After a day long brainstorming session with our market centers top agents, I have come to the conclusion that there are quite a bit of real estate agents that are not using databases to their advantage. To put it plainly: If you are not using a database of some sort in your business to manage leads, contacts, and follow up, you are missing a potentially substantial portion of your business.
The Rudimentary Database
Many new real estate agents do not have a plethora of capital available to start their businesses, and I completely understand. When I started my real estate career, after paying my personal expenses, I didn’t have much to invest. This is why I offer a solution to those not wanting to spend money on a database from the start of their business.
OpenOffice is a free “Microsoft Office” like platform released through the open source community (it’s free to use) and strongly mimics the programs that come with Microsoft Office. With the installation of OpenOffice, you will get (most pertinent to real estate):
- Writer - Word Processor
- Impress - Presentation Software
- Calc - Spreadsheets
I highly recommend that if you do not want to spend any money in your business, but would like to keep track of clients and when you contact each, that you use a free spreadsheet program such as Calc to keep track of clients. This is a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) on it’s most basic level.
It’s simple! In the first column, key in the names of everyone you know. I would enter in your family members foremost, then friends, their friends, doctors, dentists, everyone! Your next column could be dedicated to the date you contacted the client last, or possibly the date you plan to contact them next. You can then easily sort the spreadsheet by the date column to learn which contacts you must contact and when. Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it?
Most agents do not use any system. I ask you: If you are not using a CRM to keep track of present, past, and future clients - what system are you using that is proven to provide positive results? You can’t possibly expect to remember everyone and every time each must be called!
A Step Up - CRM’s for Agents
There are currently a wide variety of customer relationship management tools available to real estate agents. There are three that I personally have experience with and can suggest you look into if you are looking to build a good technical foundation for your business.
Top Producer 7i
From what I hear from agents that I meet, Top Producer (7i is their latest edition) is one of the most popular real estate focused CRM’s available. I personally use this CRM in my day to day business, and I would highly recommend anyone to speak with a sales representative to get the ins and outs of what this software has to offer your real estate business. This software is 100% online and is purchase on a monthly basis ranging between $30-40/month for a single agent license (some real estate offices have negotiated a discount with Top Producer - ask you broker if your broker does).
Act
Act has been around for quite a long time, and is more used across different sales industries in the world. If you are looking to keep your monthly expenses to a minimum, you can purchase Act outright; it is a software that you must install on your computer and can only be accessed on the computer the software is installed on. Act is a great tool, but it’s not real estate specific. You are bound to not utilize many features that Act can provide to your business, simply because it’s probably over complicating what real estate agents need in a CRM. The regular version of Act is currently available from their site directly for $199 (one time fee for purchase)
Act has recently released a Real Estate Edition of their software and is definitely worth a look. I personally do not have any experience with that version of their product.
Basic or Advanced?
As a new agent if you have the cash flow to purchase a real database software such as Top Producer or Act, I highly recommend you make that investment. This will enable you to provide a solid foundation for your business, as you will be able to consistently feed your database and use it to market to past, present, and future clients (leads). I certainly have been using one since day one, and cannot understand how any real estate agent can possibly feel they can tackle the real estate business without one.
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