Canada’s largest real estate markets have had a tough run, but it’s too early to call the spring a washout.

The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board reports that home sales in March edged up 1.7 per cent year-over-year, a small but notable shift, even as new listings fell 16.7 per cent and average prices dipped 6.7 per cent to $1,017,796. Sellers appear to be opting out rather than giving up, and with inventory tightening and the spring market still ramping up, conditions could gradually improve. 

With the Bank of Canada holding its policy rate at 2.25 per cent (4.45 per cent bank prime rate), buyers remain cautious and for agents, that makes the leads they already have more valuable than ever.

The best weapon against any market is the one agents already have: their customer relationship management (CRM) system.

These centralized digital hubs are more than a virtual rolodex to hold clients’ contact information. Programs like Follow Up Boss, IXACT and kvCORE can build smart lists to track leads and referrals, create drip campaigns to send out automated communications, and can even organize social media content.

 

The database you already have

 

Tyler Goddard, with Century 21 Heritage, started his business in 2024. At first, it was easy to manage his contact list and follow-ups using phone reminders and Excel spreadsheets. But as the deals ramped up, so did the need for a dedicated CRM to keep business running smoothly.

“I just thought I could manage leads manually on my own,” says Goddard, who opted to use ReMarketer as his dedicated platform. “However, once I had enough people added, I realized that wasn’t a possibility.”

Elena Kee, founder of Kee Technology Solutions, says a well-managed CRM is the most important tool in the business. It keeps new leads neatly organized, but more importantly, it nourishes the growing contact list an agent already has.

“Agents tend to focus almost all of their energy on acquiring new business,” Kee says. “Meanwhile, the people who already know, like and trust them are quietly forgetting about them because there’s no system keeping that relationship alive.”

For established agents, the answer to staying afloat when new leads run dry is working on creating new relationships within an existing client list. Kee recalls a broker in the United States, who had a database of 4,000 to 5,000 contacts that no one on his team was consistently using.

“Another agent we worked with had over 600 contacts with email addresses sitting in his CRM with no workflow, no stages, and no visibility into who was doing what,” Kee says. “Both had more than enough opportunity already sitting in their systems. The contacts were there. The architecture to activate them was not.”

 

Tags, lists and the magic of knowing your client

 

Implementing the correct systems to work a current database is key. Depending on the CRM, there are a variety of ways to nurse a list and ensure agents stay top-of-mind with past and current clients. Tagging effectively is one of the most important ways to keep those lists organized.

“Tagging leads has without a doubt been the game changer,” Goddard explains. “After talking to hundreds of new faces over months and months, you tend to forget what an individual told you at an open house three months ago. Whereas if you add them to the CRM with tags that specify their situation or what they are looking for, it will help you immensely when you follow up with them months later.”

Once individuals are identified with tags, creating specific plans catering to each list’s function is where the magic happens.

“The steps are straightforward,” says Kee. “Build smart lists ordered by priority, create multi-year action plans segmented by lead type — buyers, sellers, investors, renters — and make the CRM dialler your system of record so activity is tracked automatically. The CRM should tell you who to call and when without you having to think about it.”

 

Automation that keeps working in the background

 

With tags and lists in place, real estate agents can create automated drip campaigns — such as location-specific newsletters with market stats — to keep clients thinking about them even if they are months, or even years, away from jumping back into the market.

“Across multiple clients, stale lead campaigns consistently produce engagement rates between 17 and 31 per cent,” Kee says. “These are people who were already in the database, already had some level of previous interest, and simply hadn’t heard from anyone in a while. A single automated message brought them back into a conversation.”

These automations need to be ongoing to be truly effective. Not only should a robust follow-up system be in place for new leads, but clients who have successfully closed deals should be part of campaigns long after the transaction — often for many years.

“We build post-closing campaigns that run for 11 years after the transaction closes, alongside anniversary campaigns that run for 10 years,” Kee explains. “That sounds excessive until you realize that the average homeowner sells roughly every seven to 10 years and the agent who stays consistently visible during that window is the one who gets the listing. If you disappear after closing, your past client will use whoever shows up in front of them next.”

 

Soft touches that keep teams top-of-mind

 

With about 75 per cent of their yearly business coming from repeat clients and referrals, The Mazza Team at Royal LePage State Realty relies heavily on their existing database. For operations co-ordinator Nancy Mazza, automation is important and time is always of the essence.

“With the CRM, automation can be soft touches with our database to let them know we are thinking of them,” Mazza says. “An example may be a move-in anniversary or birthday. It can also be a simple reminder to our agents to follow up on an active client in a world full of distractions.”

Goddard uses automated communications for sending out market reports and holiday and special-occasion messages.

“If you disregard your CRM system, you’re leaving deals on the table,” he says. “Once you have enough leads in there, it’s impossible to nurture each one to the extent you should. The CRM allows you to focus on your day-to-day obligations, while taking care of the nurturing in the background.”

 

The system starts the conversation. The agent builds the relationship.

 

For agents who fear automation is the demise of the white-glove treatment in real estate, Kee maintains that automation just opens the door — it’s still up to the agent who walks through it to create a successful deal. Kee recalls one of her clients who had a lead respond to an automated text in a campaign, which turned into a personal call, showings and a deal shortly after.

“The initial contact required one automated email and one automated text,” Kee says. “The follow-up to close required 20 personal emails, 158 texts, five calls and 18 additional automated emails. The system started the conversation. The agent built the relationship.”

While the first touchpoint may be automated, creating a real connection and devising a plan of action to cater to a client’s individual needs is something no system can replace.

“If a lead is calling or emailing in, typically they have some kind of problem to solve … they need more or less space, they have financial stress, they are moving out of town, they are blending two families into one household,” Mazza says. “Our job is to help identify the problem and help them fix it. This requires authentic and caring communication, which also requires excellent listening skills.”

Kee agrees: while automation is important, nothing can replace the personal touch.

“That balance is everything. Automate the things a human shouldn’t have to remember. Keep the moments that build trust personal,” she says. “The phone call, the consultation, the showing, the negotiation … those are relationship moments and no automation replaces them.”