Being a carpenter, I have first-hand experience that the right tool makes all the difference in getting the job done. A good tool makes life easier.
Running a real estate investing business also requires the right tools. Over the years, I’ve tested dozens of platforms, and these are the ones that have stuck. Some are free, some are paid, but all of them earn their place in our workflow.
Here’s what we actually use in our business, broken down by category.
PROPERTY DATA & RESEARCH
Propstream – Property data platform that can be used to search buyers and sellers, and do comps and lots of other stuff. I think PropStream covers this. I think PropWire covers this almost as well for free. Also, if you’re looking for data, Deal Machine is really great, and the user interface is better.
Propwire – Jerry Norton’s property data platform has lots of great features compared to PropStream, but it’s free.
Deal Machine – The most cost-effective way to get skip-traced seller leads in my opinion. They also have a driving for dollars feature, and you can send direct mail from this platform. Starts at $99, and also has a Pro plan for $279. I think you get 20,000 downloads on the $99 plan. Cheaper than you’ll find skip tracing anywhere else.
Investorbase – This one costs $250/month, I believe, so it’s not an entry-level thing. But the user interface is amazing, and the cash buyer feature is unparalleled. Then they have my listings where you can post your properties almost like your own website. I highly recommend this as an amazing dispo tool, and it also works for comping for acquisitions.
CRM & DEAL MANAGEMENT
Podio – This is our CRM that we use in our business. We’ve tried some other ones, including eSimply and Forefront. We like Podio because it’s customizable.
COMMUNICATION & TEAM MANAGEMENT
Slack – My team pretty much lives in Slack throughout the day. It’s a great communication and team building app. We have multiple channels for all of our various business things, like acquisitions and disposition, but we also have things like inspiration and education and gains, trends and victories, etc. It’s very easy to use. You can direct message or group message. You can even huddle and have video chats on it. I highly recommend it. It’s free. The catch with the free version is that all your stuff goes away after 90 days.
Zoom – If there was a better meeting software, I would use it. So far, I haven’t had experience of anyone having all the features Zoom has. I like it because you can record your meetings and I use it to record a podcast. You get transcripts and meeting notes as well. $16/month for the Pro plan.
Google Meet – This is a great free alternative to Zoom. You can schedule and hold meetings for free. There’s a limitation of 1 hour for multiple meeting participants if you’re on a free plan.
Loom – For short videos explaining things like SOPs, this is unmatched in my experience. They have added an AI transcription feature where you can create an SOP. All you have to do is jump on and do a little video, and it will make the SOP for you – amazing labor saver.
PHONE & TEXT MARKETING
Just Call – We use this for our business texting and phone. It integrates with Podio. It’s pretty good, we like it a lot. You’ve also used smartphones. Smartphone had a glitch with the 10 DLC, and so we abandoned them because they were not helping us get it back online fast enough. But I think Just Call and Smartphone pretty much have similar features. Just call it may have more AI stuff.
Smarter Contact – This is our text marketing platform. Its major competitor, Launch Control. We’ve used both of them, and we’ve settled on Smarter Contact. This is based on service. Also, Smarter Contact has inbound and outbound calling from the app. Launch Control is saying they’re adding this, so that might be a wash soon. There are a range of pricing plans.
OWNER FINANCING & LOAN SERVICING
Mortgage calculator – Free- We use this to calculate our owner financing payments and amortization tables.
Geek Pay – We use this for our owner financing loans for receiving payments and tracking our loans. It’s $49/month for 10 loans. There are servicing fees for a third-party servicing processor, not charged by Geek Pay. We find the user interface much friendlier than QuickBooks, which we were using for invoices. We have also used Clear, now which is pretty good for this type of thing, except that it’s a rental platform, and so people sometimes get confused when they’re buying something from you, but you’re sending them information from a rental platform.
FIELD SERVICES
Investorbootz – Not related to Investorbase, this is a former notary service that now offers multiple services such as lock boxes, photos, locksmiths, and other things you would need from a boots-on-the-ground support. We have had great experience with them.
DOCUMENTS & CONTRACTS
Pandadoc – E-sign platform. Free version and paid (we use paid, but used free for 4 years).
CALENDARING & SCHEDULING
Google Calendar – I use this for my scheduling throughout the week. I like it better than Apple Calendar. I’m sure there are other calendar apps, but being an ADD brain, I like to stick with what works, and this has worked for me.
Koalendar – I use this free scheduling app and it syncs with my Google Calendar. It is similar to Calendly and other calendar schedulers.
PRODUCTIVITY & OPERATIONS
Clockify – We use this for our team to log their hours and for calculating our payroll, it’s free. It’s got a lot of great features.
Google Drive – This is where we house all of our team documents. Great for spreadsheets and documents. I’m sure there are other great options. This is just what we started with and what we continue to use.
LastPass – This is a way to share passwords without sharing the password. You just share a master LastPass password, but your actual login information is cloaked. This is nice when you want to share a login with people not on your team. You can share it or revoke it at any time. It’s also great when you let team members go. You don’t have to scrub every last platform and change every password. You just removed them from last pass. It’s $36/month.
Ipostal – This is our virtual P.O. box. Can check the P.O. Box remotely and have them discard mail or forward it to us. It costs $15/month + a few miscellaneous fees if you have something forwarded. Discarding items is free. You can also get a mail center near you, geographically connected to your iPostal, so that you can go there in person if you want. You can also use a normal 411 address with this, which is nice. You don’t have to have a P.O. box address. You have a street address with a suite number.
BANKING & ACCOUNTING
Blue Vine Business Banking – We love this; it’s very easy to use. You can send wire transfers from the app, you can send check payments if you want to, and the user interface is great. They even pay you a little interest on standing balances, which not all online business banks do. Other online business banks we’ve tried: – Novo and Grasshopper. Novo comes in second, and Grasshopper comes in third.
QuickBooks Online – I hate QuickBooks. I hate bookkeeping. QuickBooks seems to be the industry standard and a necessary evil. There are competitors, but I haven’t tried them. We have the basic QuickBooks online. I think it’s $75/month.
Bottom Line
You don’t need every tool on this list to close deals. Start with the free/cheap essentials, then add tools as your business grows and the ROI justifies the cost.
The key is using what you have consistently, not collecting subscriptions you never touch.
What tools are you using in your real estate business? Drop a comment – I’d love to hear what’s working for you.
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