Salesforce For Real Estate: Comprehensive Guide

In today's competitive real estate market, leveraging technology to streamline operations, strengthen customer relationships, and drive growth is crucial. Salesforce, a leading customer relationship management (CRM) platform, offers a comprehensive set of tools specifically designed for real estate agencies.

Salesforce helps real estate professionals manage listings, engage leads, analyze market trends, and optimize marketing strategies. This powerful platform equips agents with the tools they need to excel in their business.

Recent studies show that the global real estate software industry is growing rapidly. It is expected to reach nearly USD 90 billion by 2028. Real estate CRM solutions will play a significant role in this growth.

Most successful real estate agents today use CRM platforms to manage client relationships, track property listings, and simplify transactions. As more businesses adopt digital tools, many real estate firms are switching to advanced CRM systems. These systems help them organize their data, boost productivity, and deliver better customer service.

Modern CRM platforms for real estate provide flexibility, growth potential, and advanced automation. They are a popular choice for brokerages that want to remain competitive. These platforms help real estate businesses manage leads, track deals, and analyze data, allowing them to work more efficiently and make informed decisions.

In the following sections, we will discuss why top brokerages choose CRM solutions that use advanced platforms and how these solutions are changing real estate operations.

What is Salesforce?

Salesforce is the top customer relationship management (CRM) technology in the world. We help you build better relationships with your customers. Since 1999, we have led the way in cloud-based CRM. Today, we help organizations of all sizes transform their businesses using AI. How do we do this? Agentforce provides reliable AI agents that act on behalf of your employees and customers. We also offer unified data from all your systems, giving every employee a complete view of each customer. Additionally, we provide the best CRM apps for your sales, service, marketing, commerce, and IT teams.

What is Salesforce for Real Estate?

Salesforce is the leader in the CRM industry, with 20% market share. Salesforce for real estate offers clients a personalized experience through advanced sales and marketing automation, AI-powered analytics, and customizable reports and dashboards.

Salesforce has many features that can be hard to learn quickly. However, the large Salesforce community and many free learning resources can help with managing changes and training staff.

Salesforce is known for its strong data protection. It uses granular permission controls and robust security measures, including multi-factor authentication and data encryption. Salesforce also continuously monitors systems, runs audits, and uses a Trust Layer to protect data.

Salesforce does not have a specific cloud service for the real estate industry. However, there are more than 2,000 Salesforce consulting partners who can customize the system to meet individual agents' needs. Additionally, users can choose from 7,000 Salesforce-native add-ons available on AppExchange.

Key Features of Salesforce for Real Estate Agencies

1. Property Management

Salesforce allows real estate agencies to centralize property listings, including descriptions, images, virtual tours, and pricing details. The user-friendly interface makes it easy for agents to update listings, monitor property availability, and manage inquiries, facilitating smooth communication and collaboration within the agency.

2. Lead and Contact Management

Effective lead management is vital to real estate success, and Salesforce offers robust tools to support it. The platform helps agencies capture, track, and nurture leads using customized workflows, automated follow-ups, and targeted marketing campaigns, ensuring no opportunities are overlooked.

3. Marketing Automation

Salesforce’s marketing automation features allow real estate agencies to create personalized campaigns for specific audiences. Whether it's email marketing, social media integration, or lead scoring, Salesforce provides comprehensive tools to enhance marketing efforts and increase return on investment.

4. Analytics and Reporting

In the real estate industry, data-driven decision-making is essential. Salesforce provides powerful analytics and reporting tools that help agencies understand market trends, assess agent performance, and analyze customer behavior. Customizable dashboards and real-time analytics enable informed decision-making and strategic planning.

5. Mobile Accessibility

In today's fast-paced real estate market, on-the-go access to information is crucial. The Salesforce mobile app gives agents instant access to property listings, client details, and essential business insights, allowing them to stay productive and responsive, even when away from the office.

Benefits of Using Salesforce for Real Estate Agencies

Enhanced Productivity

By centralizing key business functions and automating repetitive tasks, Salesforce frees agents to focus on building relationships and closing deals. The platform’s intuitive design and customizable workflows help agencies optimize processes, reduce manual errors, and increase overall productivity.

