What should I ask a real estate CRM vendor before buying?

Ask whether it stores sizes in the unit you quote in, whether rate times area calculates the total automatically, whether PLC can be charged as a percentage, per unit area or a flat amount, whether one project can hold different sizes from different sellers, whether leads capture the same detail as listings, how agent access is restricted, what a change request costs, and how you export your data if you leave.

Is it a bad sign if a CRM vendor says to use the notes field?

Yes. Anything stored in a free-text note cannot be filtered, matched or reported on. If a core part of your business only fits in the notes field, the software does not really support your segment.

Should CRM customisation be free?

Configuration changes such as fields, stages, dropdown lists, templates and dashboard widgets are inexpensive for a vendor to make and should generally be included. Get the policy in writing before signing, because per-change-request billing adds up quickly for small agencies.

How do I get my data out of a CRM?

You should be able to run a full CSV export of leads and properties yourself at any time, without a support ticket, a notice period or an exit fee. Confirm this before you migrate data in.

Buyer checklist

The CRM customisation checklist: 12 questions to ask before you sign

A vendor-neutral list you can take into any demo. Print it, ask all twelve, and write down the answers — including ours. The questions matter more than whose product you end up choosing.

Software demos are designed to show you what the product does well. These twelve questions are designed to find out what it does badly, which is the part you will live with. Ask them of every vendor on your shortlist and compare the answers side by side.

Questions about your inventory

1. Can it store my sizes in the unit I actually quote in?

If you sell in gaj, marla or kanal, a system that only understands square feet will force your team to convert by hand, and someone will eventually get it wrong. Ask to see a 112.5 gaj plot entered and displayed in gaj.

2. Does rate times area calculate the total automatically?

Enter ₹52,000 per gaj on 112.5 gaj and check that ₹58,50,000 appears without anyone typing it. This one field prevents the most expensive data entry mistake in the business.

3. Can I record PLC the way I charge it?

Corner, park facing, wider road and floor charges are quoted as a percentage in some cities, per square yard in others, and as a flat amount elsewhere. All three should be supported, and the all-inclusive price should update on its own.

4. Can one project hold units of different sizes from different sellers?

Very common in plot projects and almost never supported. If the answer is that you must create separate unrelated listings, your inventory reporting will never be right.

Questions about your leads

5. Can I capture the requirement in the same detail I capture the listing?

If a listing has BHK, size, furnishing and purpose but a lead only has a budget and a location, matching will never work. Both sides need the same vocabulary.

6. Are sale, resale and rental treated as different things?

A rental enquiry should never be matched to a sale-only flat. Ask to see the filter that prevents it.

7. Is 3+1 BHK a separate configuration from 3 BHK?

A servant room is a real requirement, not a note. If the dropdown stops at plain BHK numbers, your team will keep the difference in their heads.

Questions about your team

8. Can I restrict an agent to only their own leads?

Then ask the harder version: what happens the day that agent resigns? You want access revoked centrally and the records left behind.

9. Who can edit or delete a record, and is it logged?

An activity trail showing who changed what and when is the difference between an argument and a fact.

10. Can two people work the same list at once without overwriting each other?

This is the single biggest reason agencies outgrow spreadsheets, so make the vendor demonstrate it rather than assert it.

Questions about the relationship

11. What does a change request cost, and how long does it take?

Get this in writing. There is a large difference between “configuration is included” and “that will be quoted by our professional services team”. Ask for an example of something they built for another customer and how long it took.

12. How do I get my data out if I leave?

The answer should be a CSV export you can run yourself, at any time, without asking permission. If leaving requires a support ticket or a notice period, that tells you how the rest of the relationship will go.

How to score the answers

Answer pattern	What it usually means
Shown live on screen during the demo	Real. Trust it.
“Yes, that is on the roadmap”	Not available. Ask for a date in writing.
“You can put that in the notes field”	Not supported. You cannot filter, match or report on a note.
“Our team will configure that during onboarding”	Possible, but ask whether it is billable and what happens for the second change.
“Let me get back to you”	Fine, but if it never comes back, that is your answer.

Score each vendor out of twelve and keep the sheet. It is also the fastest way to renegotiate price when two products score the same.

Our own answers

For transparency, here is where Next Heights CRM stands on this list, including the weak spots. Questions one to ten are supported and can be shown live in the demo without any setup. Question eleven: configuration changes are included at no cost and are usually same-day or next-day, though anything requiring new calculation logic takes longer and we will tell you so. Question twelve: full CSV export of leads and properties, run by you, at any time, with no notice period and no exit fee.