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Best Real Estate CRM

ShawnWeber

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REIN Member
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Apr 2, 2015
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Hello - first post!

What's everyone's favorite CRM and property tracker. I'm currently using Excel because I'm a CPA and pretty much put everything in my life into Excel in some way. I'm hoping someone can suggest a great service they've stumbeled across, or find out if there is some sort of REIN standard that everyone uses. Looking forward to hearing how everyone keeps themselves uncluttered and on track!

--
Shawn Weber
 

Matt Crowley

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REIN Member
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Dec 14, 2013
Messages
980
Hi Sean,

This year I made the switch from Excel to QuickBooks. As someone who uses Excel as their full time job as well, I really understand how valuable it is as a program. However, where it always falls short is when you attempt to use Excel as a database. It isn't a database. Excel is designed for data analysis and can only handle two dimensional data. (You can use Pivot Tables but the the presentation becomes a problem. Excel just isn't designed to produce reports).

I've found QuickBooks to be a great CRM and low-cost organization tool:

- Organize revenue and expenses for a customer by the Class. Each class is a property and then I filter the expenses and revenue related to a specific customer. QuickBooks stores all of the customer data for efficient retrieval as well.
- Stores all vendor information as well
- Very simple to post payables and receivables and produce aging reports
- Reports to view the annual value per customer and an idea of their R&M and utilities consumption
 

BradEarthWide

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May 7, 2012
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I find QuickBooks and QuickBooksOnline to not be great at CRM though it is great at accounting, do you have any extra apps added into QuickBooks that help it be a better CRM tool?
 

ChrisDavies

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Feb 18, 2008
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It depends on what you're trying to do with it - I've spent thousands on CRM's and love what I have now. What are you trying to track?
 

BradEarthWide

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I'm going from tracking no more than contact names and contact methods, to a place where I have way more to track, ie. incoming property leads, jv partner leads, tenant leads, marketing tracking (usefulness of Ad words, kijiji posts, direct mail), plus being able to do custom ad campaigns for select lists who are in my CRM.
 

ChrisDavies

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It's a big kettle of fish and you're probably looking for middle of the road solutions - there's a lot out there. I'm happy to chat on the phone about it.
 

Thomas Beyer

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Aug 30, 2007
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Don't major in minors.

Excel suffices until you own a few dozen houses and can hire someone that picks a tool of her/his choice !

For lead tracking salesforce is best but again, excel too will work here.
 

Sherilynn

Real Estate Maven
REIN Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2007
Messages
2,803
If it was simply for existing tenants, contractors, and JV partners, I would agree with you, Thomas. But factor in prospective Lease Option clients, prospective FSBO sellers for AFS purchases, and the long list of potential JV partners interested in both types of deals, and things start to get overwhelming.
 

JoeRagona

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Jan 10, 2008
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I'm going from tracking no more than contact names and contact methods, to a place where I have way more to track, ie. incoming property leads, jv partner leads, tenant leads, marketing tracking (usefulness of Ad words, kijiji posts, direct mail), plus being able to do custom ad campaigns for select lists who are in my CRM.

Hi Brad..

Chris is right, there are a TON of CRMs out there.

It sounds like you want to do custom campaigns and follow-ups with your leads.

For all my clients I help them set up robust systems so they can "set-it and forget it" (well, MOST of the processes anyway)

IT all depends on how much you are willing to invest in your CRM and building out your structure.

Even the "upgrade" costs from a free CRM/email service like Mailchimp will cost you $200 / month.

But IMO, if this is your core business, you want a system that works in the background as much as possible, nurturing your leads with BEHAVIOURAL type of campaigns...not your standard "drip" campaigns that deliver static, old or non-relevant messages to your "opt-in list"

For this, I highly recommend InfusionSoft.

I know, I know...it's a BIG step. And yes, expensive (in that $200 / month range)

But when you see the capabilities behind what you can do, you may consider how much time it will save you over trying to band-aid other systems together.

IF you need anything further, feel free to ask
 

irene_ch

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Apr 28, 2016
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You know what they say: the best CRM is the one that works for you :) To have more good options to consider, check out AgentDrive CRM.
 

E

Inspired Forum Member
REIN Member
Joined
Aug 2, 2015
Messages
93
I currently use pipedrive.com for my business and find it a great tool for a CRM
 

Mark Baltazar

Excited to learn, invest and meet new people!!!
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Aug 26, 2015
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I'll add my $0.02.
I implemented Salesforce in my Marketing Research business for a number of years. We recently moved over to a platform called Podio. I have also implemented it in my REI business. For REI, I use it to manage all my seller leads (private and listed in MLS) as well as my investor leads and partners, contacts (including their investor profile based on the REIN JV partner questionnaire).

I highly recommend it for the following reasons:
- it is the most flexible and customizable platform I have come across (I've reviewed many). It is essentially a database that allows you to customize the fields to facilitate data entry.
- there are many pre-designed data entry templates (called apps) to choose from - hundreds for real estate investing.
- it's FREE. The best part of it is that's the full version of the platform is free, they don't limit the capabilities for the free version and no time limit on free access (really!). You do have to pay once you get to 5 or more users using company account. Multiple user accounts is recommended once you have built your team and want them to be entering critical info into your database. For example, if you have a sales person, project manager, lead manager, etc.; you will want them to have an account. I have been running my biz with a free version for nearly a year now.

Take a look. I'm happy to talk on the phone about this if you are interested.

Happy to help where I can.

P.s. I don't represent Podio in anyway, I'm just a very satisfied user.
 
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