Virtual Assistant Forums | Work from Home

vosolutions · #1 (**permalink**) 03-01-2011

I have a prospective commercial real estate client who is looking for a customer relationship management program for commercial real estate and has asked my opinion.

I am not a Real Estate VA, so I am not up to date on this software although I have used a variety of similar programs in other specialties. However, this is a very preliminary conversation with this prospect and I would like to offer her information based on others experiences. Can anyone make a recommendation based on their experience with them?

VAkim · #2 (**permalink**) 03-01-2011

Customer Relationship Management program just needs to collect contact info, assign an automated email campaign, and manage sales/closing correspondence. That's the basics. I used to use Top Producer 8i online and LOVED it. Not an easy learning curve though. There is moresolds.com but I'm not familiar with it however it will do the job. For commercial you can also get away with Outlook and a real estate plug in. Or going with a strong CRM like Sales Force. Zoho.com has a CRM which also has a Google API. I use Zoho but would recommend Top Producer over Zoho.
There are alot to choose from but the key is how tech savvy are the agents to use whatever CRM they choose. Any CRM will work as long as it's USED!
What I would definitely want is attaching emails to contact records. As long as the CRM you choose does this, it'll work.

#3 (**permalink**) 03-05-2011

You can always outsource your services to other VAs who have the ability and have been handling such work.

You can also negotiate a base rate for regular work.

VA Simple Services · #4 (**permalink**) 03-05-2011

I like IXact Contact for my Real Estate clients. I'm not really certain how a commercial real estate agent would use it any differently than a residential agent. What I would do is ask him/her what requirements and features he/she needs. It will make it easier to find a good system.

iRealEstateVA · #5 (**permalink**) 04-02-2011

I too suggest Top Producer.
I have clients that use Moresolds because it is free, and as a virtual assistant, it's not ideal at the free level. When you do the mass email function it loads to your outlook account, instead of appearing to come directly from the agent.
Ixact is good as well, the one thing I don't like about that database is that they won't let you import anything yourself, you have to ask their support and that can be annoying.