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RealFuture CRM vs. Top Producer

During August, September and then October our real estate revenues went into the toilet. Because of the credit crunch and the fact that consumers just quit buying revenues went down and our cash reserves dropped significantly. As a result we were forced to make some decisions which we had put off for a while. Many of them were cost cutting in nature but some of it was just refining the model.

Our first major expense we cut back on was Top Producer. This has been a hard one to replace, however we have around 50+ agents currently working in the different markets that we compete and as a company we were paying for all the Top Producer accounts. With Assistant Accounts our monthly expenses were about $1400/month which is not insignificant.

Looking at the CRM Landscape there was not a lot of solutions that made sense to move to. We had evaluate most of the Real Estate specific CRMs and most of them were priced similar to Top Producer. We were hoping there was something in the Open Source community and that was lacking as well. The closest I could find was ZohoCRM.com which provided a three person workgroup CRM platform however it lacked the ability to do drip campaigns, or if it did it was too crytic to figure out how to do them.

In July I made a run to Inman Connect in San Francisco and saw a product RealFuture CRM. On the surface it looked like what we needed. It provided a contact manager for all of our agents and with some upgrades we could push and track leads sent to agents from the company level.

However the biggest plus was that the platform for the basic accounts is "Free".

Now there are limitations to the platform however for the agent just getting started or even an agent with a modest database (of less then 500 people) the platform doesn't cost a dime and it provides most of the functionality of Top Producer on an individual agent level, the most important to us at this point was the ability for agents to put their clients into drip campaigns for longer term follow-up.

So far RealFutureCRM has been a good choice. Their tech support seems very responsive when there have been issues and it even interfaces with our GMail Platform inside of Google Apps.

All the Best,

Glenn Sanford
--
Founder / CEO
BuyerTours Realty LLC & Working The Magic LLC
Direct: 360-220-1470

Visit our Phoenix Real Estate website. Also check out our Real Estate SEO blog.

Posted by Glenn Sanford on 12/28/2008 06:14 PM

Comments (17)

CRM - Database Tools in the Technology and Tools Channel

top producer, realfuture crm, crm

Post is included in group: Top Producer 7i & 8i Users

17 Comments on RealFuture CRM vs. Top Producer

DEC

Glenn, I too use RealFuture CRM. Can't beat free! Basic, like you said, but I have other programs that I use for anything else I need. Good lord you were paying a LOT of money. Glad you found this and it works for you!

Thank you for the heads up. I am looking for a new system and have not been able to find anything that is functional and cost effective. Some are too simple and others are too complicated.

Thanks for the post. We are in our 30 day trial with top pro. Not sure if we are going to keep it.

You have to make hard choices in this market.

Elizabeth: Top Producer wasn't a bit deal prior to August but when revenues fell behind of expenses significantly it was time to make the move.

Jean: Definitely take a look at RealFutureCRM. My personal opinion is that for the features and the price (even when one upgrades) its probably the most cost effective CRM platforms available for real estate.

David: Do check out RealFutureCRM during the 30 day trial. Even if you go with TP you'll be able to contrast the different functionality.

Russ: Nothing wrong with making tough choices. This economy is making us lean and mean... So that is a good thing.

DEC

Glenn,

Thanks for the info, I use Top Producer 8i and have not been happy since the upgrade from 7i. Do you know if you can import your contact information from Top Producer? That sure would save some time. - Judy

Judy,

Yes you can. You'll need to do an export from TP and then an Import into RealFuture. I haven't done it myself however many of our agents have and for the most part it went pretty smooth.

All the Best,

Glenn

DEC

I too am getting close to canceling top producer. I will check out realfuture. Thanks for the information.

JAN

Thanks Glenn, I to am sick of TP 8i. Too much money, too many options I don't ever use. 7i was so much better and quicker. TP has become too complicated. Just signed up for the free version to check it out. Thanks again!!

MAR

Anybody try Salesforce.com? I will certainly try the site you recommended.

MAR

Check out Cumulus, it's a Salesforce.com based Real Estate CRM.

APR

Please allow me to introduce you to Real Estate Success Tracker - aka REST.

Of course, if we can help in any way, we'd love to.

Matthew Hardy

CEO/President

Real Estate Success Tools

480-626-4461

mhardy@realestatesuccesstools.com

www.realestatesuccesstools.com

MAY

We have a product that's $99/year that pretty much matches the features of RealFuture CRM's Team product, which is $299/year.

We do a lot of importing of contacts for our clients (its a service we offer for free), and I have to tell you that we don't see too many agents with less than 500 contacts in their database, which is the limitation on the free version of RealFuture.

Scott Schmitz

RealOrganized, Inc

RealtyJuggler Real Estate Software

JUL

I'm definitely going to check into this product! Thanks for the information

JUL

Another one you may want to check out is HeapCRM I've been playing with it a bit today and from what I have been able to see it really has all the features that I'm looking for in a CRM though it isn't real estate specific. At $9 for the first user and $5 for each additional user it is definitely less expensive then most all other SaaS platforms.

SEP

You should also check out EasyBroker. We offer an affordable alternative to Top Producer that is very easy to use. You can use EasyBroker to manage your leads, properties and website. We have free version for up to 20 properties and paid versions start from $49 with everything including your website with hosting.

Feel free to contact me if you have questions or would like me to give you a personal demo.

Eric Northam
(443) 270-2253
EasyBroker - Your real estate business made easy.
http://www.easybroker.com/
http://twitter.com/EasyBroker

OCT

I put together this list of real estate software tools with pricing and a few reviews which you might find useful. I note all the tools which provide CRM features. Please let me know if I missed any good products.

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