11 Best CRMs for Commercial Real Estate Brokers in 2025

The daily workflow of commercial real estate brokers is commonly supported by leveraging familiar and readily accessible tools such as notepads, Microsoft Excel and Outlook to manage their business data. However, it’s unrealistic for any CRE professional to expect top performance and distance themselves from the competition by using Excel as a CRM tool or Outlook for email marketing campaigns.

If you’re reading this, you likely know that the key to increasing your efficiency, responsiveness, and accuracy is CRM.

CRM software stands for Customer Relationship Management software. It is a multifaceted technology that real estate and CRE professionals use to manage and nurture relationships with clients and leads. CRM software is an extension of your trustworthy assistant that makes you more productive and a trusted storage of information.

The best commercial real estate CRM is the one that gives you back more than you’ve put in.

Today’s commercial real estate CRM offerings are diversified, and it is easy to get overwhelmed when deciding on the right tool for your brokerage. To this end, we’ve authored an article to help dissect the top commercial real estate CRM tools, their strengths, weaknesses, and other non-feature-related considerations for your evaluation.

11 Best CRE CRMs Features & Pricing Comparison

Before covering some of the features/functionality to evaluate when considering these tools, we’ll provide you with an explicit comparison of top CRE CRMs in 2025.

In terms of pricing, every CRM offers flexible and customizable pricing plans. Commercial real estate CRM pricing plans vary, offering options from budget-friendly to enterprise-level solutions. Providers like AscendixRE CRM, Apto, ClientLook, RealNex, and others offer tiered plans to accommodate diverse business needs, making it essential to assess features and scalability for the right fit.

AscendixRE CRM

AscendixRE CRM is one of the best commercial real estate CRMs based on Salesforce. Being an industry-tailored and robust CRM solution, AscendixRE delivers more value to brokers and agents than any other platform. All the nuances that we’ve learned over the 16+ years in commercial real estate have been incorporated into the functionality of AscendixRE CRM.

Pros of AscendixRE CRM:

• Geomapping search

AscendixRE is integrated with Ascendix Search – a tool that lets brokers find properties on the map within a specific area/radius/zone by applying various searching filters. Along with Properties, you can search for Contacts/Leases/Availabilities and export the lists into Excel or send them directly to clients via Mailchimp.

• Ability to send emails directly from AscendixRE CRM using Mailchimp

A new integration of AscendixRE + Mailchimp allows brokers to send targeted email campaigns with custom content and property templates in a few clicks without leaving a CRM or switching between separate systems.

• Tracking of Property Status, Lease Expirations, Sales Transactions

AscendixRE CRM allows CRE brokers to manage and track their property listings, lease agreements, and sale transactions in one central location. In terms of listings, it tracks important details such as property listing location, pricing, status (whether it’s active or pending), and monitors any changes to the listing, such as price reductions or offers.

In terms of lease expirations, within AscendixRE brokers can create a listing record and then track the details of the agreement, such as the lease start date, lease end date, rent amount, and any other relevant information. The CRM also includes Composer – a tool brokers can use to generate any types of lease reports, documents, agreements and invoices.

Notification about upcoming lease expiration in AscendixRE

• Report and marketing collaterals generation

AscendixRE is integrated with Composer – a robust report generation tool for CRE brokers. Composer contains a huge library of predefined templates brokers may need: from Property flyers to Offering memorandums. Brokers can also use Composer to design their own templates and send visually-appealing emails to prospects.

• Stacking plan module

AscendixRE CRM incorporates an advanced stacking plan module that allows brokers to visualize vacant lease spaces in commercial buildings. The module is simple to use and offers high customization capabilities. By having that within the core CRM system, brokers can pull the required data from Records and automatically update lease expiration dates, space sizes, etc.

• Commissions tracking

The commission tracking feature in AscendixRE CRM allows real estate brokers and agents to easily manage and track their commission payouts for each deal they close. With this feature, you can set up commission rates for each agent and deal, calculate the commission payouts based on the deal value, and track the status of commission payments.

• Capture of inbound Inquiries from LoopNet&CREXi

Introducing Email to Inquiry, an extension of Salesforce’s Email to Lead functionality, this new AscendixRE CRM feature automates the extraction of leads from inbound inquiries on platforms like LoopNet and CREXi, seamlessly converting them into CRM records.