Improved Customer Relationships

In the real estate industry, strong client relationships are key. Salesforce provides tools to nurture these relationships through personalized communication, targeted marketing campaigns, timely follow-ups, and excellent customer service, helping agencies exceed client expectations and build loyalty.

Scalability and Flexibility

As your real estate agency grows, Salesforce can grow with you. Its scalable architecture and flexible customization options ensure the platform adapts to your evolving business needs, supporting long-term growth and expansion.

Cost Savings

By consolidating multiple functions into a single platform and automating manual processes, Salesforce helps real estate agencies reduce operational costs, increase efficiency, and optimize resource utilization. The platform’s pay-as-you-go pricing and scalable architecture make it a cost-effective option for agencies of all sizes.

Benefits of Salesforce CRM for Real Estate

Quick Responses

In real estate, quick responses are crucial because clients often have tight schedules. Salesforce CRM enables businesses to respond swiftly to inquiries from any device with internet access. It also automates the recording and response processes, enabling immediate client interaction to address their concerns. It helps businesses provide valuable insights and build strong client relationships.

Intuitive Automation

Selling a property involves many detailed tasks. Salesforce CRM can automate form completion, organize important documents, and gather necessary data, freeing up time for you and your clients to focus on bigger decisions. Automation also streamlines client interaction management, reminding you of deadlines and following up with clients as needed.

Centralized Database

In real estate, generating leads from multiple sources is essential, but managing multiple databases can be time-consuming. Salesforce CRM brings all your data, like contact details, into one easy-to-use platform. You can reach this information from any device, wherever you are. No matter if you work for a real estate company or with other agents, everyone can see the same data in the same format, so nothing gets missed.

Easier Correspondence

Buying a home or any real estate is often a personal experience, and clients may develop a bond with their agents. Many clients prefer to work with the same agent for future transactions. However, long gaps between purchases can make reconnecting difficult. Salesforce CRM helps maintain these relationships by storing contact information and sending regular, personalized emails, even when the client isn't actively buying.

Immediate Evaluation

Building strong relationships in real estate takes time and resources. It's essential to identify and focus on effective practices. Salesforce CRM provides tools to immediately assess the effectiveness of your work. By analyzing and recording your processes, you can refine your strategies and focus on what works best.

Essential Considerations When Implementing Salesforce

Assistance with Training

Salesforce is easy to use, but it’s still important to invest in training and ongoing support. Providing your team with the right skills and resources will help them use Salesforce effectively and make the transition smoother for long-term success.

Data Security and Compliance

Because real estate data is sensitive, robust security and adherence to industry rules are essential. Salesforce uses strict security protocols, advanced data encryption, role-based access controls, and audit trails to keep information safe and meet compliance requirements.

Integration with Existing Systems

When adding Salesforce, consider how it will integrate with your current systems, such as MLS databases, accounting software, and marketing tools. Salesforce offers many integration options and a large app marketplace, making it easy to connect with different systems and keep your data flowing smoothly.

Salesforce CRM for Real Estate

Salesforce CRM is the core of the Salesforce system. It serves as a central hub for managing client interactions, property listings, and transactions. This tool helps real estate professionals by allowing them to:

• Keep track of leads and related activities.  

• Update detailed client profiles.  

• Monitor the sales or loan process from the first contact to closing.  

• Use automated workflows to handle some administrative tasks.  

• Create accurate reports and visual data.  

• Manage communications.

The system can be customized to fit specific real estate workflows. It ensures that all critical information is captured and easily accessible.

For Real Estate Agents and Brokers

Real estate agents can gain a lot from using Salesforce CRM to manage leads. This system helps agents keep track of potential buyers and sellers, schedule property viewings, and record detailed information about clients’ preferences and interactions.

With mobile access, agents can update information and answer questions while showing properties or meeting clients. Task management tools help them stay on top of follow-ups, deadlines, and key dates throughout each transaction. The platform’s reporting features give insights into productivity, lead conversion, and business performance.

For Property Managers

Salesforce CRM helps property managers track tenant relationships and property occupancy. It lets them handle maintenance requests, check lease status and renewals, and set reminders for rent collection and maintenance. The system also securely stores legal documents and maintains detailed property portfolios with information on amenities, maintenance history, and financial performance.

