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A real estate agency often juggles transaction software, a spreadsheet of mandates, an inbox for enquiries and the listings website. Each property exists there in several copies, rarely up to date at the same time. The CRM that brings them together is not one more piece of software: it is the place that holds the truth.
“Best real estate CRM” roundups list software products. If you are still choosing the tool, start with our guide to choosing a real estate CRM. This guide starts from the other end: what the CRM should contain, the French legal obligations it helps you meet, and what we have learned running a property portal on Twenty, an open source CRM you install on your own server.
In short
A real estate CRM holds six linked objects: properties, mandates, owners, buyers, searches and viewings.
The listings website updates from the CRM, and every visitor enquiry comes back into it, linked to the property.
Checks before publication prevent listings without an energy rating, which in France can mean a fine of up to €15,000 for a company.
The legal mandate register and rental management call for dedicated tools, connected to the CRM.
What should a real estate CRM contain?
One object for each thing the team gives a name to, and a relationship every time someone says “this owner’s property” or “this buyer’s viewings”. For a sales agency, that gives six objects:
| Object | What it contains | Linked to |
|---|---|---|
| Properties | Type, floor area, price, status, energy and climate ratings, photos | Mandate, area, owner |
| Mandates | Register number, type, date, duration, fees | Property, owner |
| Owners | Contact details, properties entrusted, history of exchanges | Properties, mandates |
| Buyers and tenants | Contact details, searches, viewings, offers | Searches, viewings |
| Searches | Area, budget, property type, criteria | Buyer, matching properties |
| Viewings | Date, property, person, report | Property, buyer, agent |
A general-purpose CRM files all of this under “opportunities” and free-text fields. Twenty lets you create these objects as they are: according to its documentation, you can add custom objects, fields of more than twenty types and relationships between objects, without code. Our guide Twenty beyond the CRM: the back office for your business data details the method.
The property’s status deserves the most care, because the website depends on it: “to review”, “live”, “under offer”, “sold”, “withdrawn”. Only “live” properties go to the website, and a sold property disappears from it without anyone having to remember.
How does the listings website draw on the CRM?
The CRM holds the truth, and the website publishes a copy. Nobody enters a property twice, and enquiries travel the other way.
A property, from data entry to listing
- Entry
The agent creates the property in the CRM, or the owner submits it on the website.
- Review
A submitted property arrives as “to review”, and a person checks it.
- Reference
A workflow assigns its internal identifier.
- Translation
The texts go out in each language, and each segment is translated only once.
- Publication
The website updates from the CRM, every day.
- Enquiries
Every visitor enquiry comes back into the CRM, linked to the property.
Buyers’ searches do the rest of the work. A saved search keeps the area, budget and property type; when a new property matches, the agent is notified, and so is the buyer if they have agreed to it.
From the field
Palmora Property, a property listings portal in Thailand, is built and operated by us, from the website to the CRM. Properties, areas and referrers are separate Twenty objects there, with business identifiers generated automatically. The site publishes more than 3,000 URLs in six languages, updated every day from the CRM; switching to an AI model cut translation costs by a factor of 60, and a cache serves 95% of segments without calling the model again. A property submitted by an owner arrives as “to review”, with a source field that distinguishes it from properties entered by the team, and visitors’ searches form a separate object. We have also published an app on Twenty’s store that reorders a property’s photos.
French law on mandates and energy ratings does not apply in Thailand, but the data model is the same. What changes in France is the set of rules the CRM has to enforce.
Which obligations does the CRM help you meet in France?
The energy rating in every listing
Article L126-33 of the French Construction and Housing Code requires sale or rental listings, including on a digital platform, to state the property’s energy performance and greenhouse gas emissions ratings (the French DPE, or energy performance certificate) and, for a home, its estimated energy costs. The implementing regulations specify the format: the ratings must be displayed legibly and in colour, and the cost estimate must be preceded by the wording “Montant estimé des dépenses annuelles d’énergie pour un usage standard” (estimated annual energy costs for standard use), with the reference year for prices.
According to the official guidance on sale listings, a home rated F or G must also carry the wording “logement à consommation énergétique excessive” (home with excessive energy consumption).
Watch out
A professional who fails to meet this disclosure obligation faces an administrative fine of up to €3,000 for an individual and €15,000 for a company, under article L126-33.
In the CRM, this information becomes mandatory fields on the property: energy rating, climate rating, cost estimate and reference year. A property without those fields filled in cannot move to “live”, and the wording for F and G homes is added to the listing automatically. The check happens once, in the tool, instead of relying on each agent’s vigilance.