• Deal management

With this feature, brokers can track the progress of each deal, manage tasks and activities, collaborate with team members, and generate reports and documents related to each deal. The system allows assigning tasks to team members, setting deadlines, and tracking the progress of each task within the system. Brokers can also set reminders and notifications to ensure that everyone is on track and deadlines are met.

• Integration with Outlook and Gmail

AscendixRE CRM offers seamless integration with Microsoft Outlook and Gmail, allowing brokers to manage email communications directly within the CRM platform. This integration makes it easy to keep track of email correspondence with clients and leads and ensures that all communications are centralized and organized in one place.

• Collaboration with clients and sign NDAs in a separate platform

MarketSpace is a cloud-based platform that is fully integrated with AscendixRE CRM. The tool provides a secure virtual workspace for teams to collaborate on deals and transactions. Within MarketSpace brokers can share files, collaborate with team members, manage deal pipelines from start to finish, securely sign NDAs and contracts.

The integration between the AscendixRE and MarketSpace enables users to seamlessly transfer data between the two systems, eliminating the need for manual data entry and improving workflow efficiency.

Get a full overview of AscendixRE features in this video.

Cons of AscendixRE CRM:

• Industry-Specific Focus – While this CRM is designed for commercial real estate professionals, it may not be suitable for businesses outside of this niche. If your company requires a more flexible CRM, AscendixRE might feel restrictive.
• Learning Curve – Due to its feature-rich environment, new users may require extensive onboarding to fully understand and utilize the software efficiently.

Pricing

AscendixRE price consists of 3 pricing plans:

• xRE Foundations ($79/user/mo)

This pricing plan includes 2 hours of consulting and interactive training (within a flexible time of signing up), multifamily functionality, Deal/Account/Contact management, data deduplication, and much more.

• xRE Enterprise ($99/user/mo)

With this optimal plan, you get all AscendixRE CRM functionality included with advanced search, geo-mapping functionality (Ascendix Search), and brochure generation tool (Composer)

• xRE Unlimited ($129/user/mo)

The Unlimited plan includes all AscendixRE CRM features, Ascendix Search, Composer, and a property listings portal – MarketSpace.

Also, pricing plans cover Salesforce license and the opportunity to import accounts and contacts using original data template mapping.

REThink CRM

REThink is a commercial real estate CRM solution built on top of Salesforce. In February 2021 it was acquired by Buildout. Since then, REThink has been positioned as the main CRM system (deal pipelines, contact, properties, and companies’ information resides here), whereas Buildout offers advanced marketing and reporting functions, which are not included in the base subscription of REThink.

Pros of REThink CRM:

• Deal pipeline management
• Task tracking
• Comps analytics
• REThink Search (used to look up new properties)
• GEOsearch (mapping tool)
• Stacking plan module
• Commission Calculation
• Workflow tools for automation
• Integration with Outlook / Gmail
• Mobile App

Cons of REThink:

• Limited Customization – Rethink provides essential CRM tools but lacks deep customization options, which can make it challenging to adapt to unique workflows. Users who need highly personalized automation may find it restrictive.
• Price vs. Features – At $120 per user/month, it is costly compared to other CRMs offering more advanced features. Some users may find they are not getting enough value for the price.
• Support Issues – Users have reported inconsistent customer support responses, leading to delays in troubleshooting and implementation.

Pricing

REThink CRM costs $120/user/mo + additional one-time setup fee of $250.

The price covers:

• Access to built-in commercial property data
• Onboarding
• In-house customer support
• Integration setup
• Training of your team
• In-product help center and access to the resource library

If you need advanced marketing functionality (branded marketing collaterals, customizable stacking plans, email blasts, etc.) you need to buy a Buildout marketing license separately as well.

Apto Commercial Real Estate CRM

Apto is a commercial real estate CRM built on Salesforce. It provides a web-based solution for managing customer relationships, back-office, deals, listings, properties, and more. Recently, Apto was acquired by Buildout.

Apto commercial real estate system allows brokers to manage the full lifecycle of a deal, set up appointments, automate daily tasks, forecast sales, etc.

