Zion Market Research predicts the overall commercial real estate software industry will grow at a CAGR of 6.60% between 2025 and 2034. One of the top categories in this space is investment and asset management. This isn’t a surprise since finding potential investors, supporting them throughout a project’s lifecycle, and delivering strong returns is the engine that helps firms grow.
Even within this category, there are different stakeholders with different requirements to consider as part of any software evaluation process. Here, we cover the various buyer personas for investment and asset management so you can see how roles change buying criteria.
What are CRE software buyer personas?
Buyer personas describe the target audience involved in buying and using software. In the commercial real estate industry, different roles use software for very different work. This could include property operations, raising capital, or managing investors. Detailed personas help connect software categories to the people who use them day-to-day.
Personas also go beyond job titles. They define what someone is responsible for, the problems they are trying to solve, and what success looks like in their role. It includes areas like their goals, challenges, pain points, and decision factors that impact how each persona evaluates software.
For CRE investment management software, the key buyer personas include:
Asset managers
These buyers use software to manage property and portfolio performance over time. This includes tracking income, expenses, leasing, capital projects, and asset performance.
They look for tools that show both property-level detail and portfolio trends so they can make decisions about operations, refinancing, or exit strategies.
General partners
General partners focus on raising capital, structuring deals, executing the strategy, and delivering returns to investors. When they look at software, they focus on how well it supports fundraising, investor onboarding, and how easy it is to provide reporting and ongoing communication to investors.
Fund administrators
This user group focuses on accuracy, controls, and process. They handle capital accounts, contributions, distributions, investor statements, and records that support audits and compliance. When they evaluate software, they look for tools that produce accurate data, detailed audit trails, and consistent reporting.
They want solutions that reduce manual work, prevent errors, and support compliance requirements.
Why CRE software buyer personas matter in platform selection
Understanding personas provides a guideline for choosing software.
Different goals across investment, operations, and administration teams
Each category of commercial real estate software focuses on a specific set of end users and their goals. Personas help categorize the right tools for the right team members and business profile. For example, an asset management team cares about returns and risk, operations focuses on daily execution, and investor relations seeks to build trust with communication and transparency.
Impact on buying criteria, evaluations, and timelines
Individual user roles and objectives also influence software requirements and how real estate teams decide which tools are the best fit. If multiple teams plan to use the software and each has its own set of requirements, finding a solution that supports everyone can take time.
Likewise, if the use case is narrower, tool decision-making can move faster since fewer people need to weigh in.
Risks of one-size-fits-all CRE platforms
Since stakeholders have different roles, tasks, and objectives, one-size-fits-all platforms can miss the mark by ignoring the nuances of specific roles, forcing everyone to compromise. Some users lose key capabilities, others get features they never use, and workflows require changes to meet the software instead of the way users work.
Buying triggers for CRE software buyer personas
The decision to look for software options often starts when one group can no longer work the way they used to. Examples include:
| Scenario | Changes | Reason for new software |
| Portfolio growth and increasing complexity | The business adds more deals, investors, and staff | Current tools cannot handle the added volume or coordination |
| Rising investor reporting expectations | Investors expect more frequent and transparent updates | Existing systems cannot deliver consistent reporting |
| Manual processes breaking at scale | Daily work relies on spreadsheets | Errors, delays, and increased chances of missing tasks |
| Audit, compliance and governance pressure | Increasing complexity of rules and oversight | Current tools unable to keep up with growing compliance needs |
Each of these pressures affects teams in different ways:
- Portfolio growth and increasing complexity: As your real estate business grows, adding more deals, investors, and team members increases operational complexity. Existing software solutions may not support these incremental challenges.
- Rising investor reporting expectations: Limited partners expect clearer, faster, and more consistent reporting. When current tools cannot deliver that, it becomes harder to raise and retain capital.
- Manual processes breaking at scale: Managing daily operations with manual processes increases the risk of errors, delays, and missed tasks, which can have a negative financial impact.
- Audit, compliance, and governance requirements: As regulatory and reporting requirements increase, manual or rigid systems make it harder to prove compliance and manage risk.
How asset managers use CRE software
Asset managers use CRE software to handle:
- Portfolio performance tracking and benchmarking: Tracking how each property and the overall portfolio perform against targets, historical performance, and comparable assets. This provides all the relevant data to see what is and isn’t working.
- Cash flow, valuations, and financial visibility: Software can monitor income, expenses, debt, and valuations so you always know the financial status of your commercial real estate business.
- Scenario analysis and downside planning: Modeling different scenarios like rent declines, vacancy increases, interest rate changes, or delayed exits helps assess risk. This helps firms proactively prepare for negative outcomes.
- Asset-level and portfolio-level reporting: Visibility at both the asset and portfolio level helps teams make better-informed decisions.
