Last week, I attended the REALTOR® Rally and Real Estate WordCamp. My presentation topics were all about equipping today’s real estate agent with the tools to market themselves and their listings better on the web. I believe that the foundation of a good web presence includes:

• WordPress as a full-featured CMS,
• IDX Search for consumers to search the MLS,
• Contact Manager (whether it’s ACT, Top Producer, Sales Force, etc.)

When I ask folks what they’re using to manage their database the most common responses I hear are:

Gmail…

I just use my Outlook Account…

I have a mac, so I use whatever program comes with it…

Personally, I think this is a mistake and it’s practicing bad habits. Think about it. If you’re in real estate (you work on commission), you basically wake up every morning unemployed until you get a deal into escrow and it closes. Right? So the challenge for you is to consistently and actively prospect for new business. That’s a little bit difficult to execute if you’re not organized (managing daily contacts, tasks, etc.). As a lender many, many years ago, our goal was to add 5 new contacts daily to our database. Your number might be higher, it might be lower. Either way, we were growing and managing a database and we were organized.

How do you do it on a budget?

Highrise CRM (from 37Signals):

I’m biased towards this service because 37Signals is what we use to manage our client design projects and Highrise is our contact manager. I love them for their effectiveness and their simplicity. You can track people (tag them into different groupings), phone calls, emails, notes, follow-ups and tasks all from a simple location. Where did you meet? What did you talk about? When did you last connect with this person? Basically, it’s a way for your to organize your customer relationships from pre-sale, to client acquisition, to post-client acquisition (for referrals, etc.). It’s a way for you to effectively manage your client relationships.

Video Tour:

If you peak through their pricing plans, you’ll find a free version just below their basic plan.

So, what are you using to actively manage your contacts (your database)? Do you have a daily system in place or do you just go with the flow?