This may sound like a stupid question, but it's not the first time it has come up.  

On 4 separate occassions I have been consulting with someone who is creating a new RE CRM, and they did not provide the ability to create a one-off original letter. In other words, you are in a contact's record, and you want to write a quick "paper" letter to them such that their name and address etc. will be automatically merged into the letter. That letter would then be able to be seen later in that contact's file if necessary.  

My question is this. Do you write one-off (as opposed to form) letters? I realize it is done relatively rarely any more due to e-mail, but if you could chime in to answer whether or not you have that need, I would appreciate it.

For over a decade I have been affiliated with dozens of Real Estate technology solutions. In the last several years I have focused solely on Real Estate CRM solutions. My goal was to know more about Real Estate specific CRM than anyone in the world. In order to accomplish that task I had to pass on a good many opportunities from people asking me to promote their products unrelated to CRM. While I have reached my goal, it is still my primary focus as I am now in the process of writing a book with the working title of "Choosing a Real Estate CRM".

That said, when Ed Neiman contacted me to help him choose a CRM, he also approached me about RealAgile. When he explained what they were offering, I immediately became very interested. This is the first product I've seen in years that is truly a significantly unique giant step in the evolution of Real Estate prospecting, and I decided I wanted to be a part of it.

They use a mathematical algorithm and predictive analytics to accuratley predict which households are most likely to move in the next six months. If you like, they also provide post cards with a unique  access code which drives them to a page which creates a back end for you to see who is visiting and how interested they are.

If you are currently mailing, calling, or door knocking in a geographic farm of 2,000 households or more, and/or if you want to dominate such a market with exclusivity, this is as much of a no-brainer as any I have ever seen. Visit my page about it, pique your interest, and then contact me so I can help you on your way to saving a tremendous amount of your time and money in your prospecting efforts, while simultaneously increasing your listing inventory dramatically.

Over the last 3 years I have focused exclusively on CRM solutions. Prior to that I created http://RealEstate-AgentTools.com, which among other things contains over 50 Real Estate related software solutions. Many companies have approached me over the past few years to promote their products, but I always thanked them and explained that I am not taking on any new non-CRM affiliates. Recently that changed for 2 products I simply could not turn down. The first was when Michael Fuller approached me to market this product for him, I could not say no.

To date, I had not seen an easy to use, inexpensive Front Desk and Back Office solution that small and medium size offices could use. I've seen all the big ones like LoneWolf and Lucero, but didn't want to get involved as they are too complex. They are much more powerful and complicated than many offices need or want. Not so with this gem. Incredibly easy to use Property Listings, Making Appointments, Individual Agent access, Recording Transactions, Agent billing, Management Reports, Commission Tracking, and Monthly Statistical Reports. The heavier financial aspects are carried by interfacing with QuickBooks. And the beauty of it is that the bulk of the input is done by the agents - enthusiastically!

Michael, a RE/MAX® broker, designed this and had it built for him starting in 1990 as a DOS program. In 2003 he had it built for the Web. The rest as they say - is history! He has been using and improving it for 19 years, and other brokers see it, and want it. Michael approached me to start marketing it in earnest and I happily agreed!

An added bonus for RE/MAX® brokers. It's completely set up for you to do automatically do ALL the reporting RE/MAX® International requires from you each month in a matter of minutes!

FREE FOR THE FIRST 90 DAYS AFTER SETUP FEE WHEN YOU ORDER HERE! For more information - go to http://garydavidhall.com/FrontDeskHQ.htm

I have now received a SOAR MLS manual copyright 1994-1998. I now need, in addition to below, a SOAR eMLS manual dated 2001 or prior. Note the "e". It is ther later version that includes the ability to e-mail the listings.  

I still need old manuals for Fusion MLS, Web MLS, Net MLS, or Tempo, dated 2001 or prior ONLY.

To help compensate you for the time you take looking for and delivering it, I will be happy to pay $100 to the first person to provide any of them. 

If you have one and want to send it to me, please contact me first so I can provide delivery information.

Thanks!

If you don't know what a Customer Relationship Manager does, how can you know if you need one?

Do you run your business like a business? You're probably tired of hearing that old question, but it's one of the many things a CRM helps you do better. So what doe s a CRM do? If you want to do the following things, or do them better or faster, then you should be looking at CRM solutions.