Pros of Apto:

• Contact Management – Helps brokers to quickly find contact information in CRM and enter information once as well as organize all information and link between contacts, businesses and properties
• Prospecting Tools – Ability to make connections quickly – like strategic call lists and contact info- and win more deals, make proper commission estimates, etc.
• Deal Management – Provides brokers with visibility into deal progress and the necessary actions to drive each one forward
• Reports & Dashboards – This solution helps brokers to pull performance metrics, run reports on different criteria, and track commissions so that every team member can see the results
• Integration w/ Outlook & Gmail
• Workflow tools for automation

Cons of Apto:

• Frequent Software Bugs – Many users have reported glitches, slow loading times, and unexpected crashes, disrupting workflows and leading to frustration.
• Poor Customer Support — Reviews suggest that the support team’s response times can be slow, making it difficult to resolve issues quickly. This is especially problematic for businesses that rely on CRM uptime.
• High Learning Curve – Despite its feature set, the platform can feel unintuitive, requiring more time for users to become proficient.

Pricing

Apto offers a straightforward pricing structure. For $129/user/month, users gain access to:

• Built-in commercial property data
• Onboarding
• In-house customer support
• Integration setup and training
• In-product help center and resource library

There is an additional one-time setup fee of $250. Data migrations require scoping and will incur an additional cost. Tools for generating branded CRE reports and sending branded emails are sold separately for extra cost as well.

RealNex

RealNex CRM is a tool that helps commercial real estate brokers, brokerage firms, investment sales brokers, leasing agents, office/asset managers, and tenant reps automate their deal flow and create branded marketing collateral for their properties.

RealNex provides an integrated suite of real estate solutions for customer relationship management and marketing.

This software allows brokers to push and pull data between different platforms. The RealNex bundle allows you to harness your CRM, financial analytics, and property listing/e-marketing functions under the same roof.

RealNex is suitable both for a single broker or the traditional global brokerages.

Pros of RealNex:

• Cloud-based CRM
• Advanced tracking system – the ability to track properties, and clients, and manage the pipeline
• Accessibility – on-demand access from any mobile device
• Synchronization with third-party tools – Outlook/Gmail Sync
• Easy data entry
• Mass email marketing campaigns
• Stacking plan building tool with customizable templates
• Transaction tracking.

Cons of RealNex:

• Outdated Interface — The user interface can feel clunky and outdated, making navigation less intuitive than in modern CRMs. This can slow down productivity, especially for new users.
• Performance Problems – Some users have reported slow system response times, particularly when handling large datasets or generating reports. This can be frustrating for teams needing real-time insights.
• Steep Learning Curve – Due to its wide range of features, users may require additional training to get up to speed, especially those new to CRM software.

Pricing

RealNex offers 2 pricing plans: Basic Subscription and Advanced Subscription.

A basic subscription (CRM only) includes 200 emails per user per month and has several pricing options:

• Annual: $1188 (= $99 per month) + $99 one-time onboarding fee per user
• Annual but paid Monthly: $109 per month + $99 onboarding

Advanced subscription Navigator (CRM + other functionality) includes 1000 emails per user per month and has several pricing options:

• Annual: $1788 ($149/user/mo) + one-time onboarding fee of $149
• Monthly with annual commitment: $174 per month

Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM is a versatile customer relationship management platform that is actively used by commercial real estate brokers due to its customizable nature and extensive feature set.

Pros of Zoho:

• Contact Management—Agents can store detailed information about clients, leads, investors, and other contacts, including property preferences, communication history, and important notes.
• Deal Tracking — Commercial real estate agents can use Zoho CRM to track deals and transactions throughout the sales cycle. The platform provides customizable pipelines and stages, enabling agents to monitor deal progress, set reminders for follow-ups, and collaborate with team members.
• Property Management — Zoho CRM enables agents to manage their property listings effectively. They can input property details, upload images and documents, schedule showings, and track property availability, which helps them stay organized and informed about their listings.
• Communication Tools — Zoho CRM offers various communication tools to streamline interactions with clients and leads. Agents can send and receive emails, text messages, and calls directly within the platform, ensuring all communication is centralized and logged for future reference.
• Reporting and Analytics — Agents can generate reports on lead sources, conversion rates, and deal progress, allowing them to identify trends and areas for improvement.

