Intern Seeking CRM Advice — AppFolio Lacking for Commercial Lead Tracking

Member since 2025 · 1 post · 2 votes

Hi everyone,
I'm a marketing intern at a property management company that manages both residential and commercial properties using AppFolio.

While AppFolio works well for residential, I’ve found it seriously lacking when it comes to commercial lead tracking. My project this summer is to build a centralized lead tracker, ideally something that can later transition into a CRM. Right now, I’m starting with a manual process in google sheets to avoid data duplication, but I want to implement something long term that consolidates everything in one place. If anyone has any solutions for commercial lead tracking, as well as any CRM that is effective for residential and commercial lead tracking that would be greatly appreciated.

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Evan Polaski

Cincinnati, OH · Member since 2020 · 4k+ posts · 3k+ votes

@Sebastian Clutch, Appfolio is NOT a CRM. I know the Appfolio sales team, as well as Juniper Square, and all the other investor portals try to talk up how they are a CRM, but they simply are not.

Salesforce is your most powerful CRM, and likely overkill for 99% of situations
Hubspot is a great option, and depending on contact list size is fairly affordable
GoHighLevel is another one that is becoming more popular, but I have never used directly.

There are a ton out there, and I am biased to Hubspot, because it is the one I have the most experience with, but the general contact record tracking, customization, ability to build dashboards, etc are all great in Hubspot and adequate to track contacts that may fall into various buckets: i.e. you can build your broker lists, your investor lists, your tenant lists, track your calls to each, setup up custom email campaigns for each separately, etc.

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Drew SygitBusiness Member
Property Manager · Royal Oak, MI · Member since 2012 · 12k+ posts · 9k+ votes
1y
Have you looked at Aptly or Lead Simple?
[email protected]248-209-6824
Logical Property Management4.9451 Reviews
Website View Page
1 Reply
Evan Polaski
Cincinnati, OH · Member since 2020 · 4k+ posts · 3k+ votes
1y
@Sebastian Clutch, Appfolio is NOT a CRM. I know the Appfolio sales team, as well as Juniper Square, and all the other investor portals try to talk up how they are a CRM, but they simply are not.
Salesforce is your most powerful CRM, and likely overkill for 99% of situations
Hubspot is a great option, and depending on contact list size is fairly affordable
GoHighLevel is another one that is becoming more popular, but I have never used directly.
There are a ton out there, and I am biased to Hubspot, because it is the one I have the most experience with, but the general contact record tracking, customization, ability to build dashboards, etc are all great in Hubspot and adequate to track contacts that may fall into various buckets: i.e. you can build your broker lists, your investor lists, your tenant lists, track your calls to each, setup up custom email campaigns for each separately, etc.
2 Reply
Adam BartomeoBusiness Member
Real Estate Broker · Cape Coral, FL · Member since 2015 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
1y
We have been using Appfolio for years and there is only a semi decent CRM for TENANTS ONLY. We use a separate CRM for commercial or residential buyers, sellers and landlords looking for management. Why recreate the wheel when there are so many CRM's available at low prices...
[email protected]239-339-3969
Bartomeo Property Management4.7150 Reviews
Website View Page
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Michael K GallagherBusiness Member
Real Estate Agent · Columbus OH · Member since 2018 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
1y
@Sebastian Clutch if you are at a PM company and looking to track and manage both residential and commercial assets, and leasing leads that come from them then I'd recommend you check out Hemlane.com they can handle both asset types, you can move applicants and tenants around in the assets, and its an overall great hub for all things management.
However, if you are wanting some kind of CRM sales manager you'd likely need to export or link those leads into a follup boss or other tracking system for the people themselves. really depends on what you want to do there, any leasing followup etc with prospective tenants is basically handled in hemlane, so you'd only need something else if you wanted to do more than that I supose.
[email protected]614-362-2231
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Josh L.
USA · Member since 2023 · 145 posts · 84 votes
1y
@Sebastian Clutch Hubspot as a general CRM has been a great option. A little bit of a learning curve. price points from free up to whatever you need.
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