For Real Estate Investors

Real estate investors can use Salesforce CRM to manage their portfolios, track property performance, and stay in touch with property managers and partners. The system helps them keep detailed records of purchases, renovations, and sales. By making a few changes, such as adding custom objects, investors can better tailor the CRM to their needs. They can also use the platform’s analytics and dashboards to evaluate investment opportunities and monitor their return on investment (ROI).

For Mortgage Brokers

Lending officers in real estate can use Salesforce Mortgage CRM to manage loan applications, track borrower relationships, and monitor loan progress. They can also automate loan processing tasks, maintain compliance paperwork, and track communications with appraisers, underwriters, and other service providers. With some customizations, mortgage brokers can use Salesforce CRM for loan servicing, setting up payment reminders, tracking changes to mortgage terms, and other tasks not included by default.

For Real Estate Developers

Real estate developers can use Salesforce CRM to manage their projects, track construction progress, and build relationships with contractors, suppliers, investors, brokers, and others involved. The system can also help them monitor and manage project timelines, budgets, resources, deal stages, and invoices.

Salesforce for Real Estate: Experience Cloud

Experience Cloud lets you create custom portals that work well with Salesforce CRM data. You can tailor these digital spaces to meet the needs of different audiences and brand them to reflect your company’s identity. It is flexible, easy to use, and requires minimal coding.

For Real Estate Agents and Firms

Experience Cloud lets real estate agents set up custom portals where clients can view property listings, book viewings, and learn more about the agents. With a simple and organized layout, clients can easily understand your services and book tours on their own.

Real estate firms can create digital workspaces for their teams. These spaces can include training materials, company resources, and collaboration tools.

For Property Managers

Property managers can set up tenant portals for residents. In these portals, tenants can submit maintenance requests, pay rent, and access important documents. The platforms also help tenants communicate with property managers and maintenance staff. For example, if a property manager schedules regular lift maintenance, they can post the schedule on the portal for all tenants to see.

For Real Estate Investors

Experience Cloud helps create custom digital experience portals for investors.

These portals allow investors to view their account information, collaborate with colleagues, partners, and stakeholders on investment opportunities, monitor their portfolios, and track their performance in real time.

For Mortgage Brokers

The mortgage lending process has many steps and takes considerable time. It involves multiple professionals reviewing all relevant information before making a decision. Portals built with Salesforce Experience Cloud can serve as a central hub for managing all these tasks.

Mortgage brokers can use online portals to manage their relationships with appraisers, underwriters, lawyers, title companies, and other service providers involved in the lending process. At the same time, potential borrowers can enjoy a better experience through self-service portals. These portals allow them to handle loan applications, submit documents, track loan status, and communicate efficiently.

With Salesforce Experience Cloud, you can quickly create multifunctional, user-friendly portals, saving time compared to building a website from scratch.

For Real Estate Developers

Developers can use Experience Cloud to create specific project portals for investors, contractors, and potential buyers. These portals are user-friendly and can include construction updates, financial reports, and marketing materials. A clear design and helpful information are key to attracting the right people to collaborate on your real estate project.

Salesforce for Real Estate: Service Cloud

Salesforce Service Cloud is a complete customer service platform designed for real estate professionals. It provides a centralized hub for managing all client interactions. The platform supports case management, automates service processes, and enables communication across multiple channels. You can customize Service Cloud to meet your real estate needs, such as handling maintenance issues or scheduling tours. Together with Experience Cloud, it creates a better user experience.

For Real Estate Agents

Agents can use Service Cloud to manage client questions and handle show requests. For example, when a new client contacts a real estate broker to find their dream home, brokers can quickly access helpful information for faster answers. The case management features help track and solve client issues effectively. If a user sends an inquiry after hours, an AI assistant or an automated response will step in, ensuring support is available 24/7.

For Property Managers

Property managers can use Service Cloud to manage maintenance requests, tenant questions, and property issues. When a tenant reports a problem, the property manager can quickly access the tenant’s information, property details, and past maintenance records. It helps them respond quickly, resolve issues effectively, and keep both tenants and landlords happy. The platform’s automation features can improve service delivery when configured with advanced message routing and a knowledge base.

For Mortgage Brokers

Mortgage brokers can use Salesforce’s Service Cloud to handle borrower questions and manage loan service requests. Each question is recorded and tracked through effective case management. If you receive a loan modification or payoff request, create a case linked to that specific deal or contact to monitor the process and ensure nothing is missed.

