Estate agencies
Real estate CRM software that follows a sale from instruction to completion
One system for properties, applicants and viewings, with the compliance and the portals built in.
An agency is a stream of files
Real estate CRM software keeps properties and applicants in one place and connects them to the portals and your own website. What sets one apart from another is how well it follows the stream of a sale: from the instruction to the day contracts complete.
That stream has more required steps every year. Before a home goes on the market there is an energy certificate, material information for the listing and identity checks on the seller. Then the listing goes to the portals and your own site, viewings are booked, offers come in and a sale is agreed. Every step done in an inbox or a spreadsheet costs time and risks something slipping.
Up front: we have no estate agency as a client. What we have built, and what works the same way, are platforms with files, documents, expiry dates and a client portal. This page covers how such a system carries a sale, what to compare in a CRM, how the portals connect and what it is worth.
A sales file from instruction to completion
Instruction
Agent and owner
In the softwareProperty record with photos, floor plan and terms
Compliance
Owner, inspectors
- Energy certificate
- ID checks
- Material information
In the softwareA list per property: what is in, what is missing, what expires
Listing
Agent
In the softwareEntered once, sent to each portal and your own site
Viewings
Applicants
In the softwareApplicants with their search profile, viewings in the diary
Offer and sale agreed
Buyer, seller, agent
In the softwareOffers with dates, the memorandum of sale with documents
Completion
Conveyancers
In the softwareThe file to the lawyers, matching applicants to the next property
The documents shown are those a UK sale typically needs; which apply depends on the country, the property and its age.
An agency CRM or a build of your own
Most agencies should start with an agency CRM. These are the cases where a build of your own earns its cost.
- Good for
- Agency CRMSales and lettings run the way most agencies run them
- Custom buildNew-build projects with units and options, block management, or a way of working no package follows
- Portals
- Agency CRMFeeds to the big portals built in
- Custom buildFeeds built to the portals' own specifications
- Price
- Agency CRMPer user per month
- Custom buildA one-off build plus hosting and upkeep
- Your website
- Agency CRMOften a template site from the vendor
- Custom buildYour own site, fed from the same data
- Data when you leave
- Agency CRMAn export in the vendor's format
- Custom buildYours, in your own database
Pick an agency CRM if your workflow is standard and you want listings out fast. Build, or add to it, when your work does not fit the package or the package does not talk to the rest of your tools.
What to compare in a real estate CRM
Every demo shows a listing going out. Compare the parts that carry the rest of the sale.
| Area | What to ask | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Listings | One entry to every portal and your own site, photos and the energy rating included? | Retyping a property three times is where errors start |
| Compliance | Per property the certificates and checks, with dates and an alert when one is missing? | A sale waits on the one document nobody ordered |
| Applicants | Search profiles kept, and a new listing sent to applicants who match? | Last year's applicant is this year's buyer |
| Viewings | Booked online, with feedback logged on the property? | Vendors want to hear what viewers said |
| Progression | Each sale's stage visible to the team, and to vendor and buyer? | Calls asking where it stands eat the day |
| API | Can your site, accounts and email tools connect? | A CRM that does not connect becomes another island |
If the gap is between your CRM and the rest, the answer is an API integration. What a CRM is, and where it ends and an ERP begins, is in CRM and CRM vs ERP; a system that follows your own process is on custom CRM development.
The portals your CRM has to feed
Which portals matter depends on the country you sell in. A CRM that serves a cross-border agency, or an agency that may expand, should feed more than one.
| Country | The main portals | What it means for your CRM |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | Rightmove, Zoopla, OnTheMarket | Feeds with photos, floor plans, the energy rating and material information |
| Netherlands | Funda | Listing through the feed the portal accepts, often via your CRM vendor |
| Belgium | Immoweb, Zimmo | Energy label and planning information in the listing |
| Germany | ImmoScout24 | A feed per listing, with the energy certificate details |
The safest setup is one entry in your CRM that feeds every portal and your own site. A price change, a sold sign or a new photo then shows everywhere at once, and no portal carries a listing you already took down.
The client portals we built, seen through an agency
For Business Centrum, a payroll bureau in Ghent, we built a management platform that replaced their spreadsheet: files per client and employee, documents, tasks, a log of every action, an Excel import with a report, and a portal where their clients sign in with a magic link. It was tested on their real file of 309 employers and 971 employees. Moving off a spreadsheet like that is covered in replace Excel with software.
For DA Logistics, a haulier, we built a platform with vehicle files in which inspections, policies and documents carry their expiry date and raise an alert before they lapse. That is exactly what a property and its certificates need.
An estate agency is neither a payroll bureau nor a haulier. But the building blocks are the same: files with documents and deadlines, a portal and integrations. How we set up such a platform is on custom software.
What it is worth: a worked example
The second gain is applicants. Someone who searched your area last year and did not buy is a lead for your next listing. A CRM that keeps search profiles and sends a new property to matching applicants sells faster without an advertising budget. What AI adds, from property descriptions to sorting enquiries, is on AI for real estate agents.
What a build costs depends on what your CRM already does. An integration between your CRM and your site is a smaller project than a system of your own; Belgian agencies charge 50 to 150 euro an hour on the market. A list of what your system must do is easy to set up with the software requirements template, and we quote a fixed price per project after a first call.
Before you sign with a CRM vendor
- A trial with your own listings, not the demo data
- A test feed to each portal you use, with photos and floor plans
- An export of every property and applicant, in a format you can open
- The price per user for your team in three years, add-ons included
- The API documentation, and whether your website can read listings from it
- Where the data is hosted, and a processing agreement under the GDPR
Found for your listings and your area
The best CRM achieves little if nobody finds your agency outside the portals. Your own site is where vendors and buyers get to know you without a portal in between: an area page per town, your sold properties, a valuation request vendors actually fill in. How that works is on real estate marketing; being found on your town name starts with local SEO and a Google Business Profile. Feeding your site from the CRM is an API integration, so a price changes in one place.
If your agency also manages blocks of flats, the work is closer to a client portal for owners than to a sales CRM. And if your listings, your applicants and your emails should feed an assistant that answers buyers from your own files, see custom ChatGPT for business.
Custom software
How VBS helps you with this
We build the platform your business runs on every day: your spreadsheets, emails and paperwork in one system that does what you do.
- Your workflow mapped first, then a fixed price
- Screens for the office, the client and the road
- Hosting, backups and security managed by us on AWS
How we approach it is on our page about Custom software.
Your sales files in one place?
Tell us which CRM you use, how many homes you sell or let a year and where it pinches. After a call you get a proposal, package, integration or build, with a fixed price, or contact us first.
Rather get in touch right away?