Airtable Integration
Documents & TransactionsWhat It Does
Airtable is a relational database platform disguised as a spreadsheet, combining the familiarity of Excel with the power of a custom-built application. Real estate professionals use Airtable to build custom operational systems that track complex relationships between properties, contacts, showings, offers, and transactions. Unlike Google Sheets where each row is independent, Airtable lets you link records—a single property can be linked to multiple contacts (seller, buyer agent, listing agent, transaction coordinator), multiple showings (each with date, feedback, and agent), and multiple offers (with terms, contingencies, and status).
Why Real Estate Professionals Use It
Real estate operations involve intricate relationships that spreadsheets can't elegantly handle. Consider a buyer working with your team: they're interested in 5 properties, have scheduled 3 showings, made 2 offers (one rejected, one pending), and need to coordinate with their lender, inspector, and attorney. In Google Sheets, you'd need multiple tabs with manual data duplication—and when buyer contact info changes, you'd update it in 10 different places. In Airtable, the buyer is a single record linked to properties, showings, offers, and service providers. Change their phone number once, and it updates everywhere.
AI Solutions for Documents
CTO's Guide to AI Implementation
Security, compliance, and vendor evaluation frameworks for AI operations
AI Transaction Coordinator
Automate document collection, deadline tracking, and stakeholder updates
Commission & Pipeline Tracker
Real-time dashboard showing deal progress and expected commissions
Key Features for Real Estate
Discover how Airtable powers real estate automation workflows
Linked Records and Relational Structure
Create relationships between tables by linking records. A property can be linked to multiple contacts, showings, offers, and documents. Changes to linked records propagate automatically—update a buyer's phone number once and it reflects everywhere that buyer is linked.
Build a 'Properties' table linked to 'Contacts' (seller, agents, interested buyers), 'Showings' (with feedback), 'Offers' (terms and status), and 'Inspections'. Click on a property to see all related records in one place—no hunting through multiple spreadsheets.
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Automation Workflows
Ready-to-deploy workflows powered by Airtable + NextAutomation
Comprehensive Buyer Journey Tracking
When a buyer lead enters your system (from website form, open house, or referral), this workflow creates an Airtable record in the 'Buyers' table, links it to properties they've expressed interest in, tracks all showings and feedback, monitors offer submissions, and advances them through stages. Each stage has automated actions: new lead gets welcome email, qualified buyer gets financing guide, showing scheduled creates calendar invites, offer submitted notifies listing agent.
1Lead data captured in Airtable 'Buyers' table via form submission or n8n sync from CRM
2AI enrichment via n8n: lookup address to determine neighborhood, validate email, score lead quality
3Create linked record in 'Buyer Interests' table connecting buyer to properties they inquired about
4Assign buyer to agent based on territory or lead source using lookup table
Complete visibility into every buyer's journey from first contact to closing. Agents see all properties a buyer has viewed, their feedback on each, and which ones they're most interested in. Transaction coordinators see which buyers have offers pending and which need follow-up. Brokerage management tracks conversion rates at each stage and identifies where buyers drop off. No buyer falls through cracks—automated reminders ensure follow-up happens on schedule.
Triggers & Actions
Connect Airtable to your workflows with powerful triggers and actions
Triggers
Record Created
Fires when a new record is added to a specified Airtable table (via form, manual entry, or API).
When new buyer lead added to 'Buyers' table, trigger workflow that sends welcome email, assigns to agent based on territory, and creates follow-up task.
Record Updated
Fires when any field in an existing record is modified (status change, contact info update, linked record added).
When deal status field changes from 'Showing' to 'Offer Made', trigger notification to listing agent and create offer review task in CRM.
Record Matches Conditions (Enters View)
Fires when a record meets specific criteria and appears in a filtered view (e.g., deal closes this week, showing scheduled for today).
When deal enters 'Closing This Week' view (filtered by close date), trigger workflow that sends reminder to all parties, schedules final walkthrough, and prepares closing checklist.
Record Deleted
Fires when a record is deleted from a table (useful for logging deletions or syncing deletions to other systems).
When listing is removed from 'Active Listings' table, sync deletion to website so property no longer appears on agent's listings page.
Form Submitted
Fires when someone submits data via an Airtable form view.
When buyer submits 'Property Interest' form, create record in 'Buyer Interests' table, link to property, and send notification to listing agent with buyer details.
Field Reaches Specific Value
Fires when a particular field changes to a specific value (status = 'Closed Won', lead quality = 5 stars).
When 'Lead Quality' rating field is set to 5 stars, immediately assign to senior agent and create high-priority follow-up task.
Actions
Create Record
Creates a new record in a specified Airtable table with provided field values.
When deal closes in CRM, create record in Airtable 'Closed Deals' table with final sale price, close date, commission, and link to property and buyer records.
Update Record
Modifies fields in an existing record (identified by record ID or lookup criteria).
When buyer phone number changes in CRM, find their Airtable record (by email) and update phone number field to keep data in sync.
Find Records
Searches for records matching specified criteria (filters by field values, sorts results, limits count).
Find all properties in 'Active Listings' view where days on market > 60 and generate a 'stale listings' report for broker review.