For simpler inquiries, such as checking application status or recent mortgage payments, Salesforce Service Cloud can automatically retrieve the necessary information and provide a quick response without requiring your help.

Salesforce for Real Estate: Marketing Cloud Account Engagement

Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) is a marketing automation tool for real estate professionals. It provides features for nurturing leads, running digital campaigns, and tracking prospect engagement. With drip campaigns, lead scoring, and automated workflows, users can connect with the right people at the right moment.

For Real Estate Agents

Agents can use Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (MCAE) to create and manage email campaigns, social media posts, and digital ads. The platform's journey builder allows agents to design personalized communication plans for different client groups and automatically run them.

For Property Managers

Property managers can use Marketing Cloud Account Engagement to promote available properties, talk to tenants, and keep the community engaged through automated email campaigns. For instance, sending newsletters with seasonal maintenance tips is not a core job for property managers, but it helps keep 

Tenants are happy, and properties are in good shape. With MCAE, you don't need to spend time on this; the newsletter will be sent automatically at the scheduled time.

For Mortgage Brokers

If you have an excellent option for a specific group of potential borrowers who have shown interest in lending but haven't found a suitable property or favorable terms, use MCAE to inform them about a new opportunity. You can send automated email newsletters to let borrowers know about changes in laws and regulations, remind them about upcoming payments, and notify them about overdue payments.

For Real Estate Developers

Developers can use Marketing Cloud Account Engagement to promote new projects during pre-sale campaigns. It helps them find investors to fund construction and brokers to connect with tenants and residents.

Salesforce for Real Estate: Tableau and CRM Analytics

Tableau and Salesforce CRM Analytics help real estate professionals visualize and analyze data. CRM analytics enables you to create custom dashboards and reports from your Salesforce data. For better insights into market trends, property performance, and business operations, you can use Tableau, which gathers data from various sources.

For Real Estate Agents

Agents can use CRM Analytics to review their sales pipeline, spot trends in client preferences, and refine their lead conversion strategies. The Salesforce platform for real estate provides insights into which marketing activities generate the best leads and which properties attract the most attention. Use Tableau mainly to analyze the market and set fair property prices.

For Property Managers

Property managers can track metrics such as occupancy rates, maintenance costs, and tenant satisfaction. Data visualization helps identify trends in maintenance requests, optimize resource utilization, and predict issues before they arise. Analyzing data from different sources in Tableau can also help set competitive rental rates based on market information and property performance.

For Real Estate Investors

Analytics is essential for successful investing. Investors can use Salesforce for real estate with its built-in analytics. However, it’s better to use tools like Tableau to analyze data from both your CRM and other sources.

Visualizations help you see the overall picture, while analytics allow you to assess investment options, monitor your portfolio's performance, and examine market trends. Key indicators include changes in property values, rental yields, and investment return metrics.

Investors can create custom dashboards to track essential performance indicators for their investment portfolio.

For Mortgage Brokers

Lending officers can use Salesforce to analyze borrowers’ creditworthiness, property values, loan performance, and trends in loan applications. It helps them improve their lending criteria. Tableau can help assess loan risks from external factors, track loan portfolio performance, and monitor market conditions.

For Real Estate Developers

Salesforce offers built-in analytics and dashboards that developers can use for real estate projects. For a more complete picture, CRM Analytics or Tableau is a better option. These tools help assess project feasibility and track financial results. Tableau provides insights into market demand, which allows developers decide on project size and timing. CRM Analytics helps identify risks and opportunities during development.

Salesforce AI for Real Estate Professionals and Firms

Salesforce has three types of AI: predictive, generative, and conversational. AI is everywhere in Salesforce and primarily automates repetitive tasks. It boosts productivity by helping with lead scoring, sales forecasting, and email writing.

AI for Almost Every Cloud

Sales AI, also known as Sales Cloud, refers to several Salesforce products. You can purchase them individually or as part of the Einstein 1 Sales Plan.

• Einstein Copilot:

  • This AI tool helps you write personalized emails using information from your CRM and other sources. It can create introductions, follow-ups, and updates.

  • You can quickly get short summaries of your sales calls, see the main points, and understand how your customers feel.

