Real estate operations are all unique, but they all have common challenges. Work happens on location and in cars on the way there. Information gets spread across endless spreadsheets, emails, text threads, and paper documents. It’s hard to find when you need it, and the right software to help you just doesn’t exist. Off-the-shelf tools are too rigid and don’t fit your brokerage’s specific needs. Yet high-value clients necessitate providing a seamless and professional experience.
With property data, contact information, documents, and communications scattered in different places, teams waste time looking for information instead of closing deals.
You can solve these problems by creating custom real estate software, designed around the way your brokerage operates. Using a no-code platform like Glide, you can build your own systems quickly and shape them around their actual workflows. And you don’t need any engineering resources to do it.
Agents get real-time access to accurate information wherever their work is happening. Buyers and sellers get faster, more detailed information and a more polished, professional experience. Brokerages can replace scattered tools with a single system that brings all your data together in one place, making it more accurate, organized, and easier to use.
Here’s how creating custom real estate apps can help your agents work more efficiently, stay aligned, and rely on the same up-to-date data across the entire brokerage.
Benefits of custom real estate management software
Real estate operations often run on disconnected emails, documents, and spreadsheets. Property details live in one file, leads in another, financials in a third. Agents can’t update records from a showing or appointment, information gets lost or added later from memory, and it may be inaccurate. When you multiply that across dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of agents in a brokerage, you end up with a constant exchange of files that fall out of date quickly and are difficult to manage.
Building your own software allows you to solve the specific operational challenges that generic tools can’t address. Custom real estate management software improves how your agents work in the field and creates a better experience for both your team and clients. Here are its benefits.
- Single source of truth: Custom apps pull data from a shared, connected database, so an update in one place instantly reflects everywhere else. This keeps your entire team aligned on inventory and customer details, eliminating the confusion that versioned spreadsheets can create.
- Mobile accessibility: Real estate work happens in the field and on the go, so your software needs to work wherever your agents do. Apps built with Glide are automatically mobile adaptive. They work just as well on smartphones or tablets at an open house or showing as they do on a desktop in the office.
- Automation and AI workflows: With custom apps, you can integrate AI and automation into your work to reduce the manual labor involved in real estate operations. Glide’s managed AI makes it easy to build intelligent automations directly into your apps. It can automatically draft listing descriptions from property notes or trigger a follow-up email when a lead status changes, allowing your agents to focus on selling properties and building relationships with clients.
- Role-based access: Custom software lets you control exactly who can access or edit specific listings. You can set permissions so that agents only edit their own listings while managers oversee the entire portfolio. This prevents accidental errors, protects sensitive client data, and gives each user a focused view of the information that matters to their role.
- Elevated customer experience: You can provide a better experience for sellers and buyers by creating customer portals. With no-code, you can build media-rich portals where clients log in to browse high-resolution photos, save their favorite homes, and upload, download, and sign documents securely. Documents and communications are centralized, so nothing gets lost in email inboxes or endless text threads.
- Fast, iterative solutions: Using a no-code platform like Glide, you don’t need a team of software engineers, months of development time, and a generous budget to make custom software. Anyone with some technical prowess can build apps, make changes, and scale your tools with your business, without knowing any code.
“With Glide, TTR Sotheby’s International Realty has developed a safe, secure, and intentional solution that not only serves the best interest of the customer, but also offers a delightful user experience to our agents.”
Byron L. Hughey
VP of Digital Media and Engagement, TTR Sotheby's International Realty
Who can benefit from custom real estate management software
Custom real estate management software can be built to handle the distinct challenges of both residential and commercial markets. While both sectors rely on listings and relationships, their operational needs are fundamentally different, and off-the-shelf tools rarely fit both perfectly.
For residential teams, success depends on managing speed, volume, and personal details. Agents juggle dozens of leads and fast-moving inventory. But they also need to remember that one family prioritizes school districts while another needs a yard for their dog. Custom apps allow agents to automate routine tasks like follow-ups and showing schedules while giving them a place to track specific client preferences. They can maintain personal relationships at scale without losing track of the details that close deals.
For commercial real estate teams, the focus shifts to complexity and investor relations. Deals involve long cycles and require tracking deep, specific data points like zoning, lease terms, and many-to-many relationships that standard tools often miss. Custom software allows agents to manage due diligence from one system. It also enables brokerages to build secure, white-label portals where investors can log in to view performance metrics and documents, delivering a professional experience that generic platforms can’t match.
Custom real estate management apps you can build for your brokerage
There are many real estate management processes that benefit from custom software. These range from back-office tasks like tracking inventory and onboarding agents to client-facing workflows like showcasing listings.
