Lofty | Reviews and Pricing | 2024
Lofty (formerly Chime) is an all-in-one platform designed for real estate teams, large and small. They feature a flexible website, versatile and feature-rich CRM, listing manager, and transaction management system. They also can conduct your paid lead generation for you.
Lofty is a newer entrant to the real estate space having been founded in 2016. Their office is located in Phoenix, AZ. They partnered with Curyator in 2020 on a hybrid product, blending Curaytor’s marketing tools with Lofty’s CRM. In 2022, they went global, acquiring Rentancy in the UK to begin expanding to the rental market. In 2023, Chime rebranded to Lofty.
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Use Lofty if…
- You want an all-in-one platform that is versatile both in front and back and can adapt to almost any lead-generation strategy
Skip Lofty if…
- Your sole lead generation strategies are going to be paid ads (and repeat/referral, of course) (consider CINC)
- You have a smaller budget and can accept a less robust product but prioritize automation (consider kvCORE)
- SEO is one of your business pillars (consider Sierra Interactive)
View Other Real Estate Platforms
Design Examples
Most Lofty websites feature video backgrounds. There is a variety of designs and, unlike other sites, Chime sites are diverse enough that you can’t immediately tell whether it’s a Chime site or not.
The IDX search seems simple and I had no complaints browsing homes. Some agents need to include “year built” on their search features, though!
Lofty has more in common with Curaytor than just their formal partnership. Lofty’s website design and CMS backend shares a lot in common with Curatyor. It features drag and drop modules with good resizing features to prevent you from accidentally making your own site ugly.
The drag-and-drop module functionality allows you to easily edit custom designs.
Their default templates are better looking than quite a few of their competitors, but can easily be spruced up if you feel necessary with a third-party designer like Cherie Young.
Downtown Realty
Destination Havasu
Cherie Young
$699+. Cherie Young has a design service that focuses on upgrading real estate platform website designs. If you love a platform’s backend but are “meh” about their website design, Cherie’s company can give you the best of both worlds. Cherie is a real estate platform expert and contributed to this article!
Best Features
Feature Rich CRM
It is has more flexibility than any of its major competitors.
It includes:
- voicemail drop
- listing alerts
- good business tracking, including forecasts and analytics
- drip campaigns (called smart plans) that are highly customizable
- lead scoring
- three-line dialer with tracking and routing features
- solid landing pages
- integrated open house sign-in sheet
- buyer matching (reverse prospecting)
- good, data-rich market snapshots for sellers and homeowners
- drag and drop marketing email editor
- AI website chatbot based on Google Assistant
Unlike some competitors, Lofty has added some decent transaction management features.
The dashboard is good looking and clean, but interface can get a little busy with so many features and components. There’s always a tradeoff there between hiding information and forcing you to click more to dig in versus presenting the information in a single view, which may feel cluttered. There are likely numerous features you will not use. It’s definitely ideal to use the CRM with a large external monitor rather than a small laptop screen.
The dashboard features an easy-to-use kanban style pipeline to efficiently monitor the funnel.
IDX Search
Lofty directly integrates with the MLS, making it easy to sent listing alerts and start transactions from MLS records.
But what Chime does especially well is its IDX.
Their property pages include a prominent and well-done option for clients to schedule a showing, on par with the kind of call to actions offered by the major portals.
It was really fast updating and clicking through properties when I experimented with it.
The property pages also include some of the aforementioned data-rich market information, but in a compact and not distracting way.
You can even easily add pocket listings manually.
Mobile App
It is not an app but a mobile version of the website, which is what most providers are now doing and seems sensible. You don’t lose any of the power of the CRM by moving to mobile.
You can also use the dialing features there straight on your phone. Many Lofty reviews highlight the mobile app as one of their favorite features.
Social Studio
Lofty launched Social Studio in 2022, a marketing automation tool similar to OutboundEngine or Cityblast.
The tool auto-posts listings to your feeds as well as publish to all your major social channels at once: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
It is not likely adequate to drive your social channels as major pillars of your business, but a nifty tool for keeping your business’s social presence looking alive.
Biggest Pitfalls
Fewer Native Marketing Features
Social Studio was a major step forward to compete with other CRMs in the space on their marketing capabilities.
Lofty has strengths here, too, like dynamic Facebook ads similar to Ylopo. You can easily post listings to Facebook and it has a good number of direct integrations and the all-important Zapier integration, so that is not a problem.
kvCORE, meanwhile, has surrounded its core product with a few acquisitions, including several automated marketing tools. While Lofty can competently handle many of the same tasks, kvCORE and others might have more automation features and marketing tools.
If this is a weakness, Lofty has made it a modest one, having partnered with marketing platforms like Curaytor and Ylopo for direct integrations.
SEO
There is nothing about Lofty that is “bad” at search engine optimization. They do everything right. SEO is generally more about creating content and what you do rather than what platform you do it on.
