Top producing real estate agents always have systems that make them more efficient. Whether it’s a simple app to track all of their daily tasks or managing your prospects on a CRM, you need to use the right tools of the trade to be successful.
The real estate tech industry is going through a major change both in terms of funding and new companies trying to solve all kinds of problem in our industry.
In this 2019 update, we will share some of the best real estate software you should be using to become more efficient and execute your business plan for the year.
Relationship Building Tools For Real Estate Professionals
1. Homespotter
Homespotter focusses on building better relationships with your clients and prospects using personalized text and drip emails.
They have 3 separate platforms dedicated for solo agents, teams and big brokerages.
- Boost – Boost is their intelligent marketing system that focusses on creating ads for your listings and generate leads for them
- Spacio – Spacio lets you promote your open houses and generate leads from them. It also has a email and text follow up system built in to their system.
- Connect – Connect lets you access information about clients and send them meaningful insights. Most importantly it helps you keep up with your existing clients and send them relevant information.
2. Parkbench
Parkbench is a hyper-local relationship building tool that focuses on generating new clients from referrals in your local community.
You own your area exclusively on Parkbench.com and their dedicated coaching team has a program that fosters face to face interactions using the website as a tool to go meet people in your community.
Here’s what you get with their 1-year program
- Access to daily coaching and weekly masterminds
- Exclusivity to your local neighborhood website that stays updated with local news, events, and deals
- Access to their Local Leader® marketing mastery course that teaches how to use their website as a tool to go meet people in your community
They also offer a 100% money back guarantee if you follow their program and do not get a deal.
3. NextDoor
NextDoor is a neighborhood social network, kind of like Facebook where you need to verify your profile as a resident of your local area.
As a real estate agent, you can run ads on NextDoor showcasing your brand in front of local residents on their platform. One thing to note is that Nextdoor is a closed social network. This means that only registered users who log in to their platform can see your advertisement.
It’s a great platform to reach out to residents, offer them something valuable and start building relationships.
Document & Contract Management Tools For Real Estate Agents
4. Dropbox
Dropbox is a cloud storage solution that allows you to sync all of your files across multiple devices. Starting at $9.99/mo you can save everything in your computer’s local Dropbox folder and never worry about losing your flies.
5. DotLoop
Dotloop is a real estate transaction management software much like their competitor DocuSign. Dotloop starts at $29/mo for their individual agent plan.
6.DocuSign
Probably the most popular PDF management software, Docusign allows you to send contracts back and forth to get signature from clients and other real estate professionals. It’s a great time-saving tool when you are closing an offer for both buyer and sellers. If you are still using the old school paper method of closing deals you need to switch to DocuSign to save hours every week.
7. Google Drive
The advantage of Google Drive over Dropbox is the fact that it seamlessly integrates with your GSuite emails. Large teams and brokerages can opt of Team Drives which allow you to share your entire organization’s storage on the cloud. Each folder can have customized access levels ensuring that your real estate contracts and other sensitive information stay secure.
Full Suite Real Estate Solutions
8. Chime Real Estate Suite
Chime is a full-suite solution for agents are brokers looking to use all of their real estate operations under one ecosystem. Chime has three main products:
- A responsive IDX website to showcase listings under your own brand.
- A fully functional real estate CRM that allows you to track and manage leads as well as dial them right from the CRM
- AI-powered advertising if you are looking to spend money to generate more real estate leads.
9. Commissions Inc.
Commissions Inc. is an all in one suite that gives you a marketing back office for your real estate business. It’s a premium solution aimed at teams and brokerages looking for an all in one MLS Powered website that seamlessly sync leads between the front end and the back end CRM. Here are some of the features built inside Commissions Inc.that helps you master your real estate marking: – Flexible CRM optimized to help you follow up with your leads – Full pipeline overviews that shows which marketing channel is doing better – High converting landing pages that sends the lead directly to your CINC backend CRM.
10. Curaytor Websites
Curaytor is pretty similar to Commissions Inc. and other full suite real estate marketing solution. You get your very own IDX powered website that is optimized to capture leads from all of your website traffic. One thing Curaytor does well is that they have a deep integration with Facebook Ads.
You can run paid promotion targeting a particular listing right inside their system. Curaytor also comes packed with an email drip system, a full CRM plus coaching for all members.
CRM for your real estate business
We already covered an extensive article about selecting a real estate CRM for your needs. One thing to keep in mind is that if you are going with an all-in-one solution then they will come with a CRM as part of their system like the ones mentioned in our all-in-one systems.
Anyways, we will list a few CRM’s that we think stands out from the rest of the competition.
11. WiseAgent
WiseAgent is one of the most affordable CRM’s out there in the market for real estate professionals. Starting at $29/mo it gives you access to a fully featured contact management system that syncs with other apps and services. They also added a few marketing tools and lead nurture tools to help improve connection rates.
12. PropertyBase
PropertyBase is currently the most powerful and flexible CRM for the real estate industry?