• Prospecting - get suspects, turn them into prospects, and turn them into sales, by knowing who they are, what they want, and when they want it, all in significant detail, and being reminded to capitalize on that information automatically
• Lead source tracking - knowing where your business is coming from and spending your marketing time and money accordingly/wisely
• Referral tracking - knowing who is referring you the most business, so you know who to do more for in return
• Contact management - That means everyone! Suspects; prospects; clients; vendors; friends; relatives; neighbors. Knowing how to find any information on anyone, even from many years ago, with a few clicks virtually instantly
• Time management - having automated to-do lists, and organized methods of consistent follow-up. Decide what you want to do, once, and automatically follow up that way every time from then on
• E-mail management - how many e-mails are in your inbox? They should be with your contacts, or with the property, where you can find them, quickly, not in your inbox or in a folder somewhere
• Listing coordination - the biggest complaint lodged against Real Estate agents is poor communication. A comprehensive, automatically executed listing plan enables you to turn those complaints into praise effortlessly, automatically
• Closing coordination - too many details can fall through the cracks. The busier you get, the more details you have swimming around in your head. And each day you have to make many decisions regarding what actions you need to take for which transactions. Even the best paper list and file methods are rife with bottlenecks and inconsistencies. Having all the information you need in one place and an automated to-do list posted on your calendar makes your job far easier and more stress free.
• Document management - store all the documents relevant to a transaction right with the record of that transaction and/or with the client
• Word processing and desktop publishing- enjoy being able to easily do any kind of mailing you want to, right from the database itself rather than farming it out to third party if that is your preference. OR maintain your mailing list and easily send it out to third parties with a few clicks when needed.
• Post closing follow-up/client retention - not staying in touch with past clients is one of the single biggest causes of loss of income in the Real Estate sales industry. Never lose another referral due to your failure to stay in touch.
• Risk reduction - knowledge is power. Having an automatically generated centralized easy to reference complete record of phone calls, letters, e-mails, appointments, etc., insures that you will enjoy a much better position from which to defend yourself if need be.
• Staff training and accountability - personnel retention is a problem that never goes away. Having a system in place with notes built into the CRM task lists significantly diminishes the impact of a lost staff person. It enables you to have the new person step right into a tried and true system, and none of the details are lost in the transition. Additionally, it provides a clear picture of exactly who is doing what each day in the daily tasks.

CRM is the software you need to do these things for you. Therefore, if you need to do these things, you need a CRM solution.

You cannot really grasp how much it will help you.

Occasionally when you are working with a buyer or a seller, do you find yourself thinking, "They have absolutely no clue how incredibly complex this whole transaction is from start to finish. They can read all they want about it, feel they have become quite expert on the subject, and still have no real appreciation for it all."

Until you use a CRM to the point where you can no longer see yourself getting along without it - you too, cannot appreciate how much of an impact it will have on your business, and even on your life.

If you invest the necessary time to truly use and develop a good CRM as more than just a glorified Rolodex, it is an absolute fact that you will look back some day and wonder how you ever grew your business, stayed in business, and kept your sanity without it. It will be the single most all-pervasive choice you will make in your entire Real Estate career concerning the day-to-day administration of your business. It will become a growing thing and believe it or not, you will actually come to like it a great deal.

DO NOT BUY A CRM...

...unless you are committed to:

• making the time to learn it - note the use of the word making as opposed to gettingthe time. It's so very important to understand that this one point makes all the difference in the world between someone who implements the CRM and reaps the benefits, and someone who eventually simply regrets spending the money, and blames it on the CRM. Maybe you have heard the time management axiom that a project or meeting takes as long as the time you allot to it. The same goes for your Real Estate day. You cannot keep putting off learning your CRM until the time that you need to spend with it presents itself. For many of us, that time just does not come. When you put one hour into learning your new CRM first thing in the morning, before you answer any calls or e-mails, you get it done, and then you somehow miraculously manage to get everything else you need to get done that day, done!
• learning to use it as more than just a glorified Rolodex. If that is all you are going to use it for, stick with Outlook or something like that.

As a Real Estate licensee, we wear many hats. No one likes all of them. There are those who will tell you that the reason most agents do not use a CRM is because they are too complex, and they need to be easier. Maybe they do, but selling Real Estate needs to be easier too, but it is what it is. You learned how to use Outlook, MS Word, and maybe MS Publisher too. You spent hour after hour playing with them until you got a handle on them and never complained because you had no choice. What is so different about learning a CRM? 

You do not have to like the time you invest into becoming proficient with a good CRM. But if you want to grow your business, while having more of a life, with less stress, with less mistakes, with better service, with less staff, with more compliments, with more referrals - then you need it.

