They are calling three agents. You are the one who answered.
A sign call or a portal enquiry is the highest-intent call in this business and the shortest-lived. The caller has the listing open and two more tabs behind it. Whoever picks up gets the appointment, and whoever rings back tomorrow is asking about a property that is already being shown to somebody else.
Hear it before you read another word. Dial (314) 784-8835. It is an A.I. voice, it answers for several kinds of business, and it does not assume yours — say “I run a real estate brokerage” and it will take the call the way your front desk would, including a call about a listing at seven in the evening. Or tell it what a typical call sounds like for you and let it answer that. The demo has no calendar or text line behind it, so it takes the job and hands it on; yours books and confirms.
The call you are not there for.
It is 19:10 and someone has pulled over outside a listing to ring the number on the board. They want to know the price, whether it has a third bedroom, and whether they can see it on Saturday. You are at a viewing across town with your phone on silent. In four minutes they will have called the next agent on the next board.
Three calls a real estate brokerage gets, and what happens to them.
What it gets out of the caller.
- 01
Which property, by the address on the board or the reference from the portal. A lead without it is a name and a shrug
- 02
Whether the caller is already working with another agent. It is the first qualifying question in this trade and it is also the professional one — a caller under an exclusive agreement with somebody else is not a lead to work
- 03
Buying or selling, and the timeframe. Someone who has to be out by the end of the quarter and someone browsing are the same call until this is asked
- 04
Whether financing is already arranged, asked plainly and without pressing. It changes which properties are worth showing, not whether the caller is worth calling
- 05
Two concrete viewing times rather than a promise to ring back, because the caller has the listing open right now and will not tomorrow
Why a general answering service loses this call.
- 01
It takes a name and a number.
A sign call is a person standing outside a house with their phone out. A message saying they rang, read two hours later, is a lead that has already been to two other agents. The value of answering is not that somebody wrote it down, it is that the appointment was made while they were still outside the house.
- 02
It never asks whether they already have an agent.
It is the cheapest question in the business and it is skipped by every generic script. Without it, a diary fills with viewings for people already under contract with somebody else, and you find out at the door. It is also the question that keeps the call the right side of soliciting another broker's client.
- 03
It cannot tell a seller from a buyer.
Someone asking what their house is worth is a listing, which is worth a multiple of a viewing, and they sound exactly like a general enquiry for the first ten seconds. A service that grades calls by volume will put that one in the same pile as a question about parking.
- 04
It absorbs calls that belong to the leasing desk.
Tenants ring the number they can find. Taking a message about a broken dead furnace on the sales line means a repair nobody is working and a landlord who believes it was reported. The right answer is to say so plainly and route it anyway.
What it costs.
There is no published price yet. The first five businesses run it free for thirty days, with no card; before day thirty we tell you the monthly price, and you decide whether to keep it.
Questions real estate agents ask.
Does it know which listing the caller is asking about?
It asks for the address off the board or the reference from the portal before anything else, because that is what makes the rest of the call answerable. It is not reading from your listing feed — it is establishing the property so the agent who calls back is not starting from nothing.
Can it book a viewing or does it just take details?
It offers concrete times and captures the ones that suit. Whether that writes into a calendar is a setup step — the tool exists and is wired for customers who want it, but the public demo number has no calendar behind it, so on the demo it takes the appointment and hands it on.
Will it ask whether the caller is already represented?
On every enquiry that looks like a buyer. It is the question that decides whether the call is a lead, and it is the one a generic script never asks because it is not in the script. What comes back to you is the answer, in the caller's words.
Does it give out valuations or prices over the phone?
Prices on a listing, yes, if you have given it them. A valuation, no. What it does with a seller enquiry is capture the address, the timeframe and whether there is a chain, so the appointment is prepared rather than guessed at.
What happens with tenant and maintenance calls on our sales line?
They are recognised, told plainly that they have reached the wrong desk so nobody hangs up believing it is in hand, and routed anyway with the address and number. If you run the management side too, there is a property management answering service page for that half of the business.
Tenants ring whichever number they can find, and on a sales line a broken furnace is somebody else's work order. If you run the management side too, that half has its own page: property management answering service.
Find out what your phone is costing you.
The audit is free, it runs on your own numbers, and it takes one short call.