How owners and general partners use CRE software
GPs and owners look for end-to-end capabilities, including:
- Property and operating performance insights: Software helps teams understand individual property and overall portfolio performance, including revenue, expenses, occupancy, and operating trends.
- Budget vs actual tracking: Comparing budgeted numbers to results shows what is on track and what areas need adjustment.
- Day-to-day performance visibility: Being able to quickly see activity like leasing, collections, and expenses helps operations teams catch issues early.
- Investor-ready summaries and updates: Access to real-time data helps investor relations teams provide transparency with regular status reporting.
How fund administrators use CRE software
The specialized financial reporting needs of fund managers require capabilities like:
- Capital call and distribution workflows: Real estate investment management software supports the process of issuing capital calls, tracking contributions, and managing distributions accurately and on time.
- Investor statements and reporting accuracy: Tools that help maintain standardized data and automate distribution calculations provide accuracy and reduce rework.
- Audit trails and compliance-ready records: Automatic logging of transactions, changes, and approvals makes it easier to support audits or internal reviews.
- Data consistency across funds and entities: Centralizing customer data across multiple funds, properties, and legal entities reduces back-office burden and investor frustration.
Comparing CRE software needs across buyer personas
Here is a comparison of software needs across different roles:
| Operational need | Asset managers | Owners and general partners | Fund administrators |
| Performance tracking | Track asset and portfolio performance against targets and history | Monitor property and operating performance | Validate performance data for reporting |
| Financial visibility | Review cash flow, debt and valuations | Track revenue, expenses and budget vs actual | Keep accurate financial records |
| Risk and planning | Model scenarios and downside models | Adjust strategy based on performance trends | Verify data supports audits and reviews |
| Reporting | Use asset and portfolio reports for decisions | Create investor-ready summaries | Produce accurate investor statements |
| Daily operations | Review performance trends over time | Monitor leasing, collections, and expenses | Track capital flows and financial records |
| Data management | Use data to guide asset strategy | Use data to run the business | Keep data consistent across funds and entities |
| Compliance | Monitor risk through performance data | Support investor transparency | Maintain audit trails and compliance records |
How CRE software buyer personas evaluate platforms differently
Personas also assess software in different ways.
- Evaluation criteria by role and responsibility: Business requirements depend on each stakeholder’s role. Asset managers focus on performance data, operations teams care about daily workflows, and fund managers prioritize accuracy and controls.
- Depth vs usability trade-offs: Some teams in your commercial real estate business need advanced features and detailed controls, while others need speed and simplicity. If software is too complicated, people stop using it. If it is too basic, it can frustrate advanced users.
- Integration, onboarding, and migration expectations: Different roles react to changes in different ways. For example, operations teams will have some day-to-day disruption, while leadership cares about how quickly the business sees a return on investment.
Data and reporting expectations across CRE software buyer personas
Data and reporting needs vary across groups:
| Area | Differences | Example |
| Reporting depth and flexibility | Details versus summaries | Asset managers need property-level data, investor relations require summarized views |
| Internal vs external reporting | The purpose of reports changes by audience | Internal teams look to fix issues, investors judge performance and transparency |
| Reporting frequency and timelines | Access needs vary by timing | Operations, asset managers, and investors all expect real-time access |
| Data access and permissions | Control levels differ by role | Some roles edit data, others approve it, and others can only view it |
Details on these differences include:
- Reporting depth and flexibility by role: Expectations and needs vary by role. For example, asset managers look for property-level detail, while investor relations looks for summarized views to communicate results.
- Internal vs external reporting needs: Internal teams use reports to make decisions and fix issues, while external audiences use them to judge performance and trust.
- Reporting frequency and investor timelines: All stakeholders need access to real-time data, including operations teams, asset managers, and investors.
- Data access, permissions, and ownership controls: Different roles need different access and permission levels for viewing, modifying, and creating data.
Why spreadsheets fail CRE software buyer personas in different ways
The limitations of spreadsheets can include:
- Spreadsheet risk for asset managers: Spreadsheets require manual updates, which makes it hard to trust performance data at scale. As your portfolio grows, it becomes harder and harder to stay on top of updates, which leads to decisions based on incomplete or outdated information. This legacy approach also doesn’t allow for new capabilities like AI-powered workflows and insights.
- Operational blind spots for owners and operators: Manual tools can’t effectively track daily activity. Leasing, expenses, and maintenance status change quickly. Without real-time access to centralized data, teams work off outdated information.
- Audit and version-control challenges for fund administrators: Spreadsheets create too many versions and too little traceability. It isn’t easy to see who changed what and when, which makes audits harder and increases compliance risk.
Conclusion
Choosing software is more than a technical decision. It affects daily work, stakeholder interactions, and the experience investors have with your firm. When evaluating tools for investment and asset management, focus on the teams that will use the system daily and the best option to meet their specific needs.
Learn how Agora helps commercial real estate businesses raise capital faster and support investor relationships through CRM tools, workflow automation, and performance reporting.