Make that determination right here and now. In order to accomplish the above, you must make a commitment to investing the time to learn how to use a CRM. You then must either create, or purchase and tweak, pre-written e-mails and letters; fliers; post cards; prospect follow-up campaigns, etc. This does not have to be done all at once! It's an elephant. Eat it one bite at a time! If you are not yet an organized professional business person in Real Estate sales, and want to become one, what are you waiting for?

My timing in my career in Real Estate sales was impeccable - not!

I started in 1987, when the market was starting its decline, and I got out in 1994 when the market was turning to the good once again. In my first year, I sat new construction for my broker, and that community's sales were virtually nil for everyone sitting them. When I wasn't sitting the samples, I was sitting "on floor/opportunity time" for that same broker. Well no one was getting many opportunities in that market either. I was doing BAD!

Finally after the better part of a year, I stopped doing both, and started doing my own prospecting. Once someone's name got into my database (I used one called Real Estate Specialist in those days - a DOS program) they got followed up with until they would either, as Steve Stewart would say, "Buy or Die"!

So over the next 5 years, with no pre-existing sphere of influence to speak of, I went from 0 sides in 1988, to 43 sides in 1993, in a very slow, buyers market. How? By mailing or calling everyone who had the misfortune, I mean good fortune, of finding themselves in my database.

I ended up going from a non-producer in a mom and pop shop to the number two agent in transactions in a 100% RE/MAX office simply because I followed up consistently. The other agents in the office called me the ‘King of follow-up' because they knew I consistently did business with people months and years after I first met/spoke with them at an open house, ad call, sign call, door knocking, local pub, golfing, or whatever. I never let them forget me. And I was able to do that easily and efficiently by using my CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software.

So are you, you know, using yours?

If you own a CRM, and you ever have that phone conversation that contains the words - "Oh thanks for calling, but we already bought a house", then you are not using follow-up plans with your prospects!

Any time you speak with someone, and they said something like "Oh we're not doing anything until Bobby graduates in June, always made sure you get something personal out of them like that he liked to golf, or that Bobby was going to major in photography. That goes into that prospect's notes. You then continue to mail/e-mail them - consistently - until it gets closer, and then you call.

You have a pre-arranged follow-up "Plan or Campaign". As soon as you get that lead, you click a couple buttons, and select the plan you have specifically created for that kind of lead. It would be a Hot, Medium, or Cold plan, and when the plan called for that phone call somewhere down the road, it will come up on your to-do list.

When I called him back many months and sometimes years later and asked if Bobby was still interested in photography, you could hear a pin drop on the other end of the phone. There was always one of two reactions. He either marveled at my memory, or he said something like, "You use follow-up software don't you?" Either way I had them, especially if he said the latter, because he knew I was organized. Buyers and sellers like organized!

Now, I teach people to track those things in the right manner. So let's say you find out about a special golf outing in your market area. You can do a quick search, find the golfers, and shoot an e-mail out to them to let them know.

Or maybe Doylestown Borough just announced a tax break in the local paper. How many people read the paper any more? Before they find out by word of mouth, you can do a quick search on your past buyers who bought in Doylestown Borough, and let them know about it. Are you not just the best darn Real Estate person they have ever known!

And what are you doing each time you send out these notes? You're staying "top of mind" with them, and of course, you are asking for referrals.

DO NOT neglect your past clients with regards to follow-up. Are you proud of the job you did for them? Did they like the job you did for them? Then capitalize on it! Make absolutely sure you ‘touch' them at least once each month by mail or e-mail, and annually or semi-annually by phone. And again, always ask for a referral.

If you are not consistently in your past client's face, guess who will be? Right! The neighbor or the brother-in-law who just got in the business. They are hungry and prospecting. If you are not top-of-mind with your past clients, you will lose money.

If your CRM does not have its own "Content", that is, pre-written e-mails/letters, then write your own. Just make sure to use spell check, and have someone else critique and edit them.

If the thought of writing scares the Dickens out of you, buy some like "Dave Beson's LetterWriter". And remember what I said in a prior post about pre-written content., the value is in the concepts, not the wording. Or do a search on "Real Estate Prospecting Letters". Be careful though. Some of them are really dated.

A contact manager is a glorified Rolodex^TM. Outlook is a good example of a contact manager. What you have, or should have, is a CRM, which stands for Customer Relationship Manager. Operative word being Relationship. Its job is to help you maintain a relationship with your suspects, prospects, and clients, by targeting specific groups of people, with customized plans for follow-up. 