Here are some effective no-code apps for real estate brokerages.
1. Internal property listings app
A custom internal property listings app acts as the single source of truth for your brokerage’s entire inventory. It gives agents and staff one place to create, update, and track every property you represent.
The data in this app acts as the shared source for your other tools, creating a two-way data sync. Updates made here carry through to all the other custom apps your brokerage uses, while changes made in those tools reflect instantly back to the master record. This keeps every system perfectly aligned without manual double-entry.
The app supports access control, so property data stays secure without slowing the team down. You can set rules that determine who can view or edit a listing based on their role in the brokerage and connection to the property. For example:
- User sign-in: Restrict access to agents and staff using your brokerage’s email domain or single sign-on.
- Row Owners: Limit tables with sensitive records to the specific people responsible for them.
- Editing permissions: Assign a listing agent to each property and grant editing rights only to that agent and their manager.
Inside the app, agents can manage their properties’ full records. They can update details, add photos, attach documents, and record anything that changes as a listing moves through its lifecycle. Labels such as ”coming soon,” “internal only,“ ”pre-market,” “active,” or ”pocket listing” help the team understand where a property sits and who should see it at each stage.
This creates a stable operational foundation and gives your team an accurate record of every property, no matter which app they’re working in.
2. Agent CRM system
A custom CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system gives agents a single place to manage every lead without bouncing between spreadsheets, texts, email threads, and personal notes.
Agents waste hours every week switching between disconnected tools. Off-the-shelf CRMs help with basic organization, but they still create friction when the fields, stages, and workflows don’t match how your team actually works.
With a custom app, agents can store all the important information in one place. They can log calls, update tasks, and even use voice-to-text features to add notes to a record immediately after a client meeting.
With advanced features, the CRM turns from a place to store information into a tool that agents actively work out of. Residential teams working with a high volume of contacts can automate follow-up tasks so leads keep moving without constant reminders. Commercial teams can add fields for external contacts like attorneys or surveyors, keeping them tied to the property’s record. Email integrations let agents communicate with everyone involved directly from the app. There’s no wasting time searching for the right thread and contacts.
And while these features help agents work more efficiently, they also address persistent problems at the brokerage level: maintaining ownership of the relationship.
In manual systems, agents often manage leads in their personal phones or spreadsheets. If they leave, they take that entire contact list with them. A custom app ensures that all leads are stored centrally within your brokerage’s system, not on a personal device.
The result is a CRM that keeps information organized, follow-up consistent, and the whole pipeline easier to manage.
3. Property marketplace app
A property marketplace app gives buyers a personalized, media-rich way to explore listings and sends every saved search and inquiry straight into your connected CRM.
Agents often keep property data in one spreadsheet and buyer notes in another, relying on these files and long email threads to share listings with clients. It creates a clunky experience: spreadsheets fall out of date, lack the photos and details buyers need, and don’t let buyers filter or compare properties. None of this syncs with the CRM, so agents end up re-entering information manually and guessing which properties match which buyer.
A custom marketplace app replaces this with full listing records that show the information buyers expect to see. Instead of scrolling through spreadsheets, buyers can watch walkthrough videos, flip through an image gallery, compare layouts, and review key property details in a format designed for browsing.
Residential buyers can filter by price range or bedroom and bathroom count, while commercial clients can filter by size, zoning, property category, or other relevant features. This gives buyers clarity and agents a far better way to present options.
Because the app connects to your CRM, buyer activity becomes immediately useful. When a logged-in buyer marks a property as a favorite, it’s added to their CRM record so agents can see which listings they’re interested in. From the buyer’s perspective, favorited properties stay organized in one place and are easy to pull up whenever they want to take another look.
4. Private listings app
A custom private listings app is an invitation-only platform to share off-market homes with select buyers. Unlike a public marketplace, this tool is designed for exclusivity. Agents can present high-value holdings or pocket listings with the discretion sellers expect and the exclusive experience high-value buyers appreciate.
Agents today typically manage pocket listings with spreadsheets that become outdated, are hard to share with others, and create a lackluster experience for buyers. A custom private listings app replaces static files with a dynamic platform where you control who gets access, how listings are presented, and how agents share updates.
You can build an experience inside the app that matches the high quality of the properties. Buyers flip through high-resolution photos and videos that bring the property to life, and get a detailed view of property information. Because the app is mobile-friendly, they can browse listings on the go and contact the listing agent directly through call or text buttons.
Agents can add or update listings at any time from their phone, tablet, or computer. When a new property hits the system, automated notifications alert the other agents in your brokerage. Your inventory stays current, and agents can share off-market opportunities with buyers as soon as they’re available.