Cons of Zoho:

• Pricing Complexity — The cost ($20–$300 per organization/month) varies significantly depending on the chosen plan, and it can be confusing to understand which features are included at different levels.
• Limited User Experience – While Zoho offers a broad range of features, its interface is sometimes described as outdated and cluttered. Users may require time to familiarize themselves with navigation and functionality.
• Customization Limitations – While it provides some customization options, more profound modifications require technical expertise or hiring Zoho consultants.

Pricing

Zoho CRM offers tiered pricing plans, making it suitable for solo brokers and larger teams.

• Free Plan: ($0/month)
• Standard Plan: ($20/organization/month)
• Professional Plan: ($50/organization/month)
• Premium Plan: ($100/organization/month)
• Elite Plan: ($300/organization/month)

ClientLook

ClientLook allows you to manage every integral aspect of your commercial real estate business, including your properties, leads, clients, and deals. ClientLook has tailor-made sections for each business component to maximize business management efficiency in every area.

In addition, the software can also be integrated with several other CRE apps and services.

Pros of ClientLook:

• Contact management – This feature allows brokers to build relationships between people and properties, check the updates, and search Contacts quickly
• Property Tracking – Brokers can search for properties, enter every property detail, manage and track property listings
• Deal Tracking – This feature allows CRE specialists to keep track of all contacts and emails related to a particular Deal
• Integrations with third-party tools – ClientLook integrates with tools like The Analyst PRO, RPR, MailChimp, HubSpot, and Google.

Cons of ClientLook:

• Lack of Advanced Features – Compared to more comprehensive CRMs, ClientLook lacks AI-powered analytics, automation tools, and deep integration options. Businesses looking for advanced forecasting or workflow automation may need additional software.
• Customization Limitations – Users have reported limited flexibility when personalizing the interface, dashboards, and reporting tools. This makes it harder to adapt to specific company needs.
• Data Migration Challenges – Importing and exporting data from other CRMs can be complex, requiring additional manual work or third-party integrations to ensure a smooth transition.

Pricing

ClientLook has three types of pricing plans:

• Free (for new brokers): you pay 0$ for 4 months, and then $99/mo thereafter
• Annual: you can pay $89/user/mo (the total price billed annually is $1068)
• Monthly: $129/user/mo on month-to-month term. You can convert to annual at any time and save $480 (the total annual price is $1548).

SharpLaunch

SharpLaunch is a commercial real estate (CRE) marketing platform that helps brokers and teams automate their marketing tasks and workflows to streamline their marketing and get more leads and sales.

Pros of SharpLaunch:

• Property search – SharpLaunch provides a property search engine that allows visitors to search for properties listed on your website and in your database.
• Property websites — SharpLaunch can create custom property websites for each of your listings. These websites can be optimized for search engines and used to generate leads and schedule appointments.
• Lead management – SharpLaunch’s lead management tools can help you track and manage your leads throughout the sales process.
• Document portal – SharpLaunch’s document portal allows you to share documents with your clients and prospects securely.
• Marketing automation — SharpLaunch’s marketing automation tools can help you automate marketing tasks such as sending follow-up emails and nurturing leads.
• Reporting – SharpLaunch provides a variety of reports that can help you track the performance of your marketing campaigns.

Cons of SharpLaunch:

• No Transparent Pricing – Potential users must contact sales for pricing details, making it difficult to compare costs upfront with competitors. This lack of transparency can deter some businesses.
• Limited Integrations – SharpLaunch lacks seamless integrations with widely used third-party applications, which can disadvantage teams relying on multiple software solutions.
• Niche Focus – Designed primarily for real estate marketing, it may not suit general CRM needs outside the property sector.

Pricing

You need to contact sales managers to get ongoing subscription prices.

HubSpot

HubSpot is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform that helps businesses of all sizes manage their leads, contacts, and deals.