Why? Because it is built as an app on top of Salesforce, the most flexible CRM on the planet. Although quite expensive compared to other CRM solutions, PropertyBase lets you onboard you and your team, import data, create the most detailed reports possible and figure out the exact channels that are generating money for your real estate business.
PropertyBase has a bit of a learning curve attached to it but when you comfortable with their CRM, it’s a beast. If you are the kind of agent who loves data and you want to make a concrete data-driven decision this is definitely the CRM to go with.
13. Ixact Contact
Perhaps one of the most simple and easy to use CRM that lets you access all of the basic functionalities you need to create curated lists, follow up with existing contacts periodically and get notified of important events like client birthdays. They recently refreshed their entire CRM with new features and a design update.
14. SmartZip
Some people would categorize SmartZip as a predictive intelligence tool. However, we think that it’s more of a CRM with artificial intelligence and predictive analytics built inside their system.
SmartZip allows you to predict who is more likely to sell in your local target area. Using MLS data they can easily figure out the turnover rate of your community which is key in determining how many potential sellers are there in your given market.
Each lead is assigned a pre-mover score so that you can focus on your leads more likely to sell within your database and local area.
Best Email Marketing Tools For Real Estate
Email marketing is one of the most important elements when it comes to successfully following up with your leads and prospects.
One of the main reasons why most realtors do not convert their leads into customers is because they do not have a long term email marketing strategy.
Although some of the other solutions mentioned in this guide have their own built-in system to follow up with prospects, this segment is for realtors looking for a standalone email marketing tool.
15. ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is one of the most popular email marketing software out there and they have a user-friendly builder that lets you craft beautiful looking email for your prospects.
You can use a software like Zapier to connect with your existing CRM and trigger the email campaigns based on certain pre-requisites.
ActiveCampaign’s SMS integrations with their marketing automation tool. Using their system you can create a complete email follow up funnels for your real estate business.
Plans start at as low as $15/mo
16. AutopilotHQ
Another affordable email marketing & automation software that you can use to send drip nurture emails is AutopilotHQ. When you sign up you have access to their drag and drop visual builder which focuses on creating highly engaging journeys.
For example, you can send a trigger to add 6-month-old leads into a particular journey. The cool thing about Autopilot is that they have a robust analytics software built inside their system which can track all kinds of data including goal conversions.
In order to set up goal conversions, you need to add a piece of code on your real estate website and setup conditions.
For example: When someone visits the thank you page after filling out a lead form you can create a conversion event for that.
When you start sending emails their analytics software can show you which emails are getting more goal conversions and the ones that need improvement.
Plans start at just $15 per month
17. Outbound Engine
Some real estate agents are so busy that they hardly have any time to create email marketing campaigns. Outbound engine is perfect for them as they create all the newsletters and send it to your prospects as well as maintain your social media.
They create your email newsletter twice a week and you can even edit it before blasting to your database.
Lead Generation Service For Real Estate Professionals
18. BoldLeads
Probably one of the most prominent lead generation softwares out there and used by agents all across North American. Bold Leads offers both buyer and seller lead packages. They range from $270 to $770/mo plus ad-spend on top.
If you are good at following up and you can handle upfront rejections (basically if you are a good phone sales person) then we recommend you try BoldLeads and their lead generation solutions.
19. Curaytor Watercooler
If you are an agent spending thousands of dollars on real estate lead generation (especially seller leads, then Curaytor Watercool is a program that you should look into.
They start by looking into your existing lead generation systems (if you have any) and come up with a custom plan to get you more listings and nurture your database.
20. Real Estate Webmasters
Real estate webmasters create optimized IDX powered websites that are designed to maximize conversions and generate you more leads. Their lead generation service is kind of an add-on on top of creating your website with real estate webmasters. Although, expensive than other services they focus on creating customized campaigns for your target area and demographics.
21. Five Street
When you are generating real estate leads the worst possible thing you can do is delay your first point of contact. This is where Five Street comes into play. They handle instant lead follow-ups by texting and emailing them. They will also do lead research so that you are prepared when you are ready to talk to them. Plans start at just $25/mo
Real Estate IDX Website Solutions
We already covered another segment about full suite real estate solutions. However, this category is dedicated to companies who focus on maintaining a real estate website for your business. We understand that there are tons of players out there so we will list the best ones in this list.
22. Placester
Placester is by far the most popular IDX website solution out there. They offer a fully featured IDX website that comes packed with your own CRM in the backend. The websites are SEO optimized and beautifully designed to convert more website traffic into leads.
23. EasyAgentPro
EasyAgentPro offers IDX powered websites that comes with an array of landing page to convert visitors into buyer and seller leads. They have an inbuilt follow-up system which you can tweak according to your preference.
All of their features are presented as individual apps inside the system and it’s pretty easy to set everything up on your own. Pricing starts from $149/mo
24. RealGeeks
RealGeeks provide you with an IDX website plus a CRM backend. Their websites are mobile responsive and like other website providers, they also help manage your real estate lead generation.