You customize by categorizing them, such as hot buyer, past seller, etc., or by keeping certain information on them such as that they like golf, or are a graduate of Penn State, or that they like wine, etc. All of this information enables you to target market to them, as opposed to doing what all the other agents who do not know them do, which is generalized non-targeted marketing. Which do you think works better?

The point is, you have a tool to make you more money already. Start using it! Do not let your CRM solution suffer the same fate as that poor Nordic Track^® you have, sitting in the corner being used as a lingerie rack!

Based on many conversations I continue to have where certain issues keep coming up, I think it is time to re-visit a few points about trying to find, and learning how to use, Contact Management and CRM Solutions.

1) Do not judge a CRM by its graphics alone. There are several products available that may not appeal to the eye aesthetically, but if you look past the graphical appearance, you might be surprised. There is one product I have in mind in particular that definitely looks dated, but in actuality it has been improved more frequently based on user suggestions, and for a longer time, than any other product of which I am aware. They have a Catch 22 going on. This particular product puts user suggestions higher in priority than the appearance of the product, and they end up with people passing their product by based only on its dated look. I keep encouraging them to put a higher priority on giving it an updated look, but it is still on the list. Be aware of the 'Shallow Hal' tendency in yourself with CRM's if you have it.

2) Do not spend too little time evaluating a product. Do not rush through 10 of them. You need to narrow it down to 2 or 3, and then spend the time necessary to evaluate them well. On a regular basis I see people discount a product because they think it does not do what they want. That is because they have not taken enough time to properly evaluate it. The interesting thing is that even after I point out that it does do that function; ofttimes they have already talked themselves out of the product due to those falsely inferred negative feelings! So do not let yourself count out a product for lack of doing something you want it to, until you confirm with the company or myself, that it does not do it.

3) Stay with a technical problem until it is solved, rather than a few minutes here and there when it is convenient, frustrating yourself and the support people. Sometimes support is bad and non-responsive, but other times it is the user's fault for only being available during a small window of time once every few days. Recognize if you are the cause of the problem, because blaming the vendor may make you feel absolved, but it does not get the problem solved. Sometimes you may have to wait for hours or even until the next day for a response from a support person. What I see very often is that someone will have a problem but not make the time to deal with it. Rather they will wait until they get the time to deal with it. They then make a call or submit a support ticket, and then wait for a response. If the response does not come in fifteen minutes or an hour, and they have moved onto something else, they then miss the phone call, or do not answer support's e-mail for days. They then get time to deal with it again, respond to the call or the ticket, move on to something else, and get back into the same vicious cycle. That happens 3 or 4 times, and then they say "I've had this problem for 8 days and it's unresolved! The reality of it is that they've only actually been working on it for a matter of minutes! Their next step is to berate the support team and flee that product, blaming the support. Now you are into the cost of a new product, and worse, a whole new learning curve. Talk to me before you throw the baby out with the bathwater. I will be honest and tell you whether or not you should try to stick it out with your current product, or move on to another. It depends upon many factors. What is best in the long run; a product that does most everything you want, but can sometimes be tough to get support from; or a product that does less of what you want, but has great support? The obvious answer is - I want both! Well again - your needs determine if you can have both.

4) Do not let the normal initial frustration of getting your old database into your new database, and getting used to the software, get you to the point of dumping it for something else, assuming the next product will not have the same issues. Starting something new, or changing to something new, is very likely to be painful for any number of reasons. Deal with it. Certain things are going to require your time no matter which one you choose. Then again, maybe this product that you chose is having problems it should not have right up front. Does that mean you have made the wrong choice? Not necessarily. None of these products is perfect. Maybe this particular product's imperfections are right up front. After that maybe it will be great most of the time. All these factors are just that. They are factors. Each product has a very long list of pros and cons. The one with the most pros, and the least cons, for your needs, is the one for you.

All in all - if you spent a fair amount of time determining that this one does more of what you want it to do than all the others you looked at, give it time. Give it a chance. Do not be so quick to jump the gun. You may be glad you did.

It is hard to know when you are right to be upset with a product/company, if you have little or no experience with which to form a perspective, compared to similar products. What is normal? What is fair to expect? Are you even interpreting the problem correctly? Again - call me, and I'll tell you what I think.

