Juggling resident requests, maintenance schedules and lease renewals can make a property manager's day feel like a circus act. But what if you had a trusty assistant to help keep everything organized and running smoothly? That's where a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system comes in.
A CRM is like a central nervous system for your property management operation. It helps you track leads, manage resident communications, streamline maintenance requests and even automate routine tasks. With the right CRM in place, you can free up valuable time, improve resident satisfaction and ultimately boost your bottom line.
In this article, we'll dive into the world of property management CRMs. We'll explore the top six options on the market today and show you why monday.com's CRM stands out from the crowd.
What is a CRM for property management?
Property management CRM software isn't just about sending emails faster; it's about transforming how you interact with everyone involved in your communities. Imagine effortlessly tracking every interaction with a prospective renter, from their initial inquiry to signing the lease.
Picture maintenance requests getting routed to the right team instantly, with residents getting automated updates on progress.
Think about vendors receiving timely notifications for property access, eliminating frustrating phone tag.
A CRM puts all these capabilities and more at your fingertips, freeing you to focus on building relationships and ensuring your properties thrive.
Key features to look for in a CRM for property management
Property managers must often keep track of dozens—or hundreds—of prospects and residents. Manually managing all these relationships is inefficient at best. At worst, it can become a costly disaster. After all, interactions with prospects and residents matter—a lot. In the National Multifamily Housing Council and Grace Hill Renter Preferences Survey, 97% of residents said customer service and staff interactions influenced their leasing decisions.
In a competitive rental market, you can’t afford to miss prospect and resident communications or maintenance requests. A CRM can help you stay organized and provide exceptional service during every interaction. Consider looking for a CRM with these helpful features.
Lead management
Whether your prospects find you on property listings, from referrals or via social media, a CRM can help you manage your relationships with them. Look for a tool that stores and organizes prospect data, automates personalized emails and text messages and reminds you to follow up with prospects after tours. Ideally, it should allow you to segment prospects into different groups. That way, you can prioritize contact with prospects who are ready to rent to help minimize vacancies and maximize occupancy rates.
Communication management
Look for a CRM that compiles contact details, customer preferences, website visits, emails, phone calls, live chats, social media interactions and more to give you a comprehensive view of the people you interact with.
Document storage
Forget navigating multiple systems to keep track of lease agreements, maintenance records and personal information. A property management CRM should organize and store these documents in one place. That way, you’ll have critical documents at your fingertips when you need them, saving you time and reducing errors.
Task automation
Buried in daily to-dos? A CRM can streamline your work by automating frequent communications like lease renewal reminders and rent collection notifications. It can also automatically schedule inspections, compliance checks, and move-in/move-out procedures. Plus, some CRMs feature advanced automation features, allowing you to automatically send follow-ups after tours or assign maintenance tasks when service requests are completed. Automating recurring tasks will free you to focus on high-priority tasks—like urgent resident requests—while ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.
Integration capabilities
Look for a tool that works with other property management technologies, such as smart home, accounting and tour booking systems. You won’t need to switch between platforms, saving you time and potentially reducing errors.
Marketing automations
Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to engage prospects and maintain resident relationships. Look for a CRM with marketing automation features that allow you to personalize and schedule emails, newsletters, follow-up messages, promotional offers, reminders and social media posts. These automations save time and improve outreach.
Reporting and analytics
CRM software with reporting and analytics tools can help you understand property performance and make better decisions. Consider a system that provides reports on renter demographics, occupancy rates, financial performance, maintenance costs and more. Ideally, it should feature a user-friendly dashboard with charts, graphs and other visualizations so you can track KPIs, analyze data, and optimize your strategies.
The 6 best CRMs for property management
Don't let CRM selection become a headache. We've done the legwork for you, narrowing down the field to six top contenders—a mix of specialized property management CRMs and adaptable general platforms.
1. monday CRM
This customizable cloud-based CRM serves businesses across many industries, including property management. While it’s a general CRM, it features a tailored property management template that can help you screen applicants, manage leases and handle maintenance requests. With both flexibility and property management-specific features, it’s a good pick for property managers overseeing diverse portfolios. You can use it to manage leads, communications and documents, and it can automate tasks and provide real-time data reports. It supports more than 50 integrations.
Pros
It features a specialized template for property management.
It’s highly customizable and easy to use.
You can manage unlimited contacts and boards.
It integrates with property-management-specific tools to make centralization easier.
Cons
Some of the most helpful features, including email marketing tools and AI email generation, are only available on more expensive plans.
Setting up customizations and automations can take time.
It may require integrations with other property management tools for full functionality.
Pricing
The Basic plan starts at $15 per seat monthly or $144 per seat annually, with a minimum of three seats required.
2. Entrata
This cloud-based CRM is a specialized system designed for multifamily property management. It’s a good choice for property managers overseeing multiple properties or large portfolios. It can help you keep track of property info, leads and prospect communication on one dashboard. It centralizes accounting and maintenance and includes tools for screening applications, managing leases, handling move-ins and automating task management. In addition, it offers integrations with popular property search and booking platforms.
Pros
The interface is easy to use.
The system is designed specifically for multifamily property management.
It streamlines property management tasks—from accounting to maintenance—in one platform.