Pros of HubSpot:

HubSpot offers a variety of features that can be useful for commercial real estate brokers, including:

• Contact management – HubSpot allows you to store and manage all of your contact information in one place. This includes contact names, email addresses, phone numbers, and other relevant information.
• Lead management – HubSpot helps you track and manage your leads throughout the sales process. You can create lead nurturing sequences, schedule follow-up tasks, and track your lead conversion rate.
• Deal management – HubSpot helps you track and manage your deals from start to finish. You can create deal pipelines, track your sales progress, and close more deals.
• Task management – HubSpot helps you manage your tasks and to-do lists. You can create tasks, assign tasks to other users, and track your progress.
• Email marketing – HubSpot allows you to create and send email marketing campaigns to your leads and customers. You can segment your audience, personalize your emails, and track your results.
• Reporting – HubSpot provides a variety of reports that can help you track your progress and identify areas for improvement. You can create reports on your leads, deals, tasks, and email marketing campaigns.

In addition to these core features, HubSpot also offers a variety of integrations with other popular software applications. This makes it easy to connect HubSpot to your existing workflow and to get the most out of the platform.

Cons of HubSpot:

• Hidden Costs – While HubSpot offers a free CRM, advanced features and automation require expensive add-ons or premium plans. Costs can quickly add up as businesses scale.
• Limited Customization – Compared to competitors, HubSpot CRM has restrictions on modifying workflows and dashboards, making it harder for businesses with complex needs.
• Customer Support Challenges – Free-tier users have limited access to customer support, meaning they may have to rely on community forums or paid support options.

Pricing

HubSpot pricing is complicated because the company offers different prices for different types of offerings: Platform Solutions and Products. The company also offers different pricing bundles that clients can customize. With a wide range of offerings, it can be difficult to define the exact price, so it’s better to contact HubSpot sales managers.

For commercial real estate, the CRM Suite may be interesting. The Suite plan is HubSpot’s all-in-one platform that includes all of its products, including CRM, Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, CMS Hub, and Operations Hub. The Suite ranges from $1600 per month (Professional Pricing Plan) to $5000 per month (Enterprise Pricing Plan).

VTS

VTS is a commercial real estate (CRE) software platform that connects landlords, tenants, brokers, and other professionals to streamline the leasing process. It offers a variety of features that can be useful for commercial real estate brokers, including:

Pros of VTS:

• Property search—VTS provides a comprehensive database of commercial properties for rent and sale. Brokers can use VTS to search for properties based on criteria such as location, type of property, size, and price.
• Market data—VTS provides real-time market data on commercial real estate transactions. Brokers can use this data to inform their pricing decisions and negotiate better deals for their clients.
• Lease management—VTS helps brokers manage the entire leasing process, from generating leads to closing deals. Brokers can use VTS to track their leads, create proposals, and manage negotiations.
• Collaboration—VTS allows brokers to collaborate with their clients and other professionals in real time. Brokers can share listings, proposals, and other documents with their clients and other professionals through VTS.

Cons of VTS:

• High Cost – With pricing ranging from $1000 to $3000 annually, this CRM may not be budget-friendly for smaller firms or individual brokers. Businesses with tight budgets may find better value elsewhere.
• Limited Use Cases – VTS is primarily designed for commercial real estate firms, meaning companies in other industries may struggle to adapt it to their workflows.
• Complexity – The feature set is robust but can be overwhelming for new users or smaller teams that don’t require advanced analytics and reporting tools.

Pricing

VTS offers three ongoing pricing plans for commercial real estate:

• Essentials: The Essentials plan starts at $1,000/year
• Professional: The Professional plan starts at $2,000/year
• Enterprise: The Enterprise plan starts at $3,000 per/ year

VTS also offers a free trial of all of its plans, so you can try out the software before you commit to a paid plan.

The price of VTS depends on the features that you need and the number of users that you have. You can get a custom quote by contacting VTS.

Freshworks CRM

Freshworks CRM is a robust CRM platform designed to assist businesses in managing their customer interactions throughout the entire lifecycle. It offers a comprehensive suite of features to streamline sales processes, enhance collaboration, and provide valuable insights into customer relationships. Freshworks CRM is known for its user-friendly interface, customization options, and scalability.

