EPISODE 337: The Best and Worst Real Estate CRMs for 2022

Episode Timeline

For the 337th episode of Mail Right Now, Jonathan Denwood and Robert Newman discuss the best and worst CRMs for real estate for 2022. Robert Newman is the founder and CEO of the inbound marketing agency, Inbound REM and has had tremendous experience in the real estate search engine optimization field for over a decade. On the other hand, Jonathan Denwood is the founder and CEO of Mail Right, a platform that combines a variety of digital tools into one convenient, user-friendly package. The episode talks through the pros and cons of each CRMs and shares an excellent system for lead follow-up and lead conversion. Few CRMs allow you to get maximum value out of your list. When looking for a CRM, you should be looking for one that will enable you to maintain your list effectively while you wait for a specialized tool to achieve maximum value.

Lion Desk

Lion Desk is a real estate CRMS that works like a Swiss army knife. You can find anything you need there for a reasonable price. Using this platform is also going to be seamless. If you are an individual real estate agent and don’t want to use your brokerage CRM, you can utilize it because it has the same UX design. One of its key strengths is its Artificial Intelligence functionalities, which allows you to use free text messaging to respond to messages. However, the downside is that it tempts you to go overboard with auto texting. It also has video marketing capabilities, but if you want to use video for outreach, you should use Bomb Bomb. Another issue with Lion Desk is its Facebook marketing side; Facebook advertising campaign functionality is poor and semi-miss leading. Lion Desk is recommended because of its affordable price, starting at $25 per month. However, while it provides much value for the money, a lot of what they offer isn’t the best option.

Top Producer X

Top Producer is one of the biggest ones in the CRM space. When CRM began to shift toward automated email action plans, Top Producer’s enhanced its basic functionality, and new capabilities were introduced and were called Top Producer X. The good thing about Producer X is that it has a semi-modern design and UX design. It has a Microsoft feel, so it feels like a desktop product you utilize for your web browser. It offers several built-in features, such as a calendar. Its drawbacks include a cluttered interface and a poorly designed marketing automation system. And it’s pricey compared to Lion Desk or Wise Agent in terms of value. If you have a long list of clients, it might not make sense to justify a 20 or 30-a-month price change unless you’re trying to get effective marketing out of your list.

Follow Up CRM

Follow Up have one of the best UX interfaces in real estate CRM. It has a user-friendly system that is easy to learn and operate. Many people focus on developing complex tools, yet intricate UX design is pointless if the end-user cannot utilize it. Follow Up is not the cheapest CRM, but $69 for an individual agent isn’t terrible for what you receive. The disadvantage of Follow Up is that it is difficult to utilize if you are unfamiliar with CRMs. Follow Up is a good tool for you if you want CRM to be future-proof and want to dig in and commit to it but not have to upgrade or use CRM that doesn’t do what you want. And for fresh new agents who purchase their first CRM tools, other CRMs that are less expensive, such as the Lion Desk, are recommended.

Wise Agent

Wise Agent has a good UI and loads of API integration. However, one of its problems is Lion Desk; although Wise Agent provides loads of integration, Lion Desk also includes integration and has a reasonable price. It also has the weakest UX design. It doesn’t do anything different or more efficient than any other CRMs, nor is it easy to learn.

Elevate

Elevate has some additional CRM features and offers a high IDX website. The bad thing about elevate is that you don’t own the website. They provide the website; however, the template is not that good and is not modern-looking. Elevate certainly doesn’t have a real estate website that pieces plugins together in the right way that’s SEO friendly. They provide blog content, but it’s the same blog content for everybody on one of their websites, which creates zero value for Google, and it can hurt the SEO of your website.