No-code platforms like Glide give you the flexibility to address the specific needs of pocket listings that generic tools don’t cover. TTR Sotheby’s International Realty used Glide to build its private listings app for this exact reason. Their app gives agents more autonomy, provides clients with a secure place to sell sensitive properties, and presents them with the clarity and visual depth they need to be understood properly.
“Since we launched First Look, we've seen great engagement from our agents. It couldn't be easier to upload content to the app. Agents can do that on their own time. 24/7, 365 days a year. To us, that has been transformative because it shows us the constant stream of new inventory in a very real-time way.”
Byron L. Hughey
VP of Digital Media and Engagement, TTR Sotheby's International Realty
5. Investment analysis app
A custom investment analysis app turns raw property data into a complete deal package. It automatically extracts the details, fills in the relevant fields, and runs your complex calculations, reducing manual entry and lowering the chance of errors.
Evaluating a deal today involves juggling data that lives across spreadsheets, PDFs, and text or email threads. Numbers get copied over manually, increasing the risk of typos that can derail a deal. Plus, every agent or analyst uses a different spreadsheet, so there’s no shared data, no place to track questions or notes, and no way for teams to compare deals without stitching together files from multiple people.
A custom app pulls this information into a single structured record for each property. You can capture everything from asking price and photos to detailed renovation scopes. You can also include reference data like neighboring sales prices or land value to take these important external factors into account.
AI capabilities reduce the risk of manual error in entering this data. You can set up AI to automatically extract information from Multiple Listing Service (MLS) summaries, uploaded PDF files, agent notes, and forwarded emails and add it to the relevant fields. It standardizes messy data and creates a uniform system across all properties being analyzed.
Your app can then run this data through powerful custom calculators to see projected ROI. When you have several properties to evaluate, the app can compare them side-by-side using the same logic and data structure, making it easier to see which deals truly perform best.
6. Deal sourcing app
While investment analysis apps help evaluate properties you’ve found, deal sourcing apps use predictive analytics to flag properties worth a closer look.
Real estate investment is often a numbers game where you have to review hundreds of properties to find one good deal. Predictive tools change this dynamic by scanning the market to spot opportunities that match your criteria, often before they even hit the market.
It’s worth noting that these tools are only as good as the data they’re fed, and real estate data is notoriously fragmented. Details are scattered across tax records, inconsistent MLS listings, and county archives. And in some U.S. states, sale prices aren’t even public record, so the AI model may not be working from accurate historical data.
This means these tools work best as a high-speed filter to find leads instead of as a replacement for your own due diligence.
They can, however, help you get a head start. By analyzing broader trends like permit applications or rent growth, they can surface neighborhoods that appear poised for growth. You can even run scenarios to see how a property might perform if the market shifts.
It doesn’t replace your own judgment or the need to verify the numbers, but it reduces the hours spent scanning listings and lets you move straight to evaluation.
7. Transaction management app
A custom transaction management app turns a complex closing process into a clear sequence of stages. It automatically shows agents the next tasks for each stage, tracks contract dates, and organizes key documents in a single deal record, reducing manual tracking and preventing missed deadlines.
End-to-end transaction management involves a large number of documents and deadlines. And when agents manage multiple deals at the same time, it’s easy for things to get overlooked. A custom app creates a central hub to manage the whole process.
You can define what the agent needs to do at each stage of a purchase or sale, and the app presents those actions automatically as the deal progresses. These can include:
- Documents to collect: Inspection records, purchase agreements, and other files can be uploaded directly to the app and stored in the deal’s record.
- Tasks to complete: Agents can mark off entries like “inspection ordered,” “insurance confirmed,” and “final walkthrough done” in the transaction’s checklist. Many of these tasks can be completed from within the app through email integrations.
- Signatures to get: Integrations with tools like DocuSign let agents request and track signatures directly from the app.
- Parties to notify: Agents can email inspectors or appraisers, the buyer or seller, attorneys, and anyone else involved in the deal from within the app whenever key dates or status changes are logged.
The app can send reminders to the agent when a due date for an incomplete task is approaching. When all items on a checklist are complete, the agent can move the deal to the next stage by confirming the status change in the app.
A dashboard gives agents an overview of all their deals. They can see what’s in progress and what’s outstanding, so they know exactly what still needs attention across their entire pipeline.
8. Portfolio tracker app
A portfolio tracker app gives investors and brokers a single, secure place to monitor the performance, value, and financial history of their properties. Investors log in to see their property portfolio, while brokers can toggle between individual investor views or see the aggregate performance of all assets under management.
