Dave and Sheila, an experienced realtor couple with over 30 years in San Francisco Bay Area real estate, have deep roots in the community as homeowners in the heart of San Francisco. Dave, a true San Franciscan and third-generation native educated at prestigious institutions, cherishes his connection to the city and enjoys golfing and outings with his beloved dog. Sheila, a licensed Broker with a psychology degree, finds fulfillment in reading, Pilates, and volunteering with animal rescue organizations.
The husband and wife duo specialize in assisting residential buyers and sellers, focusing on a variety of property types, from single-family homes to condos, townhomes, and up to 4-unit buildings. Throughout the entirety of their successful careers, they have remained dedicated to Coldwell Banker.
Company Name: Dave and Sheila
Industry: Real Estate
Customer Names: Dave Rivera & Sheila Small
Titles: Realtor/Broker Associate
Website: https://www.daveandsheila.com/
Dave and Sheila’s business challenges centered on the need for an efficient CRM system to organize contacts. Speaking on their current manual contact organization methods, Sheila said, “I was struggling with combining all my contacts into one place, they were scattered everywhere.” When clients started slipping through the cracks because of this, Sheila realized the necessity of a CRM to prevent such occurrences. She stated, “I can’t believe I got along without a CRM for as long as I did. When I experienced a few things slipping through the cracks, that’s when I realized I cannot do it anymore.” This prompted her search for a suitable solution.
Sheila spent a year trying various other CRMs, but found them either too complex or lacking desired functionality. This led her to reevaluate her expectations and prioritize ease of use and effectiveness. Sheila mentioned, “I went onto a year long quest to find the right CRM. I probably tried a dozen. It took me forever. Each one was either too complicated or it didn’t have what I wanted. I was looking for perfection. I realized that’s not what I was going to get. At the time I came to Nimble, I was very excited that it was relatively easy and worked well.” Recognizing the limitations of alternative CRMs, the pair turned to Nimble to organize and centralize their contacts and communications.
While migrating to their new contact management system, Sheila stressed the importance of a smooth, direct integration with Outlook due to the couples’ business practices relying heavily on email communications. Sheila said, “We also needed something that worked well with Outlook and Nimble does that very well. We didn’t want to use any plugins to be able to work with Outlook, we wanted something that directly integrates with Outlook.” With Nimble, Dave and Sheila could easily integrate their Outlook calendar, contacts and email threads, which sealed the deal.
After linking their Outlook business inboxes, Sheila found that Nimble’s Email Tracking and Email Templates were the missing pieces to her real estate communications. She mentioned, “I love the email tracking feature and seeing who opened my emails.” With Nimble’s email tracking, Dave and Sheila can monitor the following information: How many times their email was opened, the geographical location of where their email was opened from, when their email was opened, and even if any links within the email were clicked!
Sheila appreciates how easily she can personalize email messages through the use of Email Templates. She says, “It’s handy. You don’t have to write the same email over and over.” When sending out an email that you repeatedly have to send, you can create an email template within Nimble. Then, the next time you have to send the same message, all of your information will be pre-filled in a template, ultimately saving you time.
When it comes to contact management, Sheila can’t get enough of each contact record featured offered by Nimble. Specifically, Sheila has come to realize how much of an asset Nimble Prospector, Nimble’s free browser extension, truly can be. Nimble Prospector automagically imports contact records into your database by pulling information directly from social media profiles, websites, or any other online location. When speaking on Nimble Prospector’s capabilities, Sheila said, “When I first saw it, it was like magic!” With just the click of a button, you can build a complete contact record.
Being in real estate, Sheila and Dave communicate with dozens of potential buyers, sellers and colleagues throughout the day. Because of this, it can be difficult to remember their past conversations with each contact. With Nimble, they can now monitor all past communications through the Past Activities tab located within each contact record. Sheila says, “I love seeing my history of conversations so that when I’m looking at a contact profile, I know what we talked about last time.”
Dave and Sheila believe that Real Estate Agents can greatly benefit from utilizing a CRM system. As Sheila mentions, referrals play a significant role in their business. She says, “Most of our business comes from referrals. Friends, family, neighbors who know someone recommend us. We also send a lot of business to areas we don’t cover. We use social media too. We are on Nextdoor in our neighborhood so our neighbors know we live here and we sell real estate. This is where our leads are coming from.”
Having a CRM allows agents to effectively manage and track these leads, ensuring no valuable opportunities are missed. Specifically with Nimble, agents can use Deal Pipelines, Workflows and Task Reminders to fully track their processes and overall progress with referrals.
Communication preferences are also crucial when engaging with leads, and real estate agents recognize the importance of accommodating these preferences. Sheila says, “When we first start talking to leads, we ask them how they prefer to be contacted. We prefer text or email and most people do as well.” By utilizing a CRM, agents can seamlessly organize and maintain past communication records, ensuring they reach out to leads via their preferred channels, fostering efficient and personalized interactions throughout the sales process.
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