Pros of Freshworks CRM:

• Lead Management – Freshworks CRM allows commercial real estate brokers to capture, organize, and prioritize leads. The platform assists in tracking lead interactions and managing them through the sales pipeline.
• Contact Management – Brokers can maintain a centralized database of contacts, including property owners, investors, and other stakeholders. Freshworks CRM facilitates contact organization and communication history tracking.
• Deal Tracking – The platform enables brokers to monitor and manage deals at various stages of the sales pipeline. Brokers can set milestones, assign tasks, and collaborate with team members for efficient deal progression.
• Document Management – Freshworks CRM provides functionality for document storage and organization. Brokers can manage important documents related to properties, contracts, and agreements within the CRM.
• Analytics and Reporting – Freshworks CRM offers analytics and reporting tools to help brokers gain insights into sales performance. Metrics can be tracked, and reports can be generated to identify trends and areas for improvement.
• Mobile Accessibility—Freshworks CRM Recognizes the real estate industry’s mobile nature and provides mobile accessibility. Brokers can access information, update records, and communicate on the go using their mobile devices.

Cons of FreshWorks CRM:

• Basic Feature Set for Lower Tiers – While Freshworks CRM has affordable pricing ($18–$83 per user/month), the lower-tier plans lack automation and advanced reporting features. Businesses needing more powerful tools may need to pay for the higher-end plans.
• Scalability Issues – Although it works well for small to mid-sized teams, larger organizations may find it lacks the deep customization and integration capabilities required for enterprise-level operations.
• Customer Support Concerns — Some users have reported slow response times and difficulty resolving issues promptly, which can be frustrating during urgent problems.

Pricing

Freshworks CRM offers four pricing plans:

• Free: The Free plan is a great way to get started with Freshworks CRM. It includes all of the basic features that you need to manage your leads and contacts, such as contact management, deal management, and task management.
• Growth ($15/user/month): The Growth plan is a good option for small businesses that need more features than the Free plan offers. It includes all of the features of the Free plan, plus features such as email marketing, lead scoring, and custom reports.
• Pro ($39/user/month): The Pro plan is a good option for medium-sized businesses that need more advanced features than the Growth plan offers. It includes all of the features of the Growth plan, plus features such as workflow automation, predictive analytics, and custom integrations.
• Enterprise (Contact Freshworks for pricing): The Enterprise plan is a good option for large businesses that need the most advanced features that Freshworks CRM has to offer. It includes all of the features of the Pro plan, plus features such as dedicated support and custom development.

The pricing for Freshworks CRM’s ongoing pricing plans depends on the number of users and the plan that you choose.

Vtiger CRM

Vtiger CRM offers an open-source and cost-effective solution for commercial real estate brokers. While it might require some technical expertise for setup and ongoing maintenance, it provides a solid foundation for managing client relationships, deals, and properties.

Pros of Vtiger CRM:

• Contact Management – Using Vtiger CRM, brokers can organize and centralize client information, communication history, and preferences for efficient relationship building.
• Lead Management – Vtiger CRM helps to Capture potential clients, nurture them through the sales cycle, and convert them into paying customers.
• Deal Pipeline Management – Brokers can visualize the progress of your deals at various stages, ensuring deals stay on track and close successfully.
• Property Management (Limited) – Track key property details, availability status, and related documents to maintain a clear overview of your properties. For more comprehensive property management features, customization might be required.
• Reporting & Analytics – Gain valuable insights into your sales performance by generating reports and analyzing data. Identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions to boost your success.
• Customization – Adapt Vtiger CRM to fit your specific workflows and team needs. Create custom modules and fields to tailor the platform to your unique business processes. (Technical knowledge may be required for advanced customization)
• Integrations – Connect Vtiger CRM seamlessly with other essential tools you use daily. Integrate email marketing platforms, accounting software, or other applications to create a unified workspace. (Additional fees might apply depending on the chosen integration).

Cons of Vtiger CRM:

• Pricing Uncertainty – Since pricing is only available by contacting sales managers, businesses cannot quickly determine if it fits within their budget before committing.
• Complex Setup – The CRM requires significant customization during onboarding, which can be time-consuming and needs technical expertise.
• Performance Issues – Some users report system lag, especially when handling larger datasets, which can impact efficiency.

Pricing

Vtiger offers a free tier with limited features and storage. Paid plans, starting at around $5 per user/month for the “One User” plan, offer more features and storage capacity. For brokers requiring advanced property management features or extensive customization, additional costs for add-ons or development work might be necessary.

Generic CRMs vs. Industry-Specific CRMs: What to Choose?

When choosing CRM, brokers face a dilemma: whether to select a generical CRM that is not specialized in commercial real estate or to choose an industry-specific one.