Get Record
Retrieves a specific record by its unique record ID.
When showing is scheduled via external calendar, use property ID to retrieve full Airtable property record and populate showing details (address, access code, listing agent).
Delete Record
Removes a record from an Airtable table.
When lead is marked as 'Spam' or 'Duplicate' in CRM, delete the corresponding record from Airtable 'Leads' table to keep data clean.
List Records
Retrieves all records from a table or view, optionally filtered and sorted.
Every Monday, retrieve all deals in 'Closing This Week' view and generate summary report for brokerage management with expected commission and potential issues.
Link Records
Creates a relationship between two records in linked tables (link buyer to property, deal to documents).
When buyer expresses interest in a property, link buyer record to property record in 'Buyer Interests' junction table to track relationship.
Upload Attachment
Adds a file (PDF, image, document) to an attachment field in a record.
When inspection report PDF is received via email, upload as attachment to the property's Airtable record so it's accessible from property detail view.
Setup Guide
Get started in approximately 20 minutes for basic setup; 1 hour to design base structure and build first automation
Prerequisites
- Airtable account (Free or paid tier depending on records and automation needs)
- Airtable API key (generated in account settings)
- n8n instance (cloud or self-hosted) with Airtable node available
- Basic understanding of relational database concepts (tables, records, linked records)
Create Airtable Account and Generate API Key
Sign up at airtable.com. Free plan includes unlimited bases, 1,200 records per base, and 2 weeks of revision history—enough to start. Upgrade to Plus ($10/user/month) for 5,000 records per base and more automations. To get your API key, go to account settings (click profile icon) → Account → Generate API Key. Copy this key—you'll paste it into n8n.
Use personal access tokens (PATs) instead of legacy API keys for better security. PATs let you grant specific permissions (read-only vs full access) and revoke access without changing your main API key.
Design Your Base Structure
Create your first base (like a database). Plan your tables and relationships: 'Properties' table (columns: Address, Price, Beds, Baths, Status, Photos), 'Buyers' table (Name, Email, Phone, Status, Agent), 'Showings' table (Date, Property link, Buyer link, Feedback). Link tables by adding 'Link to another record' column type—link Properties to Buyers via Showings junction table.
Start simple with 2-3 tables (Properties, Buyers, Showings) before building complex multi-table systems. Prove value with basic structure, then expand. Draw your relationships on paper first: which entities exist and how do they relate?
Create Sample Data for Testing
Manually add 5-10 sample records to each table: create test properties (123 Test St, 456 Sample Ave), test buyers (John Doe, Jane Smith), and link them via test showings. This sample data lets you test workflows and view layouts before connecting real automation.
Use realistic test data (real addresses from recently sold properties, common names) so you can realistically test views and automations. Testing with 'Test 1, Test 2, Test 3' doesn't reveal UX issues that real data will.
Connect Airtable to n8n
In n8n, create a new workflow and add an Airtable node. Click 'Create New Credentials' and paste your Airtable API key or personal access token. Test connection by adding an Airtable 'List Records' node pointing to your test base and table—execute to verify it retrieves your sample data.
Save credentials as 'Airtable - Production' so you can reuse across workflows. If you have test and production bases, create separate credentials for each to avoid accidental production data modifications during testing.
Configure Views for Different Use Cases
In Airtable web interface, create multiple views of your data: Grid view (default) for data entry, Kanban view grouped by 'Deal Status' for pipeline management, Calendar view by 'Close Date' for scheduling, Gallery view for Properties with cover photo. Each view shows the same data but optimized for different tasks.
Hide irrelevant columns in each view. Kanban view doesn't need all 20 property fields—show just Address, Price, Days on Market. Calendar view needs only Date, Property, and Status. Cleaner views = faster work.
Create Form View for Lead Capture
In your Buyers table, create a Form view. Customize form title, description, and branding. Make Email and Phone required fields. Reorder fields logically (Name first, then Email, then Phone, then Property Interest). Get shareable form link or embed code, and add to your website as a 'Contact Agent' or 'Request Showing' form.
Enable form notifications so you're alerted when someone submits. Combine with n8n webhook so form submissions trigger immediate follow-up workflows (welcome email, agent assignment, task creation).
Build First Automation: Record Creation Trigger
In n8n, create workflow: Airtable Trigger (Record Created in 'Buyers' table) → AI Node (enrich lead data, score quality) → Send Email (welcome message) → Airtable Update (add enrichment data to record). This proves the concept of Airtable as trigger and action target.
Start with a simple 'new record → send notification' workflow before building complex multi-step automations. Prove data flows correctly between Airtable and n8n before adding logic.
Test Linked Records and Rollup Fields
Create a showing: link it to a buyer and property record. Verify that clicking the link takes you to the full buyer/property details. Add a rollup field to Properties table: 'Total Showings' that counts linked showing records. This demonstrates the relational power—see how many showings each property has had without manual counting.
Use lookup fields to pull data from linked records (show buyer name in showing record without re-entering) and rollup fields to calculate aggregates (sum, count, average) across linked records. This is where Airtable becomes more powerful than spreadsheets.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Airtable integration
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