Custom portals, CRMs, and ops tools on subscription. Built by the engineer behind Imohub's 120k-property portal. Sub-500ms search. 70% infra savings. $4,999/mo.
- Scope
- Ship
- Iterate
monthly subscription
Who this is for
Broker, agency principal, proptech founder, or property-management operator whose MLS/IDX setup is too restrictive and whose spreadsheet-based operations are starting to break. You know the off-the-shelf stack is holding you back — you just need the right build partner.
The pain today
- MLS and IDX feeds do not support your custom search or private-listing needs
- Property and agent data lives across spreadsheets and disconnected tools
- Transaction workflow is split between Dropbox, email, DocuSign, and an aging CRM
- No branded customer or agent portal that reflects how your brokerage actually works
- Listing pages load slowly and rank behind competitors in local search
The outcome you get
- Custom real estate web app on subscription at $4,999/mo
- Portal, CRM, or ops tool shipped in 8 to 16 weeks
- Search performance at Imohub scale — sub-500ms queries on 120k+ records
- Clean data model handling MLS feeds, IDX, custom listings, and private inventory
- Full code ownership with a clear handoff path when your team grows
When off-the-shelf real estate software runs out of road
Brokerages typically hit three walls. The first is data: MLS feeds are too locked down to display the way you want, and they cannot be supplemented with off-market or private listings inside the same search experience. The second is CRM: the major options (kvCORE, BoomTown, Follow Up Boss) are either too bloated and expensive or too thin to model your team's actual deal structure. The third is transaction management: contracts, checklists, DocuSign wrappers, and commission splits end up spread across four systems with no single source of truth.
Custom real estate web app development fixes all three when the brokerage is large enough to justify it. My rough threshold: $5M or more in annual commissions, or a proptech product where the software is the product. Below that line, configuring an off-the-shelf stack is usually the better use of money despite the frustrations. I build for the cases where custom engineering materially changes recruitment, retention, or transaction efficiency.
Custom real estate web app on subscription at $4,999/mo
Types of real estate apps I build
Branded property portals — public-facing search with saved listings, alerts, map view, and direct-to-agent lead capture. Agent CRMs built around the brokerage's actual pipeline and commission structure. Transaction management tools that consolidate contracts, task checklists, document storage, and deal-stage tracking. Internal ops dashboards covering pipeline conversion and agent performance. MLS and IDX data sync pipelines that combine direct feeds, aggregator APIs, and internal inventory. Buyer and seller onboarding flows.
For property management: tenant portals with rent payment, maintenance request tracking, vacancy management, and lease renewal flows. Each of these is 6 to 14 weeks of subscription work depending on complexity. A tenant portal typically lands at 8 to 12 weeks. A full brokerage portal with MLS integration runs 12 to 16 weeks.
120k+: Properties indexed and searchable.
MLS and IDX integration: direct feed vs. aggregator API
Two approaches exist and the right one depends on scale. The aggregator API path (iHomeFinder, Showcase IDX, Realtyna) is the fastest route — these providers hold the MLS licensing, build to RETS and RESO Web API standards, and let you consume their API under their approved vendor status. You skip the direct MLS agreement entirely. Good for smaller brokerages needing a working portal in under 8 weeks.
The direct feed path uses RETS or the newer RESO Web API standard. You hold the MLS access agreement; I build the integration against it. More control, no per-listing fees to an aggregator, and the ability to ingest full data fields that aggregators sometimes strip. Required for larger brokerages wanting complete ownership of their data pipeline. Budget 4 to 8 weeks for initial MLS integration either way — data quality issues and MLS-specific quirks are common and need time to clean.
At Imohub I worked with direct feeds across multiple regional MLS systems in Brazil. The patterns transfer: schema normalization, incremental sync schedules, dead-listing cleanup, and photo pipeline setup are the same problems regardless of market.
Search performance at scale: the Imohub approach
Real estate data puts unusual pressure on search infrastructure. Large catalogs (10,000 to 1M+ listings), rich media per listing (photos, floor plans, video), and complex filtering (price, beds, baths, lot size, geo radius, amenities) are a bad combination for standard ORM queries. At Imohub I rebuilt the search system for 120,000+ properties and got query response down to sub-500ms, while reducing infrastructure cost by 70%.
The stack: Next.js and React on the front end, Laravel API layer, MongoDB for the listing data store, Meilisearch as the dedicated search engine, AWS and Docker for infrastructure. The key architectural decisions: dedicated search engine instead of database queries for any user-facing search; aggressive CDN caching for static catalog data; server-rendered pages for SEO; image CDN with responsive sizes. Meilisearch handles faceted filtering and typo tolerance well and is cost-efficient to self-host. Algolia is the managed alternative if operational simplicity matters more than cost.
This pattern scales from 10,000 listings to 1M+ without a rewrite. The same decisions that got Imohub to sub-500ms apply on day one of a new portal.
Photo and media performance for listing pages
MLS feeds deliver oversized images. Left unprocessed, a listing page with 40 photos can weigh several megabytes and wreck both load time and Core Web Vitals scores. Every engagement I work on runs listing photos through a CDN with automatic resizing, WebP or AVIF conversion, lazy loading, and above-the-fold priority hinting.
At Imohub, photo pipeline work was a week of setup that paid back immediately — listing pages loading in under 2 seconds on mobile with 40+ photos. That speed affects both conversion rates and SEO rankings, particularly for local property search terms where Google's page experience signals carry real weight. I also build floor plan and video embedding into the listing template at project start rather than treating it as a later addition, because retrofitting media types into a listing schema is costly.