Generic CRMs

By generic CRMs, we mean all CRM solutions you can use for contact management, deal pipeline automation, sales/marketing automation, etc. that are not tailored specifically for commercial real estate usage. The top choice generic CRMs among brokers are HubSpot CRM, Pipedrive, Monday Sales CRM, Zoho CRM, Vtiger and others.

Advantages of generic CRMs for CRE brokers:

• Generic CRMs may be cheaper with basic subscriptions
• They allow you to easily track leads, monitor and evaluate marketing efforts, and produce relevant and effective reports on demand.

Disadvantages of generic CRMs for CRE brokers:

• They aren’t tailored to the needs of CRE brokers
• There are limits to how configurable/customizable they are
• Extra costs for customization and tailoring to the nuances of the CRE market

If you summarize the monthly subscription and customization costs, you’ll see that the total price for generic CRM will be higher compared to industry-specific CRMs.

Industry-Specific CRMs

Industry-specific CRMs are CRM solutions for commercial real estate industry. The most popular examples are AscendixRE CRM, ClientLook, RealNex, REThink CRM, Apto, and others.

Advantages of industry-specific CRMs:

• They are designed specifically for the CRE industry
• Most allow for some level of configuration while others (especially those designed on the Salesforce platform) allow for quite an extensive amount of customizations
• They integrate functions like contact management, scheduling, email campaigns, report generation, and client collaboration
• Everything can be accessed and shared online, so colleagues and clients get what they need regardless of where they are
• They are designed to solve business problems that exist in commercial real estate based on years of working in the industry.

Disadvantages of industry-specific CRMs:

• CRE CRM tools are priced in a slightly higher bracket than the entry-level non-CRE CRM tools.

The beauty of industry-specific CRE CRMs is that you invest money in a one-stop tool tailored to the CRE industry to increase usage, efficiency and effectiveness in getting deals done.

Look for These Features in Commercial Real Estate CRM

Commercial real estate CRM is designed to help brokers manage interactions with prospects, clients, tenants, investors, and other brokers seamlessly, from early-stage conversations to advanced deal tracking.

Instead of a cluttered notebook or Excel spreadsheet, modern brokers use commercial CRM to streamline the process of engaging with key people and nurturing them to close the deal successfully for their clients.

Choosing the best CRM for CRE is easier when you can know that must-have features for the best commercial real estate CRM and can compare the features set of market leaders.

With this in mind, we created a list of commercial real estate CRM features and compare 11 CRE CRMs according to the availability of a specific feature. As a savvy commercial real estate broker, you need customer relationship management software that’s tailored to your unique needs. Here are the essential features commercial real estate professionals should look for:

Property Data Tracking

A built-in property database allows users to connect clients with properties. When choosing commercial real estate CRM programs, pay special attention to the depth and breadth of property and related record tracking. Top broker CRMs allow you to create a custom local database and link it to your existing deals and prospects.

Configuration / Customization Capabilities

As many systems are hard-wired to accommodate CRE industry specifications, customizable fields and form layouts are vital features to consider in a commercial real estate CRM.

To use a commercial CRM, you need it to adapt to your needs – set up the required fields to create a record with any data you need, instead of surfing across multiple systems.

Easy fields and form layout customization are signs of an advanced commercial real estate CRM.  You should have the ability to customize your CRM system to match your unique workflows, allowing you to tailor the platform to your specific preferences.

Check whether a vendor can configure and customize a CRM platform considering the specifics of your niche, your unique corporate needs, and the amount of data you use. A good CRM system for commercial real estate businesses should have a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate, with an intuitive and visually appealing design that simplifies data entry and retrieval.

Ideally, the company must have resources to suggest the most optimal way to create necessary CRM functionality, configuration & customization of:

• UI optimization
• Security & permissions
• Data import
• Bulk data processes.

For example, Ascendix does have such resources and can assist you with modifying CRM using default point-and-click tools (by configuration) or custom code-based development (by customization).

Integrated Reporting and Brochure Generation Functionality

To get a better understanding of your performance, your customer relationship management software should offer analytics and reporting tools that help you track key metrics like deal flow, lead sources, and other important indicators.

