why you need a good CRM to work for you so you can focus on what you enjoy most about the real estate business.

What is a CRM?

A CRM is a customer relationship management system that allows you to keep up with your clients, past and current, while also nurturing new leads so they can become clients and customers. Instead of keeping up with a list of tasks for each new lead or where those leads come from, a CRM automates the process from start to finish. You decide what should happen, and the CRM gets it done. It’s an excellent business tool that makes some of the administrative tasks of your real estate business easier while also allowing you to make an impact on past, present, and future customers.

What your CRM can do depends on the system you use, but at a minimum, your CRM should do the following:

  • Organize your contacts
  • Allow you to communicate with people more easily and faster
  • Offer automation of repetitive tasks
  • Help manage your leads
  • Track analytics and create reports so you can see what works and what doesn’t

Why Your Real Estate Business Needs a CRM

CRMs might sound nice, but what does that really mean for your real estate business? The right system for you will allow you to make your life a little easier while also helping you grow your business.

Respond to leads faster. When you create an automated response, no lead has to wait days or weeks to hear from you. For those who hate the idea of a boring and obvious auto-response, you can craft it anyway you want, even going so far as to apologize for the message. Say something like, “So sorry for the automated response but I wanted to let you know I’ve received your message/email/interest in [specific listing] and will get back to you as soon possible!”

Send listing information people want. There’s little worse for a potential buyer than receiving listings that don’t fit their criteria. You can gather specific information about what kind of home they’re looking for, and use your CRM to send them only the listings that match. Ultimately, you’ll provide better information with a lot less effort.

Make your life easier. How do you usually keep up with all your leads and the emails you want to send them? A spreadsheet? A scrap sheet of paper? With a CRM, you can organize all your leads, no matter where they come from and automate all of your marketing and outreach campaigns. Everything you need is in one place.

Reach out to past clients. It might be years before a great customer or client buys a new home again. You know they liked working with you but if they never hear from you again, you won’t be the one they call when they’re ready. And they might not refer you to their friends, either. Use a CRM to reach out to past customers and clients in a variety of ways. Send holiday greetings, “Happy House-Buying Anniversary” messages, and important information for homeowners. Some examples include tax time info, season changes (for home maintenance), and other times when you can provide valuable information and remind them you’re still around.

While learning how to use a customer relationship management (CRM) system can seem daunting, it will make your life easier and help you grow your business. A good CRM’s purpose is in the name – helping you manage relationships. If you find yourself stressed out and spending all of your time trying to keep up with your contacts and plan marketing campaigns, it’s time to look for a CRM to get the job done for you. Here at iHOUSEweb, we understand the importance of CRMs which is why every iHOUSE ELITE website comes with a complete set of CRM tools to not only capture and nurture new leads, but to maintain relationships with older leads and past clients.


Michaela Mitchell

By Michaela Mitchell

Former Communications Director for a local Realtor Association and a big cheerleader for all things real estate related, Michaela is now a full-time freelance writer specializing in real estate and other business industries. When she's not writing the serious business-y stuff, she's likely to be found writing about the hilarity of being a Mom to two rowdy boys.