Brokers and investors often track performance manually, which makes it hard to see how properties are actually performing over time. Basic questions about appreciation or operating costs require digging through different files or doing fresh calculations each time. A custom app solves this by bringing property data into a personalized dashboard that updates whenever new information is added.
Each property has its own dedicated record with the details needed to understand its history and performance: things like acquisition date and price, current value, photos, tax information, and property type. You can also store expense categories like repairs and improvements, along with notes on maintenance work and before-and-after photos.
Because this information sits in one place, brokers and investors can review a complete history without switching between tools. The data is displayed using charts and visuals that show value changes, expenses, and performance trends over time. This makes it easier to compare individual assets and see overall portfolio performance at a glance.
To keep this data secure, use Row Owners to control exactly who can see a specific property. Each property can be assigned to an individual investor, so they only see their own portfolio. Meanwhile, portfolio managers can be granted access to all properties they manage. This gives them full oversight of every client’s assets without exposing information that shouldn’t be shared across accounts.
9. Marketing tools app
A custom marketing tools app gives agents a single workspace to create SMS and email promotions, social posts, and open house materials that follow your brand guidelines. No matter which agent creates a flyer or social post, the final result always looks professional, on-brand, and unmistakably yours.
Agents open a property’s record and pick the kind of message they want to create. With one click, they can trigger generative AI to draft ready-to-use content such as social media captions for Facebook or Instagram, or emails or SMS messages to announce a new listing.
The app instantly pulls details from the property’s photos and description to write the message in your brokerage's brand voice. Agents review and make changes before sending.
You can also set up integrations with different platforms to help agents market their properties from the app itself.
- Email integrations with platforms like Gmail and Microsoft Outlook let agents send drafted emails directly from the app.
- SMS integrations with platforms like Twilio allow quick outreach to clients using generated messages.
- Automation integrations with Zapier or Make connect the app to design tools like Canva and to your social media scheduling tools. Agents can create on-brand social assets from the property’s photos and publish them without leaving the app.
- Analytics integrations like Google Analytics or Mixpanel show which listings get the most visitors and how these visitors interact with them. Agents can see which listings to prioritize and where to focus their outreach.
Instead of waiting on a marketing team or struggling with design software, agents can create consistent, on-brand materials quickly.
10. Employee portal app
An employee portal app is the central hub for your brokerage’s internal operations. It becomes the starting point for onboarding, training, company resources, and day-to-day questions. Agents can find answers without digging through email threads or waiting for a reply from their manager.
The onboarding screen gives new hires a clear path from day one. They receive a step-by-step checklist of tasks, with direct links to all important information, resources, and relevant contacts. New hires know exactly what they need to do and who to get in touch with if they have questions. Managers, meanwhile, get an overview of progress for all the new hires they manage, ensuring every agent is fully up to speed and compliant before they start selling.
Real estate brokerage eXp Realty built an onboarding app using Glide to improve the experience for new hires. As a result, they increased their agent NPS score to an industry best 70 while easily onboarding thousands of agents a month.
Beyond onboarding, the app serves as a searchable directory for the entire organization. Employees can filter the staff list by name, role, or region to find the right person for a specific question. If an employee needs to chat with a specific agent or a compliance officer, they can locate the contact and call or email them directly from the app.
This app also serves as an internal knowledge base for your brokerage’s collective intelligence. It houses all your policies, handbooks, training scripts, and any other resources teams rely on in a searchable library organized by topic. Whether an employee is looking for compliance guidelines, transaction support, or tech help, they can pull up the right document instantly. And because agents are rarely at a desk, the app’s mobile adaptive design makes it easy to use even when they’re at a showing or open house.
Build a comprehensive real estate management system, tailored to your operations
You don’t need to overhaul your entire operations at once to get the benefits of custom software. Start with the area that slows your team down the most and design an app that addresses that one process. This focused approach gives you immediate value without overwhelming your team.
Once you know where to begin, decide who will build your Glide app. You have a few options to choose from.
Your IT or operations team can build it themselves from a pre-built template or from scratch using the drag-and-drop interface. No-code app development doesn’t require traditional development skills, so your team can move fast and build the specific solution they need.
If you’d like to work with an outside consultant, you can hire a Glide Expert or no-code agency who can build the app for you in days or weeks. Glide Experts can serve as operational consultants, helping you identify inefficiencies and pinpoint areas of your business that will benefit the most from custom apps.
Many businesses start with one Glide app and then build more to address pain points in different areas of operations. You can add tools that support other parts of your brokerage and connect them to the same data so your team operates from a single, accurate data source. Over time, you’ll replace scattered tools with a consistent system that reduces manual work, keeps information aligned, and supports agents wherever they are.