However, it is not as focused on SEO as is its competitor, Sierra Interactive, who has managed impressive results and makes its track record there a compelling unique selling proposition.
If organic lead generation is a major pillar of your lead generation, you may want to consider other options.
Lofty Pricing*
- $449/mo and $500 setup for Core
- $699/mo and $1000 setup for Premier
- $1499/mo and $2000 setup for Enterprise
- $15-$30 Text Package
- $99/mo ISA Dialer
- $10-$69/mo Voice Package
- $5/mo MLS fee
Lofty starts at $449/mo and $500 setup for the Core package aimed at individual agents or small teams. It includes 3 users and $15/mo for each additional user.
The Premier plan designed for teams is $699/mo, $1000 setup, and accommodates up to 15 users with $25/mo for each additional user. It adds the CMA, AI Assistant, and Social Studio tools.
The Enterprise plan is $1499/mo for up to 100 users, $2000 setup, and $12/mo for each additional user. You can add an additional website for $200/mo (previous versions include agent subdomains). It adds the multi-office view and option to white label the product to your brokerage/team.
At any level you can add a lender and split the cost 50/50, directly billing your lender partner for their share.
The Text package add-on is $15/mo for up to 15,000 texts/mo or 500/day, or $30/mo for up to 30,000 texts/mo or 1000/day.
The triple-line dialer is $99/mo for unlimited minutes.
The Voice package add-on is $15/mo for 500 minutes, of $49/mo for 4500 minutes.
Their lead generation is $15-30 per seller lead and $10-15 per buyer lead, starting at $300/mo minimum spend.
There is $5/mo fee for each MLS added.
*This is current to the best of my knowledge at the time of this writing. Contact the vendor directly to check current prices, discounts, and terms.
My Personal Recommendation
Lofty has been getting rave reviews for a while, and I am tardy to finally digging in and reviewing it. I put an entire day into this review, trying to find any negatives about Lofty. If you can think of any, please email me. I can find few.
There are small items like maybe the UI could be simplified a little, or better filters. But Lofty has most if not all of the functionality as its main competitors and then some. Its website is more customizable than just about any of its competitors.
Lofty says that their big differentiator versus competitors like BoomTown or CINC is that they are focused on the platform and not necessarily wedded to a particular lead generation strategy like paid leads. BoomTown and CINC are much less versatile than Lofty, but that is because they are carefully designed and optimized for a paid lead funnel. That might be a pro of those other platforms, if you are willing to give up control of your site and trust them and their industry experience.
I think it is better than kvCORE, although you are paying more. The one thing kvCORE might have going for it over Lofty are the other tools that kvCORE has added to its family that include a brokerage backend (formerly Brokersumo) and listing marketing (formerly Circlepix). If you prize these add-ons, then maybe that moves the needle. Otherwise Lofty is the winner.
The other item to consider is that Lofty has a lot. Even power users are unlikely to use all of them, and they are adding more all the time. If you have much simpler CRM needs and don’t need the additional features, it’s likely there are more affordable CRM/platform combos you could wrangle that would still do everything you need to. If you’re the type who can be easily distracted in a CRM and lose your way, maybe it’s worthwhile to have something very basic like a Market Leader.
I also like that it is really easy to partner with a lender on the platform and marketing cost. Your basic 3 users at the starting plan has room for a lender!
Its back-end is highly customizable. The only CRMs that come to mind that have even more customization would be Realvolve or a non-real estate CRM like Infusionsoft. And unlike Boomtown or CINC, you can do a lot more with your homepage and make it your own.
Lofty is a clear contender for your business if you are an agent or team, especially if you use a diverse set of prospecting strategies.
Lofty Videos
Support is a joke. They take forever to resolve an simple issues, if they even do. Worst yet, they need access to your account in order to resolve issues. I have had my account open for days, so that any support person can go looking around and they still have not resolved a simple fix such as adding my virtual text number to my account. Since its become Lofty the service has gone down tremendously – paying for more and getting less. Looking for another CRM.
Pros
Mostly very user friendly, follow up automation is the best I’ve seen. It’s pretty fast, overall. I worked with Boomtown for a while and found all the pages loaded very slowly, and at my advanced age I don’t have much time left. I want the pages to load quickly. And I find most of the interfaces pretty easy. But the best feature is the customizable smart plans. It allows me to automate my follow up for relatively inactive customers and if I stick to the plan it increases conversions.
Con
Customer service is genuinely not… there. There are exceptions, but I find it difficult to get them to fix anything that doesn’t work. Example: I would like to imbed properties in texts. Can’t do it. It’s available on other platforms, so I figure for $500 a month they should be able to get this done. Nope. Another: The IDX search that the reviewer touted really is not as responsive as he thinks. Most of the filters have no real effect… Today I added in “No” to foreclosures in a search and it eliminated 75% of the properties. I know that ain’t true, so I just ignored the filter. But they can do better. Having said this, I’ve TRIED to switch, mostly because of the piss poor customer service, and can’t find anything I like better. Overall it’s a very good program.