What Is Buildout?

Buildout is a commercial real estate software platform founded in 2010 and built specifically for CRE brokerages. It started as a marketing tool for creating property flyers and Offering Memoranda (OMs), then expanded — through acquisitions of Rethink CRM and Apto — into a full brokerage lifecycle platform covering prospecting, CRM, deal management, marketing, and back-office operations.

The core value proposition: instead of using 4–5 separate tools (one for CRM, one for marketing materials, one for transaction management, one for data), Buildout runs everything on a shared data layer. When a broker enters property information once, it flows automatically into flyers, OMs, email campaigns, listing websites, and the CRM pipeline — without re-entering data.

As of 2026, Buildout is the leading purpose-built platform for CRE brokerages, used by firms ranging from small boutique shops to enterprise brokerages. It competes with AscendixRE, RealNex, and DealCloud — each of which approaches the problem from a different angle.

Buildout's Core Modules

Marketing (Showcase by Buildout)

The original and most-praised Buildout product. Brokers enter property data once; Buildout generates professional-grade marketing materials automatically:

• Property flyers and brochures — Brand-consistent, data-populated, ready in minutes instead of hours
• Offering Memoranda (OMs) — Templated OM creation with property financials, photos, and market data
• Email marketing — Automated campaigns to qualified buyer/tenant lists with tracking and analytics
• Listing websites — Property-specific landing pages for individual listings
• Syndication — Push listings to LoopNet, CoStar, and other commercial platforms from a single data entry point

This module eliminates the need for a dedicated marketing staff for routine materials — a point that appears repeatedly in user reviews as the primary ROI driver.

CRM and Deal Management (Rethink by Buildout)

Built on the acquired Rethink platform, Buildout's CRM is purpose-designed for CRE workflows:

• Contact and company database with CRE-specific fields (property type preferences, deal history, lease expiry dates)
• Deal pipeline with CRE-appropriate stages (prospecting → pitch → listing → marketing → LOI → due diligence → close)
• Call lists, task assignment, and team collaboration tools
• Activity logging for calls, emails, and property tours
• Shared database across the entire brokerage — contacts tagged to listings, visible to all team members

Purchasing the Deal Management module grants the full brokerage access to a shared database. Unlike Salesforce-based alternatives, setup is relatively fast because CRE fields come pre-configured rather than requiring custom development.

Back Office and Transaction Management

Buildout's back-office tools handle the financial side of deal closing:

• Commission tracking and split calculations
• Pipeline revenue forecasting
• Deal room for LOI and contract management
• Reporting for brokerage principals and administrators

Buildout Pricing 2026

Buildout uses custom, quote-based pricing. There is no published price sheet, free tier, or trial. Based on third-party reviews and industry sources:

Module	What It Covers	Pricing	Best For
Marketing (Showcase)	Flyers, OMs, emails, listing websites, syndication	Custom quote — per-user or per-brokerage model	Any CRE brokerage creating marketing materials
CRM + Deal Management	Contact database, pipeline, deal stages, shared brokerage database	Custom quote — covers entire brokerage when purchased	Teams managing active deal pipelines
Back Office	Commissions, splits, transaction management, financial reporting	Custom quote — add-on to Deal Management	Brokerages tracking revenue and commission structures
Full Platform Bundle	All modules in one contract	Best value — exact pricing by brokerage size	Established brokerages wanting a single platform

Industry benchmarks suggest Buildout is positioned in the mid-to-premium price range for CRE software — cost is typically justified by the reduction in marketing staff time and deal management overhead rather than by individual feature comparison.

Who Should Use Buildout?

Individual Commercial Brokers

Individual brokers at established firms can benefit significantly from Buildout Marketing alone — the time saved creating flyers and OMs versus doing it manually in InDesign or PowerPoint is measurable. However, the cost-to-value ratio is harder to justify for solo practitioners on tight margins. Most individual brokers access Buildout through their brokerage's existing subscription rather than purchasing independently.

Small-to-Mid-Size CRE Teams (5–50 Brokers)

This is Buildout's core market. Teams at this scale benefit from the shared database (contacts don't live in individual brokers' email inboxes), standardized marketing materials (brand consistency across agents), and pipeline visibility for management. The platform's ability to eliminate the "marketing coordinator" role for routine materials is the strongest ROI case at this size.

Established CRE Brokerages (50+ Brokers)

Larger brokerages benefit from the compliance and reporting tools in the back-office module, the ability to standardize onboarding for new brokers, and the visibility into firm-wide pipeline for revenue forecasting. At this scale, Buildout competes more directly with DealCloud and AscendixRE, which offer deeper customization for complex deal structures.

Who Should NOT Use Buildout

• Residential agents — Buildout is CRE-only. The product makes no sense for residential workflows.
• Solo practitioners on tight budgets — Cost-to-value is harder to justify without a team sharing the platform
• Brokerages needing deep Salesforce integration — AscendixRE or DealCloud are better fits for Salesforce-native environments
• Capital markets and investment banking — DealCloud is the specialist for complex capital markets deal management

Pros and Cons

User Reviews Summary (Capterra, G2, SoftwareAdvice)

Aggregate from verified reviews as of 2026:

Aggregate rating: approximately 4.3/5 on Capterra (130+ reviews) · 4.2/5 on G2 (100+ reviews) · 4.4/5 on SoftwareAdvice.

Buildout vs Competitors: Full Comparison

How Buildout stacks up against the leading alternatives in 2026:

Platform	Pricing	Marketing Tools	CRM Depth	Transaction Mgmt	Best For
Buildout	Custom quote	★★★★★ Best-in-class flyer/OM automation	★★★★☆ CRE-specific, good pipeline	★★★★☆ Full commission tracking	CRE brokerages needing all-in-one
AscendixRE	Custom quote	★★☆☆☆ Limited marketing tools	★★★★★ Deep Salesforce-native customization	★★★★☆ Strong	Enterprise brokerages needing Salesforce integration (used by JLL, CBRE)
RealNex	Custom quote	★★★☆☆ MarketEdge analytics	★★★★☆ Navigator CRM	★★★★☆ Transaction manager	Veterans who want end-to-end lifecycle in one vendor
DealCloud	Enterprise custom	★★☆☆☆ Minimal	★★★★★ Complex deal structures	★★★★★ Capital markets-grade	Large brokerages and capital markets firms with complex deal structures
SharpLaunch	More transparent pricing	★★★★☆ Modern design flexibility	★★★☆☆ Basic CRM	★★☆☆☆ Limited	Marketing-focused teams wanting design flexibility over deep CRM

Buildout vs LoopNet / Crexi

Different products for different jobs. Buildout is a brokerage operating system — it manages internal workflow, marketing production, and deal pipeline. LoopNet and Crexi are listing marketplaces — external distribution platforms where you advertise properties to buyers and tenants. Most commercial brokerages use Buildout and LoopNet/Crexi simultaneously:

• Buildout → creates the flyer, OM, and email campaign
• LoopNet / Crexi → distributes the listing to buyers and tenants searching the marketplace

Buildout includes LoopNet syndication as a feature — so the listing created in Buildout can be pushed directly to LoopNet from one entry point.

Bottom Line: Is Buildout Worth It?

Frequently Asked Questions