The mandate register
For a sales agency in France, article 72 of the decree of 20 July 1972 requires every mandate to be entered, in chronological order, in a mandate register, and the entry number to be copied onto the copy given to the client. The register may be kept electronically, under the conditions set by the Civil Code, and it is kept for ten years, like the mandates themselves.
The CRM can number mandates in order, link each one to its property and owner, and keep the history. But the legal register demands more: the Civil Code only gives an electronic document the same value as paper if its author is identified and its integrity guaranteed. No official text we have read says how an electronic register should achieve this, whether through continuous numbering, timestamping or sealing. The safest route is a dedicated electronic register, connected to the CRM, which picks up its number, or a setup approved by your legal adviser.
Prospect data
Potential buyers and sellers are prospects like any others. The CNIL, France’s data protection authority, recommends keeping their data for three years after the last contact initiated by them, then asking whether they want to stay in touch; our guide on inbound enquiries shows how the CRM handles this with a scheduled task.
What does a CRM like Twenty do, and what does it not do?
What Twenty handles
Properties, mandates, contacts and searches, linked together
The listings website, fed through the API
Visitor enquiries, saved and assigned
Checks before publication
What needs another tool
Rental management and client accounting
Drafting preliminary sale agreements and leases
The legal mandate register
Syndication to listing portals, to be built through APIs
The right-hand column is not a hidden flaw: Twenty is a CRM, not property management software. If your business is mainly rental management or building management, dedicated management software remains the right core; the CRM connects alongside it, for prospecting, mandates and enquiries.
Self-hosted, Twenty also needs someone to run it: backups, updates, monitoring. Our review of Twenty in production explains what that involves day to day. And if you are torn between several options, our comparison Twenty, Dolibarr or Odoo: which one for your team? puts them side by side.
Key takeaway
- One object for each thing the team names: properties, mandates, owners, buyers, searches, viewings.
- The CRM holds the truth, the website publishes a copy, and enquiries come back to the CRM.
- Energy rating fields are mandatory before going live, and the check happens in the tool.
- The legal mandate register and rental management live in dedicated tools, connected to the CRM.
How much does a real estate CRM on Twenty cost?
Twenty has no per-user licence once installed on your own server: the agency can add agents without the bill following. Our custom CRM and ERP offer sets up Twenty in your own vocabulary, real estate objects included, migrates your data and connects it to your website, for €4,500. The processes around it, such as search alerts, enquiry assignment or checks before publication, come under our n8n automation offer, from €2,400 per process.
Frequently asked questions
Can Twenty replace real estate transaction software?
For prospecting, mandates, properties, searches and enquiries, yes, with a model shaped to your vocabulary and no per-user licence. For rental management, client accounting or drafting legal documents, no: those are the job of management software, which the CRM complements rather than replaces. Many agencies are better off keeping both, connected by a sync.
Can the mandate register be kept in a CRM?
The CRM can number mandates in chronological order and link them to properties. The legal register, however, must be kept electronically under the conditions of the French Civil Code: identified author and guaranteed integrity. With no text specifying how, we recommend a dedicated electronic register connected to the CRM, or a setup approved by your legal adviser before giving up the paper register.
How do you publish CRM properties on the listings website?
Through the CRM’s API. The website reads a copy of the “live” properties, refreshed at regular intervals, every day for example, so it does not depend on the CRM for every visit. Visitor enquiries come back the same way, linked to the property. Syndication to listing portals is built the same way, portal by portal, depending on what each one accepts.
Can a real estate CRM handle several languages?
Yes, if the property’s texts are separate fields for each language. Translation can be handed to an AI model, with a cache that avoids paying twice for the same text. On a property portal we run in six languages, switching to an AI model cut translation costs by a factor of 60, and the cache serves 95% of segments. Human review remains useful for texts that carry commitments.
Sources
- Twenty, data model documentation (new tab)docs.twenty.com
- French Construction and Housing Code, article L126-33 (in French) (new tab)legifrance.gouv.fr
- Service-public.fr, what a property sale listing must state, checked on 12 September 2025 (in French) (new tab)service-public.gouv.fr
- Decree no. 72-678 of 20 July 1972, article 72 (in French) (new tab)legifrance.gouv.fr
French Construction and Housing Code, article L126-33 (in French)
Read on legifrance.gouv.fr(new tab)Service-public.fr, what a property sale listing must state, checked on 12 September 2025 (in French)
Read on service-public.gouv.fr(new tab)Decree no. 72-678 of 20 July 1972, article 72 (in French)
Read on legifrance.gouv.fr(new tab)Jim · founder of Brain Plus AI
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