So the question to ask is, “How many MLS’s do you already have a working relationship with, that if I were a member of that MLS, I could have it working tomorrow?” That will give you the real answer. If the answer is that they can go through an approval process and get it to work with your MLS, don’t hold your breath. If it were that easy, and the CRM had very many users, they would have a lot of MLS’ in their fold already.

The answer to your question about why there isn’t one solution that does it all is basically supply and demand. There are a number different aspects to it.

With regards to MLS intergration, the primary reason is that too many MLS’ want an annual or monthly fee from the CRM vendor, which is not a viable business model for them. Top Producer does integrate with a great many MLS’ and they are the only one that does, but it is because they started many of those relationships almost 20 years ago. For the rest of todays CRMs, the market share they serve is far too small to pay MLS’.

There are not enough agents who purchase simple CRM software to keep all the CRM solutions out there in business. I’ve watched three go down so far and expect many more in the next two to three years. If you were to develop a product that does everything you want, and charge what would be necessary, virtually no one would buy it, and it would not last very long. There may be one or two million real estate licensees out there, but there are only maybe 200 or 300,0000 of them buying this software, at the very most. That is a very small market in a very competitive market place. Our industry is just not big enough to support super slick software that is cutting edge and frequently updated like products that are used by many millions like Quickbooks, MS Office, etc.

For the relatively meager rewards our industry offers CRM developers, we actually have a few pretty darn decent ones. I see many people make false assumptions about what appear to be a lack of features because they don’t spend enough time to evaluate the product properly. Make sure not to blow something off before asking the right person the right questions. I am here to help.

So far I haven’t seen any limitations from either the REST design or its use of FileMaker.

Have a good one.

The issue with REST though is that the service is based upon another piece of software, FileMaker. It’s confined within the rules of what FileMaker would allow much in the same way that you’re confined in what you can do with SalesForce. The expansion capability of the system relies on FileMaker’s capabilities. Our system for example we can write to do anything a user could possibly ask for. We consistently get questions requesting some way to make a user’s life better. We can execute on that immediately. Furthermore, after a certain number of total records in a FileMaker Server database, it really gets bogged down. When I used to do FileMaker development, the system would slow to a snail’s pace after about 20,000 records. Especially using over the internet server connections.

The bigger issue though is that you have to have a desktop client to make this system work. A Realtor’s life is mobile. A CRM should sync with the phone book of the client’s mobile device when requested. It should have all the data at their fingertips to create notes, etc. You can’t be using an iPad etc. You can use an iPhone but you have to pay extra for the usage. You can’t use it mobile on a Blackberry (the dominant phone used by Realtors).

Most importantly though the expansion capability. Our system is written to be the first open platform in real estate it can connect up to any IDX, any outside service provider, anything. Additionally, I think REST misses what I believe to be the most important tool to any Realtor drip and blast email. Consistently over 5 years, I’ve seen that the absolute best place a Realtor can spend time is in having quality drip and blast messages to their clients and building opt-ins to those lists.
A good CRM should have that functionality built into the system so you don’t have to export names and put them into ConstantContact every week when you send the messages out. It should have the same systems in place as constant contact and more to ensure deliverability and find out how many opens and bounces you had etc.

What about a deal room that clients can log into an upload documents on their own and see notes about the transaction thus saving the Realtor time with the phone calls “what’s going on with this or that” It should be hooked into the lender and title / escrow company so they can make notes as well.

What about social? Why not have the social sites plugged in so that when a user is looking at a record they can get a quick glance at what that prospect’s last few tweets, Facebook messages, and LinkedIn status changes have been.

AdvantageXi is definitely capable of automatically adding website/e-mail leads. I use it myself every day. You create a rule in the e-mail client. Look in the video tutorials and view the one entitled “Email Rule – Data Import”.

It seems CRM should be viewed in terms of being comprehensive as someone mentioned and having intelligence which you allude to.

There seems to be an emphasis on sales information side rather than the “customer” side of the equation. I would agree with comment that there are many tools and yet most “systems” fall short due to data side primarily as well as “overkill” on certain tools while missing out on “intelligence”.

Recently it seems the data side has gained with web 2.0 approaches and mobile applications etc.

What has been missing in terms of real estate is a “smart” location component ironically which is where I’m focused on with demographics and GIS (geographic information systems/computer mapping) which with a robust sales/system side will make a comprehensive real estate CRM I believe.

Looks like a good group for possible joint venture projects on information products I’m working on.