Every brokerage in Dubai has been sold a CRM. Most of them are still running on WhatsApp groups and a spreadsheet, because the CRM they bought did not fit how agents actually work. Before you sign the next contract, ask these seven questions — in this order.
1. Where do my leads come from, and does it capture all of them?
Make a list: Bayut, Dubizzle, Property Finder, your website, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, walk-ins, referrals. Now ask the vendor to show you — live, not on a slide — a lead arriving from each one and landing in the inbox without anyone typing it in. If a single channel needs manual entry, that channel's leads will be lost within a month.
2. Who gets the lead, and how fast?
Routing is where deals are won. You want rules — by area, language, availability, performance — and you want ownership locked so two agents never call the same client. Ask how long it takes from "lead arrives" to "agent's phone buzzes". The honest answer should be seconds.
3. Does it work on a phone, offline, at a viewing?
Agents live in cars and lobbies. A CRM that only works on a desktop is a CRM that gets updated on Friday, if ever. Ask for the mobile app, install it, and turn off your data.
4. Who owns the data, and can I export it?
You should own every lead, client and deal, and be able to export them at any time in a standard format. Get it in writing. A vendor who hesitates here is planning to lock you in.
5. Can it run under my brand?
Your agents, your clients and your partners should see your name, not the software vendor's. White-label deployment — your logo, your domain, your colours — used to be an enterprise luxury; today it should be standard.
6. What does it cost per seat, and what happens when I grow?
Per-seat pricing is fine as long as it is transparent and integrations are not sold as add-ons afterwards. Ask what the tenth, twentieth and fiftieth agent cost, and what a new portal integration costs when a portal changes its API.
7. Who do I call when a portal changes and leads stop arriving?
Portals change their feeds several times a year. Somebody has to notice and fix it before you lose a week of leads. Ask who, how fast, and whether it is included.
The right CRM is the one your agents open before their first coffee. Everything else is a feature list.
What we built to answer these
We built Propfusion after watching brokerages fail on exactly these seven points, and we deploy the same engine under brokerages' own brands in days — see CRM & SaaS. If you want a second opinion on a CRM you are considering, send us the proposal; we will tell you honestly whether it passes.
