In today’s competitive real estate market, having a robust Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is no longer a luxury; it’s a necessity. But what if the off-the-shelf commercial real estate CRM doesn’t fit your business’s unique workflow?
Then, you should switch to the custom real estate CRM, a powerful tool designed to reflect your specific business needs. Today, you will find out how custom CRM in real estate can help to manage your business more efficiently.
What Is A Custom CRM, And Why Does Business Need It
A custom CRM, or Customer Relationship Management system, is software built specifically for a business’s unique needs, workflows, processes, and goals.
A properly made CRM acts as a central hub for all customer data, making it accessible to all relevant teams inside your company. With it, you can track all customer interactions, from initial contact to purchase and beyond. A custom system allows maximum personalization, improving customer relationships.
A CRM can be a valuable part of real estate ERP software, providing helpful data and analytics that can be used to make better business decisions. While ERP focuses on a business’s back-office operations, CRM concentrates on front-office tasks. This enhanced system can analyze both internal and external processes.
Another advantage of the custom property management CRM is greater flexibility. You can adapt the system to new business needs wherever you want and integrate it with already existing software.
4 Cases When You Should Consider Building Custom Real Estate CRM
You might need a custom system if you have unique business needs, use multiple incompatible software programs, need advanced reporting, or anticipate significant growth in your real estate business. Seemingly fast template solutions are actually difficult to scale and radically modify. Meanwhile, custom real estate management CRMs can provide desirable scalability. Here, you can also integrate any third-party custom tools to ensure you get in-depth data insights.
So, what are those four cases we’re talking about?
1) Tailoring To Unique Business Needs
If you’re a real estate agency working on a specific market niche, most off-the-shelf systems may not suit you. At the same time, a custom-built CRM can provide tailored solutions to meet your needs. With this commercial real estate software, you can create custom property fields for architectural style, acreage, zoning restrictions, or literally any other parameter.
You can also integrate mapping tools or custom modules, highlighting specific features relevant to your niche. For instance, you can add document management, access roles, contact management, marketing automation, mobile access, and custom-made analytics tools to develop automated workflows for niche tasks.
If your agency has unique sales processes, such as a team-based model or a focus on international clients, a custom CRM can easily support these processes. With it, you can easily track unique data points about clients or properties. It can be specific amenities or neighborhoods, property investment potential based on historical data or market trends, past renovation details, or permitting history for properties.
By tailoring the commercial real estate CRM to your unique needs, you can streamline workflows, improve data management, and gain a competitive advantage in your specialized real estate market. Pre-made systems have great instruments for businesses with traditional workflow, but they may be just “not enough” for you. And it’s OK! Custom CRMs will fill these gaps.
2) Overcoming Technical Limitations
Many templated CRMs have various limitations, including compatibility and data storage issues. As your real estate business expands, the amount of managed data will increase. It includes client information, property details, transaction history, and many more.
An off-the-shelf CRM property management system may not efficiently handle this increased data load. That way, template services lead you to upgrade to a more expensive monthly subscription. It may look like a minor change, but the expenses of switching to a new, more advanced membership may cost you up to an extra $5,000 yearly.
User limits can also be a concern with standardized CRMs. While it may be fine for small teams, as you bring on more agents, property managers, or support staff, you may be restricted by the user limits of a template CRM. Upgrading to a higher plan may become necessary, adding to your ongoing costs.
Functional limitations are another issue with off-the-shelf CRMs. These systems are designed to serve a broad range of needs. As your real estate business grows and evolves, you may find that the functionalities of the real estate contract management software become restrictive.
A custom CRM can solve these issues, as you can design it to suit your needs perfectly. These systems can leverage cloud-based storage solutions, allowing for elastic data storage. You can also add any tool or integration to ensure your CRM remains relevant and practical even as your business scales to new heights.
3) Ensuring That You Meet Any Future Scalability Requirements
Consider potential scalability even if you are a relatively small business now. Expanding an already scalable platform will be easier than constantly switching systems once the previous no longer fits you.
