CRMs are all about making us more efficient in what we do. The more you can do from within it, without having to go out to other programs, the more efficient you are.
So we’re clear, let’s define what an IDX feed is. It is part of your MLS database being fed to your web site. It is what enables your web site visitors to search for listings. There are many IDX providers but if you have property search capability on your own site, odds are that it is provided using an IDX feed. Traditionally your web site is the only place that IDX feeds to.
But you do your searches and automated follow-up with buyers in your MLS. You get a buyer, you add their criteria, set up an automated search, and they get any new listings that become available. If you are in your CRM and you get a call from your buyer, you have to go into your MLS, find that buyer and look up what you’ve sent them. Typically it does not show you what you actually showed them. How long does it take to do that? Not long but…
Historically, we:
- Get a buyer prospect
- Add them and their preferences to our CRM
- Go into the MLS and add those same preferences and set them up on an automated search
- We then show them some homes and record what we showed them in the CRM, manually.
Anything wrong with this picture? It’s the back and forth between the CRM and the MLS. Not a big deal but wouldn’t it be sweet if you could do almost everything MLS related right in your CRM instead? No more back and forth? And have more features and options to choose from than your MLS?
That’s exactly what has been happening lately. Some CRMs are having the IDX feed directly into the CRM. When you view a buyer in your CRM you see what you’ve shown them, what you’ve sent them, and much more. If you get a new listing, you can do a quick search for buyers in your CRM that may be interested in that listing and send it out to them, branded to you, not your MLS! This is something that agents have been asking me for for years. It addresses one of the last major inefficiencies when having to use multiple programs to do our jobs.
It seems to me that in the relatively near future all the better CRMs will be going this way. It’s long overdue and more than welcome. So who has it so far? Masterdigm, Propertybase and Tribus. So far, out of the three, Masterdigm is far and away the most cost effective and it will be interesting to see what new CRMs coming in with this feature will charge. If you’re happy with your current CRM, then this one feature should not typically be enough to change CRMs. But if you’re already sniffing around for a new one this can be very interesting.