  • Create action plans tailored to each customer and sales process.

  • Automate research on prospects and accounts, get summaries of leads and opportunities, and see how likely deals are to close.

• Sales Cloud Einstein:

  • Easily capture important customer and sales details from your email and calendar, then sync them with your CRM to keep everything current.

  • Get forecasts that help you spot potential income and identify where your sales pipeline might slow down.

  • Receive deal insights powered by AI, using lead scores, opportunity health, and your sales activities.

• Einstein Scoring is an AI tool in Salesforce Sales Cloud Einstein and Marketing Cloud Account Engagement. It predicts a lead's likelihood of becoming a customer by analyzing historical conversion data, including industry, company size, and job title. Salesforce AI updates these scores every ten days.

• Einstein Conversation Insights:

  • Review sales calls from every team to learn how customers feel about your products and competitors. Spot trends that can help you improve your sales strategies and stay ahead of the competition.

  • Identify the main points from your sales conversations, including customer objections, pricing thoughts, and common questions.

  • Build a knowledge base of best practices from honest conversations, so every sales rep can learn proven ways to succeed.

• Buyer Assistant and Einstein Relationship Insights:

  • An AI Buyer Assistant manages first contact with customers and sets up meetings for your team to follow up.

  • Automatically create relationship graphs and fill in contact details.

  • Find new business relationships using outside data, like social media and news stories.

Marketing AI (Marketing Cloud) integrates AI capabilities to optimize marketing strategies, improve targeting, and boost campaign performance. Predictive AI forecasts campaign outcomes and helps make adjustments. Sentiment analysis and generative AI create personalized content for campaigns. Lead scoring and segmentation make it easier to nurture leads.

Service AI (Service Cloud) is designed to improve the customer experience by offering features such as:

Generative AI for Service Cloud

• AI can summarize customer interactions and create helpful knowledge articles and conversation summaries. It also helps your clients solve issues more quickly by providing instant answers.

• Einstein for Service:

  • AI can reply to customers on SMS, WhatsApp, and other channels.

  • AI can create step-by-step plans to resolve cases.

  • AI reviews past cases to automate data entry, sort new instances, and send them to the right agent or queue. It helps improve both efficiency and accuracy.

• Einstein Bots

• You can create bots that work across multiple channels and languages, connecting with your Salesforce data to automate routine tasks and offer 24/7 support. Use the Einstein Bots API to connect them to any communication channel.

Agentforce AI Agents

Salesforce has introduced advanced AI assistants powered by Agentforce. Agentforce creates agents that can analyze data, make decisions, and perform tasks independently. In practice, it’s like adding another team member—a robot that follows your data-driven instructions. This agent can take on roles such as a Service Agent in Service Cloud, a sales coach or SDR in Sales Cloud, or any other professional you require. Agentforce uses conversation-based pricing, starting at $2 per interaction.

• Codleo’s experts can help you choose the right options or develop custom, cost-effective AI solutions within Salesforce.

Salesforce Customizations and Add-Ons for Real Estate

Salesforce is a flexible platform that lets you shape your ideas. While it has become a large ecosystem with many products, you may still need to add custom objects and workflows. With the right partner, you can tailor Salesforce to fit the needs of the real estate industry.

Finance Management

Managing finances in real estate can be tough, but Salesforce can make it easier. While the Financial Services Cloud offers some basic accounting features, you can get more out of it by adding Salesforce-native integrations.

You can get finance management functionality through integrations like Juniper Square for reporting. Another example: Xero is a cloud-based Salesforce-compatible accounting software. It can help with everything related to finance management, from commission and interest calculations to invoice creation and management.

However, these tools are not free and are not designed specifically for real estate. The good news is that Codleo can help you build these features in your Salesforce CRM with custom fields, objects, and workflows. This approach can save money over time by avoiding extra subscription fees.

Salesforce also has a low-code platform with tools to build custom solutions for real estate, including finance management. For example, we can add loan origination and servicing features for mortgage brokers.

We can also create tools for investment managers to manage portfolios and capital structures, and to track financial performance, such as return on investment, across different properties.

Codleo’s team can also customize Salesforce for real estate developers to improve financial management. We can add custom objects to track investor and broker relationships, manage construction loans, and monitor project budgets and funding. All these features are available right in your Salesforce CRM with low-code customizations.