You can sync your custom CRM with any cloud storage. Meanwhile, templated options allow you to use only a short list of cloud storage. In most cases, off-the-shelf solutions won’t let you connect to your cloud service. So, if you are concerned about data safety, standard CRMs won’t suit you.
With custom systems, on the other hand, you only pay for the storage you use. It means that you can expand your data capacity as your business grows without worrying about limitations or expensive upgrades.
Most templated options have user and client caps. Once you surpass this number, you must switch to a pricier plan. But if, for some reason, you need to lower the number of users, you’ll still pay a higher price for off-the-shelf CRM, especially if you use CRM template services with monthly or yearly subscriptions.
At the same time, custom software for real estate agents can accommodate any team to ensure that all your agents, property managers, and support staff can access the system as you scale. It will foster better collaboration and streamline workflows between multiple divisions.
Remember that a CRM isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. As your real estate business evolves, your needs might change. A custom CRM can be designed to adapt to you and your ever-growing needs.
4) Overcome Integration Challenges
In the fast-paced world of real estate, data is king. So, you should ensure that data flows seamlessly between all your tools and services. That way, you can achieve maximum awareness of your business processes.
Unfortunately, many templated CRMs struggle to integrate with the custom software tools your real estate business relies on. It can lead to data silos, wasted time, and ultimately, hinder your success. Here’s where a custom CRM can save the situation, helping you overcome integration challenges and achieve a more unified system.
You can sync any integration to your custom CRM. Here is a small list of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that can become an integral part of your CRM for property management:
- Email marketing platforms for targeted campaigns;
- Electronic signature tools for faster contract finalization;
- Accounting software for managing finances and commissions;
- MLS (Multiple Listing Service) platforms for property listings;
- Project management tools for keeping track of tasks and deadlines.
With the custom system, you can create a unified space where all departments will collaborate as one. Those systems eliminate manual data entry between platforms, saving time and reducing errors.
You can tailor a custom CRM to integrate with any specific software, including custom applications. For instance, if you focus on luxury properties and run virtual tour software, your custom CRM can smoothly work with these services.
The real estate industry has specific data privacy regulations. While a templated CRM may not meet your local regulations, custom property management systems will comply with even the most stringent laws.
Cost Of Custom Real Estate CRM Development
It depends on multiple factors, including the development model, the overall project’s complexity, and additional features. But here are general ranges for the end-to-end development to consider:
- Simple custom CRM: $15,000 – $20,000. It might include basic contact management, lead tracking, and deal pipeline features.
- Mid-Range CRM: $21,000 – $30,000. These systems include more advanced functionalities like email marketing integration, reporting tools, and some customization.
- Complex CRM: $31,000+. It could encompass highly customized features, advanced integrations, complex reporting capabilities, and potentially mobile app development.
The more complex CRM property management software you need, the higher the initial investment it requires. Sophisticated features like advanced reporting or custom integrations will require more development time and expertise, driving the cost up.
Fixed-cost contracts offer predictability but might not be ideal for evolving requirements. In this case, hourly rates are a better option, providing more flexibility, but they can be less cost-certain since the final cost may vary up to 5-10%. Considering that, we recommend you collaborate with more agile teams like Corpsoft.io, as regulations and trends in the digital world are changing at warp speed.
Team location is another crucial factor in the real estate development process. Hiring developers in regions with a higher cost of living, like North America or Western Europe, will generally be more expensive than collaborating with Eastern European teams. While they have the same mentality and sense of style, they live in countries with a more affordable cost of living.
Conclusion
Custom CRM real estate development can provide significant advantages to your business, such as flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and enhanced functionality. Instead of searching for the perfect real estate solution for your business, you can create one.
If you’re curious about what custom CRM software would best suit your real estate company, contact us. We will gladly provide a customized solution that will boost your business’ efficiency.