Recently I received an order for an Agent Office upgrade, which in and of itself is nothing unusual. But this order was different. One detail one must provide when ordering the upgrade is the serial number of the software. Well I looked at this order and saw that the serial number was A000001 ! The very first one! The man's name is Bruce Hackel, and he has been using Agent Office since the very beginning! I spoke with him a little, and he first got it in 1992, and has been a happy camper for over 17 years. I'm not saying this to tell you it's the very best solution out there for everyone. Different solutions are better for different agents. I just thought it was noteworthy.

When I placed the order for him I suggested to them (Emphasys Software) that we should do something special for him. Emphasys took me up on it, and we are celebrating his number one status by giving him free support for a year which normally costs $295. Mind you it's not a new Ferrari, but hats off to Emphasys Software for a token of appreciation for so many years of loyalty, despite the fact that they only just recently acquired Agent Office.

I would also like to thank you Bruce for choosing me to make the purchase of the upgrade through. It is kind of an honor! Hope you have many more years of productive use of Agent Office! It will be exciting to see where Emphasys Software takes the product. My conversations with them have me optimistic, anticipating good things in the future.

Hello all. Just wanted to get the following information out there. I just received it from Emphasys Software.

"We just ran several scenarios on installing AgentOffice v10.0 on to a 64bit version of Windows Vista and determined that AgentOffice is compatible with Windows 64 bit Vista...The customer needs to make sure that they have installed both the latest updates for Windows x64 SP1 AND .Net Framework 3.5 SP1. Below are the 2 links that will provide the updates needed to be installed, prior to installing AgentOffice v10.0.

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1
http://tinyurl.com/W35SP1

Update for Windows Vista for x64-based Systems
http://tinyurl.com/WV64Blink

When installing AgentOffice v10.0, it will be sufficient to "Save" the download onto the user's Desktop and run it from Desktop after download is complete.

Hope this clears any concerns regarding AgentOffice's compatibility with Windows Vista x64."

Gary David Hall
http://TheRealEstateCRMBroker.com

After almost six months of research, interviews and design, the Matrix is ready! It started as a way for me to be able to answer all of your questions when you called to ask about the various features of each. After mentioning it to some people and hearing the interest it generated, I decided to make it available to the public, along with some of what I know on the subject, in the form of a glossary

The Matrix allows you to compare any of currently 29 products side-by-side, across 350 features/topics/categories. Equally as important as being able to compare the product features, there is a 15,000+ word glossary to which they link, which will teach you every capability in virtually all of the products available on the market today.

There were/are 40 Real Estate specific Contact Manager and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solutions in all. Currently there are 29 products in the Matrix. I am affiliated with 22 of them as a reseller, and will soon be affiliated with the other seven as well. There are five more which have recently come onto the market which I am in the process of adding to the Matrix with which I am discussing affiliation. There are three in product development which will eventually be added. There are three that have gone out of business since I started. One of the 40 has opted not to participate in the Matrix, or to affiliate.

Gathering the data on each product started with a three to five hour GoToMeeting interview between myself and, in all but three cases, the CEO of the companies, to complete the initial raw Matrix. All the vendors now have 24/7 password protected access to the data in their product in order to edit it and keep it up to date. There is a field which contains the last date they revised the data.

Most products are targeted at North American residential resale agents. Some combine that with BPO's; REO's; Long Term Rentals; Short Term Rentals; International Sales; or Commercial Real Estate. Some are focused on marketing materials and light on CRM. Some are relatively simple, while some are seriously powerful. None of them are perfect, and none of them have it all, but some come pretty close, depending upon your needs.

The cost to do the comparisons and learn about what capabilities exist is $9.95 for access to all of it for one month.http://realestatecrmmatrix.garydavidhall.com/

This exercise has been an invaluable ongoing education, and is giving me a tremendous insight into the entire RE CRM industry. It is a pleasure getting to know the people behind the CRM's. Each and every CRM comes to the market with a different perspective about what is most important.

Other tools useful in helping with your search:

A History of Contact Management in Real Estate - Article

"...comprehensive, unbiased,........aspects of making a decision on CRM I never even thought of.........far and away the best article of it's kind I've ever seen on the Internet..."

OR

Considerations when choosing a Real Estate Contact Manager or CRM

A 60 minute Power Point Presentation by Gary David Hall

Prepared for the Real Estate Cyberspace Society's 2009 Cyber Convention

OR

Interview by The Lead Booster Club CEO Kathy Goughenour

Kathy interviews Gary for her membership for an hour, with a wide range of questions about

Real Estate Contact Management & CRM Productivity Software

When you're in the market - I am "The Real Estate CRM Broker! "