It is a nice-to-have feature that can save you a lot of time and money. Many CRMs have limited reporting and brochure-generating functionality. If you want to create visually appealing property brochures directly from your CRM, in most cases, you’ll pay extra for a separate third-party product. The best CRE CRM will have a built-in report and marketing content generation tool included in the pricing plan.

Having such functionality allows you to reduce manual work facilitating the generation of property flyers or marketing activity reports on your own in a few clicks.

Template List of Reports, Flyers, Brochures in Composer

Correspondence Tracking/Follow-Up Activities

Correspondence tracking and follow-up reminders are other noteworthy features of commercial real estate contact management software.

You can’t expect to remember every call and/or meeting you’ve arranged or every deal that needs some clarification. That’s what follow-ups are for.

All you need is to set up a reminder on a record and forget about it until the time comes. Also, you can follow up on Contacts related to specific Companies and Accounts. You’ll see your follow-up activity grouped by the date for each record.

If a commercial CRM system you’re considering has a wide range of follow-ups, that’s a positive sign.

Example of Follow-up Activities in AscendixRE CRM

Mass Emailing

The CRE industry is all about establishing trusted relationships using various methods of communication. One of those is emailing.

Brokers send dozens of emails daily through commercial real estate CRM. But what makes a good bulk email send succeed is personalization.

Clients become more loyal to brokers that refrain from such generic and non-targeted emails. You have all the data inside a CRM, so why not link every email with the customer record and send personalized emails?

If CRM is properly integrated with email tools, it isn’t a difficult task.

Deal Tracking

Top-notch CRM software should include a robust contact management system that allows real estate agents to store and manage all client information in one place, including notes, communications, and other relevant details. It should enable you to track deals from start to finish, with features that enable real estate brokers to create, manage, assign tasks, and set reminders for every stage of the process.

System Integration

Your CRM software should easily integrate with other tools and platforms, such as email marketing, e-signature, and portal software, to streamline your real estate workflows and improve efficiency.

Mobile Access

In today’s fast-paced business environment, it’s critical to have CRM software that provides mobile access, whether through a dedicated mobile app or mobile-friendly web interface, to enable you to access your data on the go.

While the must-have features may vary from organization to organization, these essential elements are the building blocks of any effective CRM system for commercial real estate professionals.

Marketing Tools

Integration with your existing commercial real estate marketing tools and synchronizing with new tools is a vital requirement for choosing the best commercial real estate CRM.

This feature ensures you follow up with prospects regularly, and track marketing activity to create a solid strategy for marketing your commercial property. A good CRM must contain a well-rounded range of tools for mass email campaigns, integration with social media accounts, generating branded marketing collaterals, etc. So, check them thoroughly.

List of Marketing Tools Integrated with AscendixRE

In-house Professional Services

Many CRM providers don’t have enough resources to offer data migration, administration, and integration services using in-house teams. They outsource these services to 3rd party service partners which leads to delayed service delivery for clients.

By choosing the best CRE CRM, pay attention to whether a CRM vendor mentions in-house professional services. Having both the product development and services delivered by one company eliminates conflicts of interest and streamlines the overall delivery experience. This service is especially relevant for large companies.

Final Words

So, how to make the final decision on the best CRE CRM, when you’ve already assessed the functionality of commercial real estate broker software?

• Check CRM provider’s reviews on independent platforms from verified reviewers and ask for clients’ references
• Evaluate all pros and cons thoroughly
• Look for the best price-quality balance. Remember that every feature has its price. You don’t have to choose a commercial CRM with the longest list of features because you’ll not use all of them to boost your ROI.
• Search for CRM providers that have reliable customer and technical support.

The success of your CRE business is closely connected with the process of selecting the best CRE CRM. The selection requires a disciplined approach, dedication of time to review the various options and attention to detail on what separates each solution.

With this in mind, we compared the functionality of 11 commercial real estate CRMs and analyzed them deeply, so you can save time for searching. We also tried to clarify the difference between generic and industry-specific CRMs and explain why forward-thinking brokerages choose industry-specific solutions.

Finally, we provided you with a list of must-have features for CRE CRMs that you can use as a checklist during your CRM selection process.

If you don’t feel 100% confident about which CRM to choose, contact Ascendix team. Our experienced CRM consultants are ready to help you with all stages of CRM implementation, migration, and optimization.