As a real estate investor, staying ahead of the game is essential. You need to be aware of market changes, new technologies, and more. That’s why we’ve put together this list of the 6 best tools for Real Estate Investors so you can reach out to sellers or buyers, streamline your process, enhance your marketing efforts, get lots of relevant data, and scale your business. Whether you’re just starting, or you’re a seasoned pro, these tools will help you make the most out of your investment opportunities and make smarter decisions. So what are you waiting for?
Propstream
Every successful real estate investor needs data. If you’ve never heard of Propstream before, now’s the time to learn about it since this online software is a great provider of real estate data across the United States. The user-friendly interface makes it easy to find the data you need without having to search through piles of information. You can use Propstream to research individual properties, but also whole neighborhoods, find comps, and even estimate property values and rental property prices. But it doesn’t end here, it has so many features that this whole post could have been dedicated to Propstream alone. Without going overboard, we’ll mention some of its highlights: instant comparables, targeted marketing, automated list marketing, lead generation, rehab estimator, skip tracing, tiered Integrated postcard mailing, and so much more. You can also receive analytics, statistics, and trends on property details, foreclosure details, tax and mortgage info, transaction history, owner details, and premium reports for small additional costs.
It’s pretty amazing to realize that a single user account can be under $100 a month, given all of this value.
Check out a free 7-day trial here.
Salesforce
Now, this one is not only for real estate investors but for anybody who wants to take their business to new heights. Salesforce is a world-class CRM software that helps you manage your customers, sales, and marketing efforts in one place.
A Salesforce build is generally not for the startups out there. It can be costly to onboard with Salesforce, and difficult to transition to using the features entirely.
Having said that, Salesforce is the industry leader for a reason, their world-class integrations, and platform abilities can accomplish almost anything that can be considered.
The Buildout that we use internally is the Left Main REI Salesforce buildout. This platform gives us visibility into the lead-to-contract process and the contract-to-close process, in a way that few other platforms can provide. The dashboards and analytics make summarizing the business much more effective than most other tools in the market.
Smarter Contact for SMS marketing
SMS marketing? You heard that right. Since people spend a significantly larger chunk of time on their phones, it is more likely that when they receive a message they are opening it right away. Thus, the open rate for an SMS is much higher compared to emails and other cold marketing techniques. An effective SMS can also include a call-to-action which drives conversions. Smarter Contact also has a skip tracing feature, which allows us to identify potential contact information (we will discuss skip tracing in detail below)
But what does this have to do with real estate? Well, as an investor you are almost always in need of new clients and deals, so what better way to reach out to them than by using their own phone? And that’s where Smarter Contact comes in to give you a hand. It is an SMS marketing tool that allows you to send automated texts and track their performance. You can use it for a variety of purposes such as follow-ups, appointment reminders, sending links to listings, etc. The best part? It integrates with most of the CRMs out there, so you can automate your marketing efforts and save a lot of time.
SkipForce
Skip Force takes skip tracing to the next level through their proprietary datasets. The end result is a list of reliable phone numbers, the time when those individuals are the most active on their devices, close relative names, email appends, property addresses, and distressed tags, such as information about bankruptcy, liens, and deceased. With regards to leads, you can download thousands of them from private lender leads to cash buyer ones as well. So, for real estate investors, Skip Force is a must-have as it gives you the ability to quickly find information about potential leads. With this digital tool, you’ll have more accurate leads and level up your marketing game.
An additional step is what is called Skip stacking which is merging different databases together to give you more accurate results and is sourced from credit data, carrier data, and communication data. This allows for more consistent and consolidated data sources.
REISift
Those who will win in real estate over the long term, are those who can understand and leverage data effectively. One way to do this effectively is to use a database warehouse, which is a platform that allows for data to be aggregated and updated over time. This can allow for updates to information as marketing platforms evolve and campaigns progress. Using a tool like REISift means that the user will actually retain ownership of all of the data they are purchasing.
REISIFT specifically allows you to update and maintain homeowner information, such as correct/incorrect contact info, list stacking based on motivation level, up-to-date vacancy data, and so much more.
REISift gives you an overview of your business by tracking your sales pipeline and providing you with insightful data and analytics. In addition, REISift integrates with a variety of third-party software and applications such as Google Calendar, Mailchimp, and Zillow. One of REISift’s most streamlined features is the automatic cross-references of property records against the USPS database, thus, you’ll know whenever properties are vacant and/or mail might be undeliverable.
REISift offers a free trial so you can try out the software before committing to a paid subscription. Prices start at $49 per month for the basic plan and go up to $299 per month for the business plan, but it has a free trial as well, so you can test it out for yourself.
Beast Mode CRM by REI Automation Squad
A CRM worth mentioning is Beast Mode CRM, which was actually created by real estate investors. This Podio-based CRM offers a variety of features such as contact management, KPI tracking, automation, task management, deal analyzer, client follow-up drip campaigns, and much more; the list is long. Since it was made by real estate investors for real estate investors, Beast Mode CRM offers training portals, weekly live Q&As, live chat support, video tutorials, access to a private Facebook group, and support ticket systems.
Final thoughts
The underlying power of the listed tools for real estate investors is to save time and money. Although some of these tools will cost more than a simple pad of paper and a free google search, some of the leverage on your time and effort can easily be worth the increased cost.
This is something to keep in mind before jumping into the world of CRMs, real estate data providers, and skip tracers: these digital tools won’t make much of a difference unless you are already consistent with follow-up, answering your phone, and marketing. If that’s you, this software will definitely amplify what you are already doing and enhance your results. Have any more tools to add to the list? Join our Thursday Office Hours Group to share them with us.