How to choose an estate agent CRM: a buyer's guide and checklist for UK agencies

What should an estate agency CRM cover?

Start from the work, not a feature list. Write down what your team does in a normal week, from first enquiry to completion or the end of a tenancy, and where each piece lives today: a CRM, a lettings package, a spreadsheet or an inbox. Everything on that list either moves into the new system or has to connect to it.

A system that covers sales but not lettings, or lettings but not compliance, means keying the same property and people in twice.

• Contacts: applicants, vendors, landlords and tenants, with every call, email and message on record
• Properties for sale and to let, and viewings with diary sync, reminders and feedback
• Offers and sales progression through to exchange and completion
• Tenancies, rent, deposits, renewals, repairs and inspections
• Compliance: certificate expiry dates, tenant checks and deadlines, with reminders
• Client accounting, or at least rent due, arrears and landlord statements
• Portal feeds and lead import, e-signing, reporting, branches and permissions, and applicant marketing

How do you judge a CRM's integrations?

An integration on a features page can mean a live two-way connection or a monthly file export. For each one you rely on, ask which way the data flows, how often it syncs, what happens when it fails, and whether it costs extra. Then ask to see it working in the demo, not described on a slide.

• Portals: which ones it publishes to, and whether enquiries arrive as leads without re-typing
• Calendars: two-way sync with Google or Outlook
• Email, WhatsApp and SMS: sent and received inside the CRM and saved to the record
• Telephony: which phone systems are supported, and whether calls are logged
• Accounting: a live link to your accounts package, or only an export
• Referencing, ID checks and open banking: whether results and rent received land on the right record

How will our data get in, and how would we get it out?

Ask exactly what the vendor will migrate, such as contacts, properties, tenancies, notes, documents and rent history, and how many years of it. Ask who maps your old fields to the new ones, whether you check a test import before go-live, and what it costs.

Exit terms matter as much. The contract should say the data is yours, that you can export all of it at any time as CSV or Excel, with documents and photos, and what notice and fees apply when you leave.

Where the vendor processes personal data for you, UK GDPR Article 28 requires the contract to say it will, at your choice, delete or return all that personal data when the service ends. Agree the export format and timetable for all of your data, documents included, before you sign.

Security and UK GDPR: what to ask a vendor

Your CRM will hold personal data about applicants, vendors, landlords and tenants. Where a vendor processes it on your behalf, UK GDPR Article 28 says you may only use a processor giving sufficient guarantees of appropriate technical and organisational measures, under a binding contract.

Among other terms, that contract must require the vendor to act only on your documented instructions, keep the data confidential and secure, use sub-processors only with your written authorisation, delete or return the data at the end, and give you the information and audits needed to show compliance. Ask for the vendor's data processing agreement and check it against that list.

The ICO says that contracting with a cloud provider located outside the UK very likely means a restricted transfer, which must be covered by UK adequacy regulations, appropriate safeguards or an exception. Organisations that process personal information must also pay the ICO a data protection fee unless exempt, and anyone can search the ICO's register of fee payers.

• Where is our data hosted, and is any of it accessed from outside the UK?
• Who are your sub-processors?
• Can access be limited by role and by branch, with two-factor sign-in?
• Is there a log of who viewed, changed or exported a record?
• How is data backed up, and how would you tell us about a breach?
• What is your ICO registration reference?

What should you ask about AI features?

AI in agency software ranges from drafting listing descriptions to answering enquiries and booking viewings unaided. Anything that speaks to applicants, landlords or tenants in your agency's name needs clear rules on when it hands over to your team, and a record of what it did. Test it on real enquiries from your own inbox.

• Which tasks run without a person, and which need approval?
• When does it hand over to a person, and with what context?
• Can we set its hours, its questions and what it must not do?
• Is every AI action logged on the record and marked as AI?
• Which outside AI providers receive our data, and where are they?

How do you compare pricing models?

Vendors charge on different bases, so headline prices rarely compare directly. Compare the total cost over the full contract for your users, branches and managed properties, including expected growth, and check that the features you saw in the demo are in the plan quoted.

• Per user, per branch, per property or a flat fee
• Set-up, training and data migration fees
• Add-ons such as portal feeds, e-signing, messaging, call minutes and referencing
• Minimum term, notice period and automatic renewal
• Price rises at renewal, and whether they are capped

Run the demo on your own data, then score it

A demo on sample data shows a product at its best. Send each vendor a small export of your own, such as a few properties, applicants, a sale in progress and a tenancy with rent due, and have a negotiator and a property manager try the tasks themselves: book a viewing from a portal enquiry, move an offer to exchange, chase late rent, list certificates expiring soon and export everything.

Then score each vendor from 0 to 5 on the questions below, weighted by what matters to your agency. Set the weights before the first demo, so a polished presentation cannot move them.

• Coverage: does it run all our work without a second system?
• Ease of use: could our team do the trial tasks unaided?
• Integrations: are ours live, two-way and included in the price?
• Migration: what do you move, and do we check a test import?
• Exit: can we export everything, at any time, at no extra cost?
• Security: where is data hosted, and will you sign a data processing agreement?
• AI: what does it do alone, and what does it log?
• Cost: what is the total over the contract, including add-ons?
• Support: what hours and channels, and who is our onboarding contact?

Where Propily fits

Propily is a CRM built for UK estate and letting agencies. Enquiries, viewings, sales, lettings, compliance and contracts share the same property, tenancy and contact records, and its AI receptionist answers WhatsApp and phone enquiries, qualifies them and books viewings, handing over to your team with the full conversation.

Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket enquiries become leads on the branch that lists the property, and roles decide what each person can see and change. Properties are imported from a CSV or Excel file and contacts from a CSV file, and the demo is forty minutes on your own data. Score it on the same checklist as every other vendor.