A History & Partial Listing of Contact Management Tools in Real Estate – Part 2 of 3

What else is out there? In the RES (Real Estate Specific) arena, there are 2 programs that are based inFileMaker, which is a highly respected database platform.  Agent Business Builder is one of them, that started in 1995, and has a fairly significant user base as a result. Then there is REST, a relative newcomer with what I think to be some very good potential. Based in Filemaker, these two have some flexibility with respect to report generation, using a readily available group of programmers as a third party to generate them for you. Another interesting thing about them is that they are MAC compatible. Yet another with REST, is that with an additional license, it can be accessed remotely over the Internet, on it’s own port, increasing speed, and without a monthly fee. Like all the other’s, it has it’s own idiosyncrasies, making it more suitable for some agents than others.  Most notably, they are not yet capable of ‘receiving’ email directly into them, yet.  The workaround being to copy and paste the emails into the notes field.

Someone vying to compete with Top Producer Is 360Agent. It has the potential to be Top Producer on steroids.  But as they are also new kids on the block, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Speaking of new kids on the block, that’s the state of the industry. More Contact Management tools keep popping up all the time. One called AOSstarted out as an online listing appointment tracking solution, and has morphed somewhat into a Contact Management solution as well. I am not exaggerating when I say I have someone contact me at least every other month, wanting to pick my brain about the what would make a good product. Most of them are programmers without Real Estate experience, which puts them at significant disadvantage to begin with.

Another called Realty Juggler is strictly for use on Palms.

“All Client’s” niche is for those that are very seriously into intricate referral tracking.

THEN we get into the ‘Add-ons’.  Creating add-on software to enhance the capabilities of Outlook has been getting popular for the last several years. ‘Active Agent for Outlook‘ is the one that most resembles good ol’ Outlook, and it makes doing mail merges, and using activity plans, among other things, easier. Obviously it integrates with Microsoft products, which appeals to some. It’s still not as easy as RES software to do the daily tasks that agents have to do on a daily basis, but there are a good many agents that are tired of dealing with ‘proprietary’ software, which is basically ‘my way or the highway stuff’, and lacks the ‘power’ of MS products.

The other two most popular Outlook add-ons are Pat Zaby’s Respond, and another called RealeSeller. The former boasting volumes of letters and publisher pieces; the latter trying to put a friendlier face on Outlook.

One way to pick a tool is to evaluate what kind of ‘user’ you will be.  I’ve worked with thousands of agents over the years, in the context of CRM.  Agents fall into two categories in the following respect:

1)  You are capable of, meaning you have a deep enough understanding of, how software works and interacts.  You pick up software very easily and enjoy ‘playing’ with it.  You have the imagination to be creative with it.  You will enjoy investing the time into tailoring the program to be just the way you want it.

2)  You should really have something that may not be quite as flexible, but that lesser flexibility makes it easier to learn because it comes already tailored to the needs of the vast majority of users.

My experience tells me that the vast majority of agents fall into the latter category.

While none of these can be so easily pigeonholed into one type, and it is certainly not my intent to say any of them are totally inflexible, the above solutions tend to be more for category number 2 people.  The following solutions fit more into category number 1:

We can’t finish the list without letting ACT!, which I personally used for a year myself, get into the ‘act’. There have been several add-ons created for it, but unfortunately I’ve yet to hear a kind word spoken of them. Then ACT! itself came out with ‘ACT! for Real Estate’. I haven’t personally looked at it yet, but the general consensus from the dozen or so people I’ve spoken with that used it, is that it is a lackluster effort, falling short in true functionality. In case you’re considering hiring someone to customize ACT! to fit your needs, you may want to know this. I’ve had far and away more people purchase RES software from me that had just given up doing just that, than any other CRM tool in my experience. They had spent many hours, and a lot of money having it customized, and eventually gave up, because they got tired of dealing with it. Before you ACT! users, and I know there are a number category ones out there, start crucifying me, I didn’t say ALL, simply more, than any other program.  Some other comments…

GoldMine! There are definitely some die-hard GoldMine users that have downloaded the add-on for that, and swear it’s the best thing since sliced bread. We are talking POWER now though. GoldMine is industrial strength, and not for the average Real Estate agent, who is being dragged kicking and screaming into using a Contact Management tool to begin with.

Another one I just recently took a hard look at is Maximizer.  This is a powerful tool along the lines of GoldMine and ACT!, but in some respects has even more.  It interfaces directly with Outlook and MS Word as do GoldMine and ACT!, which will pique many people’s interest. It is very flexible in and of itself.  A Real Estate add-on is available, but, as with many add-ons, for the most part all it does is label many of the user defined fields with Real Estate terms, add some letter templates and checklists, and add seven “Action Plans”.  The program itself I definitely like.  The add-on does make it more Real Estate specific, but is really just OK.

Part 3 in a bit – Considerations when choosing a CRM Solution/Contact Management Solution