Document Management

Paperwork is a big part of every real estate professional’s job. Invoices, contracts, property reports, title documents, and lease agreements are just the beginning. It can feel overwhelming.

While Salesforce offers basic document handling, real estate operations often demand more robust solutions. Popular integrations like DocuSign (starting price: $30/user/month) and Formstack (starting price: $92/user/month) seamlessly connect with Salesforce CRM, enabling automated document generation, e-signatures, and intelligent routing.

If you need a custom document management solution, Codleo has created a framework for Intelligent Document Processing that can be a solid starting point.

Advanced Search and Filtering

With thousands of contacts and records, it’s easy to get lost. Advanced search and filtering show how helpful Salesforce can be for real estate.

Browse contacts and properties by location and specific complex criteria.

Floor Planning and Visualization

Property developers and real estate agents gain the most from floor plans and 3D walkthroughs. Many products offer these features, but why switch between different apps when you can use Salesforce for everything?

Stacking Plans Creation

Property managers and private equity firms can improve visibility into real estate by leveraging stacking plans in Salesforce's customer relationship management (CRM) system. Stacking plans help manage and understand space occupancy and usage, particularly for commercial real estate, multiple residential properties, and hospitality businesses.

Property developers use stacking plans to understand the overall layout, plan effectively, and track the progress of different sections of a property. For example, if the ground floor is intended for commercial units, it will have different floor heights and layout requirements than residential spaces. The stacking plan helps by labeling spaces with their purpose, construction phase, and extra notes.

There are two options on the AppExchange for stacking plans. The first option is StackRE by Platinum Cubed. It is free and primarily helps you create stacking plans in a simple, color-coded table format, as we are accustomed to.

Fundamental Properties is a Salesforce tool designed for real estate add-ons. It allows users to create property plans and provide details about occupancy and any specific notes. The price depends on the features you choose.

Property Valuation

AppExchange provides easy solutions for real estate professionals who need to integrate property data. Whether you're a real estate agent setting a house price, a property manager determining rent that is fair but not too low, or an investor looking to grow your portfolio, property valuation is essential to your work.

Automated Underwriting and Improved Decision-Making

Underwriting and risk assessment are key parts of decision-making in the mortgage industry. Recently, Salesforce launched a digital lending solution that includes underwriting features. However, this offering is for large businesses and starts at $43,000 per year. It also has a limit on the number of loans it can manage.

Salesforce Financial Services Cloud includes a business rules engine that supports decision-making. However, using Salesforce FSC to automate underwriting and compliance may not be the most cost-effective choice.

The best long-term decision is to build your own custom underwriting engine within Salesforce. It will help you avoid paying annual subscription fees for features you don’t fully use.

To set up automated underwriting, we need to connect your Salesforce mortgage CRM to other systems, such as those used for property valuation. Next, we will use Salesforce Flows to create decision-tree logic that automatically populates data and recommends approvals. Some coding may be necessary to improve the algorithm. It gives you a basic automated underwriting solution. More advanced options will take more time, require additional coding, and likely involve some AI integrations.

We can connect your CRM to automated underwriting solutions using a custom API. However, if you want to make a one-time payment instead of paying a subscription, this option won't work for you.

Why Choose Codleo as Your Salesforce Real Estate Partner?

Codleo has over 12 years of experience in real estate and Salesforce consulting. As a Summit Salesforce Consulting and AppExchange partner, we have developed products specifically for real estate on Salesforce. We can help you avoid common challenges in this process.

How Codleo Helps Real Estate Businesses Get the Most from Salesforce

• We start by thoroughly reviewing your current system.

• We implement and customize Salesforce to fit your real estate workflows.

• Our team can build custom real estate apps and features on the Salesforce platform.

• We integrate fundamental estate-specific tools and third-party systems for a seamless experience.

• We provide training for your team, along with ongoing support and system administration. We handle Salesforce migrations and offer data cleansing services. We set up Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, also known as Pardot.

• We advise you on Salesforce AI solutions.

• We build custom portals tailored to your needs.

No matter if you run a commercial real estate firm, a residential agency, or a property management company, our experts can help you get the most out of Salesforce. Contact us today for a free consultation and see how we can help make your real estate operations more efficient with Salesforce.