It integrates with many specialized property management tools.
Cons
It takes time to learn all the features, which could be challenging for small companies.
The pricing structure isn’t transparent, making it difficult to compare with other options.
Pricing
The company provides custom pricing tailored for individual companies. Contact them for a quote.
3. Hubspot CRM
This cloud-based CRM, popular with businesses of all sizes, offers a full range of features. It’s not explicitly designed for property management, but it provides most of the essential tools property managers with small to medium portfolios need to boost efficiency. You can use it to manage leads, keep track of documents, set up marketing campaigns, automate lease renewal notifications and more. The marketing hub features social media and SEO tools and an analytics dashboard.
Pros
The interface is easy to use.
It offers excellent lead management and communication tools.
It integrates with marketing tools and offers customizable workflows.
Cons
It lacks specific features for property management, like maintenance workflows or lease tracking.
It may require integrations with other property management tools for full functionality.
Pricing
Hubspot offers a free plan for up to five users. Their paid plans start at $20 per seat monthly or $180 per seat annually. The comprehensive hub for automation, reporting and campaigns starts at $800 monthly and includes three seats.
4. Knock
Designed for multifamily property managers, this cloud-based CRM provides a centralized dashboard for lead management, operations and marketing. You can track communication, store documents and get real-time data. Plus, you can automate self-guided tour scheduling. The tool integrates with popular property management systems, making it easy to sync data across platforms. It may be a good choice for property managers overseeing medium to large portfolios.
Pros
The system is designed specifically for multifamily property management.
It integrates with project management software.
It provides detailed, easy-to-access data reporting.
It provides automated self-guided tour scheduling.
Cons
It can take time to learn the platform.
It may be too complex for teams managing smaller portfolios.
The pricing structure isn’t transparent, making it difficult to compare with other options.
Pricing
The company provides custom pricing tailored for individual companies. Contact them for a quote.
5. Pipedrive
This cloud-based CRM lacks property management-specific features, but don’t cross it off your list. It could be a good fit for property managers managing small to medium portfolios seeking a sales-focused tool to manage leads and communications. It shines when it comes to its easy-to-use interface and customizable features. It offers document storage, task and marketing automation and reporting tools. Plus, it supports more than 400 integrations.
Pros
The interface is easy to set up and use.
You can customize sales pipelines to track leads, leasing deals and more.
Cons
It lacks specific features for property management, like maintenance workflows or lease tracking.
It may require integrations with other property management tools for full functionality.
Some advanced features are only available on higher-priced plans.
Pricing
The Essential plan starts at $24 per seat monthly or $168 per seat annually.
6. Zoho CRM
This popular, highly customizable general CRM could work well for property managers handling diverse portfolios. Although it lacks specialized tools for property management, it offers lead and communications management, automated marketing campaigns and document storage. Plus, it supports numerous integrations and provides data reports.
Pros
It has robust lead and contact management functions.
It’s highly customizable.
It supports various software integrations, including a few property management software integrations.
The company offers a private server option for large enterprises who want more control of their data storage.
Cons
It lacks specific features for property management, like maintenance workflows or lease tracking.
It may require integrations with other property management tools for full functionality.
Pricing
The Standard plan starts at $20 per seat monthly or $168 per seat annually.
Why monday CRM stands out
Of all the above options, monday CRM stands out among property managers. It offers a unique blend of property management-specific features and customizability. It can help property managers streamline daily operations from screening rental applications to handling move-outs. Plus, its simple interface makes it easy to learn and use. The following features and benefits make monday CRM a standout choice:
Customization and flexibility
This CRM is easy to tailor to your specific needs. You can create and modify boards, dashboards and workflows to monitor vacancies, handle maintenance requests, manage resident communications and more.
Integration capabilities
This CRM connects seamlessly with more than 150 apps, including communications, email, marketing, sales, accounting, project management, customer support and automation software. It also supports integrations with some property management, lease management, maintenance management and resident communication software.
Automation features
With monday CRM, you can create custom automations for various processes, including resident communications, maintenance notifications and lease renewals. For example, you can automate the process of converting a maintenance request into a work order and assigning it to a specific maintenance team member.
Advanced insights and reporting
This CRM continuously tracks interactions on a comprehensive, fully customizable dashboard. You can use it to monitor property performance, leasing metrics, maintenance operations, financial data points and other key metrics.
Scalability
Whether you oversee a single home or hundreds of units, monday CRM can suit your needs. And because it’s flexible and customizable, it can easily scale with your business. Plus, monday CRM integrates with dozens of other tools, so it’s easy to add functionality as needed.
Conclusion
Property management will always be challenging, but the right CRM can help you streamline processes, boost efficiency and improve communications. When evaluating CRMs, look for one that provides lead management, communication management, document storage, task automation, integration capabilities, marketing automation and data reporting. Consider these top options for multifamily:
monday CRM
Entrata
Hubspot CRM
Knock
Pipedrive
Zoho CRM
For many property managers, Monday CRM will emerge as a top choice. It offers property management-specific features, customization and flexibility, integration capabilities, automation features, advanced reporting and scalability. Whichever CRM you choose, you’ll invest in stronger relationships with your prospects and residents, laying the foundation for long-term success.