We managed a 14,000-contact real estate database for the Faruqi Team at eXp Realty NY, and the main lesson is simple: a big database is only an asset once it is organized, segmented and reachable. This is an account of what we did, what one ad push produced, and what we would repeat on the next database.
We have kept this strictly to what happened. Where something is our opinion about how to work, we say so.
Where we started
The Faruqi Team, led by Ambreen Faruqi, works in New York City and Queens. They had about 14,000 contacts in BoldTrail, but the database was not being activated and the CRM was only half set up. Contacts were there. A working system around them was not.
Step one: rebuild the tags
We started by rebuilding the tagging structure from scratch instead of patching the old one. Tags are what let you ask the CRM a useful question, like “who are my past clients I have not spoken to in over a year?” If the tags are inconsistent, every later step gets harder. It was not exciting work, and it was the work everything else depended on.
Step two: segment by relationship and recency
With clean tags, we segmented the 14,000 contacts by relationship type and by recency. This is what stopped the database from being one undifferentiated list. Different people in it needed different handling, and each segment could now get its own approach. For a more general version of this process, see our guide to cleaning and reactivating a real estate database.
Step three: two channels
We ran two channels in parallel.
- A B2B referral channel. A two-touch podcast outreach sequence, sent on Day 1 and Day 3, aimed at title companies and estate attorneys. We targeted them because they are strong referral sources for probate and inherited-property work, which suits this team.
- A B2C paid channel. Meta lead-gen ads, run under Special Ad Category compliance, feeding leads into the rebuilt and tagged BoldTrail CRM.
One ad push produced 5 leads in 2 days at a cost of $15 per lead. That is a small sample, and we do not present it as a benchmark. It does show that leads landing in a clean, tagged CRM can be followed up immediately. A separate run of the Facebook ad produced 5 seller leads in one day at about $8 per lead, imported directly into BoldTrail by an automation we built that starts the email campaign, workflow and follow-ups; the flow is explained in how we auto-import Facebook seller leads into BoldTrail.
Step four: seller emails and deliverability
We built a branded seller-lead HTML email system in navy and gold, designed to work with BoldTrail, and it is ongoing work. We also fixed email deliverability for the team’s domain by setting up SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Nobody sees a good email that lands in spam, so we treat this as part of the build rather than an afterthought.
Alongside this, we produced YouTube video, ran LinkedIn outreach and handled daily lead follow-up.
Why a database this size is hard to run
Size works against you in a few ways. Nobody can remember who most of the contacts are, so you cannot manage by memory. Any mistake, such as one wrong tag or one unfiltered send, is multiplied across thousands of people. And because no single task is urgent, the cleanup keeps getting pushed back. We think of the work as building rails: once the structure exists, the daily work becomes a queue of clear tasks rather than a vague sense that the database ought to be doing more.
It also helps to have one person accountable for the CRM. When several people add contacts, apply tags and send campaigns without shared rules, the structure drifts back to where it started within months. We document the tag dictionary and stage names so that any team member can pick up the system.
What we learned
These are lessons about our approach, not measured results.
- Fix the structure before the outreach. We would rather spend the first stretch on tags and segments than send messages to an unsorted list.
- Treat referral partners separately. The relationship with an estate attorney is not the relationship with a past client. Different message, different goal.
- Run more than one channel. A referral channel and a paid channel fail and succeed in different ways, and together they covered more ground.
- Do deliverability early. DNS records take little time and protect everything you send afterward.
- Keep following up daily. New leads from ads or outreach need a fast human response. We make that a daily habit, not a campaign.
- Be honest about sample size. Five leads is encouraging, not a forecast.
What we would not claim
We would not claim a conversion rate, a number of closings or a return on ad spend from this work, because we are not presenting those figures. If someone offers you a guaranteed result from database work, ask to see how it was measured.
Want the details?
The Faruqi Team case study has the full overview. If you have a database like this one sitting idle, our real estate CRM virtual assistant service is where we would start, and the guide to what to outsource will help you decide what to hand over.