Welcome to our first ever vendor spotlight! I’m Elena Kee — founder of Kee Technology Solutions and real estate CRM veteran. I’ve worked for six years on platforms designed to make agents’ lives easier, and today, I’m breaking down how to start a tech stack for your real estate business.

Let’s get started!

Tech-Savvy Ways to Kickstart Your Business

Step 1: Select a CRM.

A CRM is critical to implement before you add on any tools, websites, branding, affiliates, and so on. It’s a great place to start — that way, you have a central hub for your current database with your whole sphere and past clients integrated. When your business inevitably expands, you can build upon that foundation and make sure no one gets missed in the process.

If you’re looking for recommendations, I highly recommend Follow Up Boss (FUB) as a best-in-class CRM. FUB is geared towards real estate agents, teams, and brokerages, with unmatched support and a vibrant community on Facebook and LinkedIn.

One of my favorite FUB features is the add-on dialer, which allows you to set up smart lists to make calls faster and record them so you can listen back. You can also give the calls to a coach, who can help you handle and script out future calls. I find the dialer’s reporting function is useful for documenting how many calls you made in a day and how many conversations you had, so you can always keep an eye on sudden drops or spikes in activity.

Step 2: Set up your CRM.

Regardless of which one you choose, you don’t want your CRM to become a glorified address book. The goal of a CRM is to make your life easier, but to do that, you’ll need to use it to its fullest potential.

If you’re using FUB, you have the ability to set up action plans or automations in lead flow for new leads, as well as customize automations for existing leads. The content in these action plans should supplement your efforts to follow up with leads, or reach out to new leads that you generate online.

Some ideas for automations include:

• New Lead (with introductory content)

• Nurture Buyer (if the lead is looking to buy)

• Nurture Seller (if the lead is looking to sell)

• Renter to Future Buyer (if the lead is a renter looking to buy eventually)

• Post Closing (after a successful purchase or sale)

• Sphere (branding content to send to acquaintances and colleagues)

• Recruiting (if the lead is in real estate, or looking to dive in)

Once the action plans are ready, the automations will send them out. I like to set up automations based on stage changes in FUB, so your action plans are always keeping up with your lead’s most recent activity.

Step 3: Get started on lead generation.

When it comes to generating leads, I recommend StreetText — a Facebook advertising platform compatible with FUB. StreetText has hireable services, as well as a DIY option for the tech-savvier agent. Let’s take a look at the DIY function.

StreetText features a list of ad templates: listings, seller ads, guides for buyers and sellers, and so on. Each template has the average stats and performance of the ad included, and they’re always adding to their library. You can click into the template, make the changes you need, then post the ad to Facebook without having to go through Facebook’s Ad Manager.

Another function on StreetText, known as “ad bundles”, allows you to quickly rotate ads on a schedule. You can even rotate them once a day — a functionality that Facebook itself does not have!

Because of StreetText’s integration with FUB, you can also create ads based on what stage a person is in FUB. These ads update in real time, so if you move a lead in FUB from one stage to another, the ad in StreetText will adjust accordingly.

Of course, a great ad wants to come back to a great website. When it comes to quality, affordable website providers, here are my top recommendations:

• AgentFire

• Placester

• Ylopo

• Agent Image

• Real Geeks

For real estate agents more focused on marketing, StreetText is a viable option for lead generation — as are Dippidi, a provider of multi-platform marketing services, and Witly, which focuses on client acquisition strategies.

Persistence Makes Perfect

With an inundation of spam calls in an increasingly busy world, the data shows that it can take 10–20 tries to reach someone today. Even after you do reach a lead, the key to retaining them will be long-term follow-up.

That’s where a CRM comes in. Having a system in place to keep people in front of you is essential to forming relationships and staying relevant in their minds. That may mean buckling down to make the calls yourself or contracting a representative — no matter the circumstance, a CRM will help you keep track of your prospects and give you a new opportunity every time you log in.

Whether you’re new to Follow Up Boss or a veteran user, if you’re looking for a curated and intuitive approach to using your CRM, you've come to the right place.

Kee Technology Solutions is here to ensure you're utilizing Follow Up Boss to its fullest potential. We offer a thorough setup comprised of smart lists, action plans, and automations that provide a simplified workflow and enable you to stay focused on what you do best: creating relationships and closing deals.

Ready to make the most of your Follow Up Boss account? Let’s get started.