Custom real estate CRM vs. configuring an existing one
This question comes up on nearly every real estate engagement. Follow Up Boss, kvCORE, BoomTown, LionDesk, and Salesforce each handle 80% of what most brokerages need. For brokerages under $5M in annual commissions, the answer is almost always: configure the CRM rather than build custom.
Custom CRM work pays back when the SaaS product actively blocks a strategic workflow — complex referral network structures, multi-tier team splits the CRM cannot model, or property-management logic that does not exist in any off-the-shelf tool. In those cases, I build a CRM tailored to the exact pipeline: deal stages, role-based access, agent performance tracking, commission split calculations, and integrations with the brokerage's document and communication stack. The alternative I often recommend is a hybrid: keep the existing CRM as the system of record, build custom tooling on top via API, and avoid the full replacement cost. The decision belongs to the brokerage, not to me.
Tenant portals and property management apps
Tenant portals are a distinct surface from brokerage tools, and the engineering is different. Core features: rent payment (Stripe or ACH), maintenance request tracking with photo upload and status updates, document access (lease, notices), and lease renewal flows with digital signature. Standard build time is 8 to 12 weeks for a single-company portal.
For larger property management portfolios — 1,000+ units across multiple properties — the complexity jumps. Role-based access for property managers, owners, and tenants across different properties; multi-property accounting views; automated late-fee and payment-reminder workflows; vacancy management with application intake. Budget the Pro tier ($5,499/mo) for the first 6 months on portfolios of that size to handle the build cadence without delivery delays.
Pricing, timeline, and what the subscription covers
Standard plan is $4,999/mo. Pro is $5,499/mo with faster delivery cycles and priority response. Both come with a 14-day money-back guarantee and cancel-anytime terms. Once you pay, 100% of the code is yours under Work Made for Hire — no licensing, no vendor lock-in.
MLS integration licensing and data costs sit outside the subscription — you hold the MLS access agreement and I build against it. Hosting on AWS or Vercel is yours as well, typically $200 to $2,000 per month at mid-size scale depending on traffic and media storage. For brokerages with 5,000+ listings, I recommend starting on the Pro tier for the first 6 months to get the initial build done at pace, then stepping down to Standard for ongoing iteration.
Recent proof
A comparable engagement, delivered and documented.
Rebuilt a real estate portal at a fraction of the cost
Rebuilt Imóveis SC's real estate portal as ImoHub, a faster, more scalable successor, handling 120k+ properties with sub-second search and drastically reduced AWS costs.
Read the case studyFrequently asked questions
The questions prospects ask before they book.
On my subscription model, real estate portal and CRM work starts at $4,999/mo. A brokerage portal with MLS integration typically runs 12 to 16 weeks of work — that is $12,000 to $18,000 at Standard tier. Agencies quoting fixed-price builds for equivalent scope often land between $40,000 and $120,000 upfront. The subscription model spreads that cost, keeps delivery in 2 to 4 day cycles, and you can cancel after launch if you do not need ongoing iteration.
Two paths. Aggregator API (iHomeFinder, Showcase IDX, Realtyna) is fastest — the provider holds the MLS licensing, you consume their API, and you skip the direct MLS agreement. Suitable for smaller brokerages needing a portal quickly. Direct MLS feed via RETS or RESO Web API gives full data control and no per-listing fees; you hold the access agreement, I build the integration. At Imohub I worked with direct feeds across multiple regional MLS systems. Budget 4 to 8 weeks either way — data quality cleanup is real time.
A branded property portal with MLS integration and basic agent CRM runs 12 to 16 weeks at my pace. A simpler portal without MLS (internal inventory only) is 6 to 10 weeks. Tenant portals for property management land at 8 to 12 weeks. These are actual delivery windows at 2 to 4 day cycle cadence, not estimate ranges that balloon in execution. Complexity drivers: number of data sources, search and filtering requirements, payment integrations, and role-based access scope.
Dedicated search engine rather than ORM queries — Meilisearch (self-hosted, cost-efficient) or Algolia (managed, stronger relevance out of the box). Both handle faceted filtering across price, beds, baths, amenities, and geo radius with sub-500ms response on catalogs up to 1M+ listings. At Imohub I ran Meilisearch across 120,000+ properties with query times under 500ms. Standard database queries cannot match this at scale. Every real estate engagement includes a search architecture decision in the first 30 days.
Yes. Follow Up Boss, kvCORE, BoomTown, Salesforce, and HubSpot all have APIs. Typical sync patterns: leads from any site form into the CRM, listing assignments from CRM to agent pages on the site, transaction status flowing both ways. For brokerages wanting to replace the CRM with a custom build, that runs 10 to 14 weeks. For most, integrating with the existing CRM is faster and lower-risk — build only what is missing rather than replacing what already works.
MLS feeds deliver oversized images. Every photo runs through a CDN with automatic resizing, WebP or AVIF conversion, lazy loading, and priority loading for above-the-fold shots. At Imohub, this work took about a week to set up and got listing pages loading in under 2 seconds on mobile with 40+ photos. The performance gain matters for conversion and for Google's page experience signals in local property search. Floor plans and video embedding go into the listing template at project start — retrofitting media types later is expensive.
Yes. Tenant portals covering rent payment (Stripe or ACH), maintenance request tracking with photo upload, document access, and lease renewal with digital signature run 8 to 12 weeks at Standard tier. For larger portfolios — 1,000+ units with multi-property role-based access, automated payment reminders, and vacancy management — budget the Pro tier for the first 6 months to handle the build without delivery delays. Property management apps are a different engineering surface from brokerage portals, but both are within scope.