Commercial real estate has no shortage of sharp tools.
Sharp design tools.
… listing platforms.
… back office systems.
… analytics dashboards.
Every week, another point-solution product promises to make one slice of your brokerage sharper. And yet, when you step back and look at the 2026 DNA of CRE results get your copy, a different pattern emerges.
The industry doesn’t suffer from a lack of tools or how a myriad of point solutions integrate. It suffers from a lack of true, fluid automation.
According to the 2026 DNA of CRE Broker Report, more than half of brokers—53%—still don’t use a dedicated deal management system. At the same time, 31% say “too many tools” is one of their biggest deal management challenges.
That tension tells a story.
It’s not that firms haven’t invested in technology. It’s that they’ve invested in slices of technology. A marketing tool here. A CRM there. A deal tracker somewhere else. A spreadsheet filling in the gaps.
The result isn’t automation. It’s orchestration by hand.
The 2026 DNA of CRE Marketer Report paints an even clearer picture. Listing distribution, one of the most critical parts of getting deals in front of the market, is still largely manual:
Before listings are even published, data lives in multiple places:
That means the same property information is often entered, exported, reformatted, and re-uploaded across several systems before it ever reaches a buyer.
Meanwhile, email marketing platforms are fragmented across Constant Contact, Mailchimp, and others. CRM systems are similarly split. Reporting is generated weekly at many firms but often by pulling data manually from disconnected sources.
None of this reflects a lack of sophistication. It reflects a lack of system architecture. And there is a true risk in that
Fragmentation doesn’t show up on a budget line item. It shows up in time. Check out our 3 Hidden Costs for Fragmented AI webinar here
It shows up when:
Individually, each tool may be sharp. But when they don’t talk to each other, someone has to bridge the gap manually. Well, at least you hope someone bridges that gap.
The industry’s problem isn’t dull tools. It’s disconnected ones.
AI adoption has surged across CRE. Brokers are using AI to write copy and draft emails. Marketing teams are using it to create social content and design collateral. These are real productivity gains. But AI layered onto fragmented systems doesn’t eliminate manual workflows.
If AI generates a listing description but that description still needs to be pasted into multiple systems…
If AI drafts an email but that email engagement isn’t connected to deal tracking…
If AI aggregates research but the output isn’t tied to CRM or commission forecasting…
…then the operational friction remains.
AI can make individual tasks faster. It cannot fix system fragmentation by itself. Integration does that.
Both brokers and marketers are optimistic heading into 2026. Tech budgets are rising. Competition will follow. In that environment, the advantage won’t come from having one particularly sharp solution in isolation. It will come from having:
That’s not about adding another point solution. It’s about choosing a platform that connects the lifecycle.
CRE doesn’t need another tool promising to make one corner of the workflow sharper. It needs fewer disconnected systems. The firms that win in 2026 won’t necessarily be the ones with the most software. They’ll be the ones whose software works together.
Because in the end, sharp tools are useful. But connected systems create leverage.
And leverage is what scales.
Don’t miss out on the annual DNA of CRE report. It’s a joint effort across the industry powered between TheBrokerLit and Buildout year after year. The reports contain exclusive inputs from the broker side as well as the marketer side. Get your copy!
