5 Reasons Why Real Estate Agents Need a CRM

Estate Agents need - Nimble CRM

CRM stands for “Customer Relationship Management”. We like to emphasize the word Relationship as the abbreviation seems to make people run for their life. Think of CRM as a tool that stores information about your leads, clients, and other valuable real estate contacts. CRM can also be used to help you keep track of all your follow-ups, so you don’t have to remember everything.

In this post, we will focus on the six main benefits of using a CRM system for real estate. 

  1. Organize Your Real Estate Contacts
  2. Manage Communications and Follow-ups
  3. Save Time on Research and Data Entry
  4. Nurture Your Network 
  5. Access Contacts on The Go

Organize Your Real Estate Contacts

As a realtor, your network is vast. Your real estate network can consist of various kinds of contacts including clients, networking organizations, local businesses, and their owners and vendors. In the relationship business, if you provide an amazing experience for your clients by helping them go through oftentimes stressful projects smoothly, they will recommend you left and right. 
Below are some examples of the types of real estate-related contacts you can store in your CRM:

  1. Clients (current, former)
  2. Leads, Referrals
  3. Mortgage Lenders
  4. Warranty Companies
  5. Landscapers
  6. Handymen
  7. Pest Control Companies
  8. Plumbers
  9. Title Insurance

Storing contact information and any notes about all of your contacts in one place will make you more efficient. Spending less time on data management and more time on your clients will ultimately increase client satisfaction. If you immediately follow up with a list of recommended vendors for whatever project they are in a need of tackling, you’ll be their hero. 

Once you get people into your CRM, don’t forget to apply a tag to them! This is so you can easily pull up lists of contacts any time you need them. You can also further refine your tag searches by exact location, notes, and any custom information. This way, you can always be sure you are only providing your clients with the most relevant information.

screenshot of Nimble contact page highlighting saved segments and tags
Pro Tip: Manage Your Real Estate Contacts Using Saved Searches

Saved searches are dynamic and can make you more efficient. Once you set the search criteria, these searches will be automatically updated with contacts that match the criteria.

So if you create a search like this: tag = Handyman AND City = Santa Monica, every time you add a new handyman to your CRM database, apply the “Handyman” tag and prefill their location, they’ll be automatically added to your saved segment. 

Animated GIF demonstrating the use of Nimble's Saved Segment feature

Manage Communications and Follow-ups

Once you get in contact with a client interested in buying or selling, a CRM can help you to ensure that you are on top of it and always follow up with them on time. You can also easily see how many times and how somebody was contacted. 

Nimble Today Page task Widget screenshot

When working with an assistant or as a team, logging communications and next steps streamlines collaboration and prevents things from falling through the cracks. 

Save Time on Research and Data Entry

We all know that we should be putting things into our CRMs, but the problem is that we also have to usually go out of our way to do so. Installing your CRM into your inbox and your browser makes this easier and saves you time on logging calls, client information, and setting up reminders.

Outlook Add-in

This extension sits in your Outlook inbox to help you schedule the next steps, add notes, any important information you discussed with your clients, etc.

Screenshot of Nimble Add-in for Outlook

Gmail Add-in

If you are using Gmail, make sure to add the plugin to be able to create new contacts, edit existing and set up the next steps directly from your inbox! 

Gmail Nimble Add-in screenshot

Browser Extensions (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Microsoft Edge)

If you ever look at your prospects and clients on social media or elsewhere on the internet, the browser plugin will come in handy! It’s available on all main browsers and can be downloaded here.

Nimble Prospector Demo GIF

Pro Tip: Use Nimble’s Contact Enrichment to Find Important Info About Your Clients

Nurture Your Network

Paying close attention to what your clients tell you can pay off big in the long run. Take notes of not only their real estate needs but also other things like what’s important to them, their passions, hobbies, names of their kids, etc. 

Nimble contact record Notes function screenshot

Notes can be searched and then tailored to personalize each message with relevant information to each client or a group of clients.

Nimble custom notes search

If you identify any interesting tips for local restaurants, fun recipes, or anything your clients might appreciate, you can send it to multiple of them using group messaging. The best part is that to them, it will appear as a one-to-one message! 

Nimble group message + segmentation screenshot

Access Contacts on the Go

During a busy day, it’s best to just log important information right away. This is where your CRM’s mobile apps come in handy! Schedule a follow-up, add notes, fill in custom fields, send follow-up emails, add new information or update anything that may have changed before you even get to your next meeting! 

Nimble iOS Call Logging GIF

Keeping CRM data up to date and reliable saves time and can be used to properly nurture relationships with clients and keep those referrals pouring in!

Try Nimble for Free!

If you do not have a Nimble account yet, we invite you to try it for free for 14 days.

Stay tuned for more product announcements as we evolve Nimble into the best CRM for Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace teams.

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