Can a listing enquiry reach an agent who is out at an inspection?

Yes. The call can ring the agent and the office at the same time, or ring the agent first and fall back to the office, so an agent standing in somebody else’s kitchen is not the only chance the enquiry gets.

How do we stop agents handing out personal mobile numbers?

By making the agency number just as easy to be reached on, rather than by banning anything. If a call to the office number finds the agent wherever they are, the reason to give out a mobile mostly disappears, and the agency keeps the record and the relationship.

Can the phones work differently on weekends?

Yes, and in this industry they should. Saturday morning and Sunday evening are when the enquiries arrive, and a setup built for Monday to Friday sends those callers to a voicemail nobody hears until Monday.

Should sales and property management share a number?

They can share an advertised number but they should not share a queue. Sales enquiries are lost within moments and are worth a lot. Property management calls are relentless and mostly not urgent. A short menu at the front keeps an appraisal enquiry out of the queue behind a hot water service.

Can we show a vendor how many enquiries their listing got?

You can show what the agency number received, answered and missed, which is already more than most agencies can produce. Tying enquiries to one specific listing needs a separate number for that campaign, so it is worth deciding up front whether that is worth doing.

Phone systems for real estate agencies

A real estate agency advertises a number on every listing, and then the person who could answer it is standing in somebody else’s kitchen. This page is about who actually answers that number, and about what it costs when the answer is a personal mobile.

The number on the listing, and who answers it

Every listing, every board and every portal carries a number. What happens when somebody rings it decides whether an enquiry becomes an inspection.

The enquiry is usually short lived. Somebody looking at a listing on a phone will ring, and if nobody answers they will go back to the results and ring the next one. They are rarely committed enough to try twice.

Calls that ring more than one person at a time, so an agent at an inspection is not the only chance
A rule that reaches the office when nobody in the field picks up
Reporting on how many enquiries came in and how many were missed. Splitting that by listing needs a separate number per campaign, which is a decision rather than something that happens on its own

Why agents give out their mobile, and what it costs the agency

Agents hand out personal numbers because it works. The client can reach them, and in a business built on being reachable that beats the alternative.

It also moves something valuable off the agency’s books, quietly.

The agency has no record the conversation happened, so nobody else can pick it up
When the agent leaves, the relationship and the number leave with them
Nothing is logged against the property or the contact, so the next person starts from nothing
The vendor cannot be shown how many enquiries their listing actually generated

The fix is not banning mobiles, which nobody will follow. It is making the agency number just as easy to be reached on: the call finds the agent wherever they are, and the record stays with the agency.

Saturday, which is when the work happens

Real estate runs on a week that does not match an office week. Saturday morning is the busiest selling period there is, and Sunday evening is when people who saw a property that weekend decide to ring about it.

A phone setup built around Monday to Friday sends those callers to a voicemail nobody hears until Monday, by which point the good ones have rung somebody else.

Time based rules are the answer and they are not complicated. The phones behave one way on a Saturday morning, another on a Sunday evening, and another during the week, decided once rather than by whoever remembers.

Sales and property management are two different phone problems

Putting both behind one number and one queue is the most common mistake an agency makes with its phones, and the two could not be less alike.

Sales calls are enquiries. They arrive in bursts around listings and open homes, they are worth a great deal, and they are lost if not answered within moments.

Property management calls are mostly problems. A tenant with a leak, an owner about an invoice, a tradesperson about access. They are not urgent in the same way, but they are relentless and they do not stop because the sales team is busy.

Split at the front and both get better. A short menu, separate queues and different people means an appraisal enquiry is not eighth in line behind a hot water service.

Handsets for the office and the agents

A desk phone on the front desk where the listing number lands, a cordless for the agents moving through the office, and a conference unit for the sales meeting. Prices exclude GST.

The caller you already know

Agencies run on a database, and where the phone system connects to it the number can be looked up as the call arrives, putting the contact on screen before anybody says hello.

For an agent that means answering a call already knowing who it is and which property they enquired about, which changes the first ten seconds of the conversation entirely. Afterwards the call is logged against that contact without anybody typing it up.

Whether your own software connects is a real question with a real answer, it varies a great deal between products, and it changes over time. Tell us what you run and we will check it properly rather than guess.

What we do, and what we are not

We are VoIP System. We are an independent Australian company that installs business phone systems and looks after them once they are in.

We are not in real estate and we will not tell you how to run a campaign. What we can do is make sure an enquiry against a listing reaches somebody, and that the agency keeps the record of it.

We are not one of the manufacturers whose equipment we install, and we are not a partner, reseller or authorised agent of any of them.

Talk to us about your agency

Tell us how many agents are in the field, whether property management sits alongside sales, and what happens to a listing enquiry on a Saturday now. That is enough for us to say what would change before the next open home.

Call 1300 865 879, or send us the details and we will come back to you.

Common questions

Can a listing enquiry reach an agent who is out at an inspection?: Yes. The call can ring the agent and the office at the same time, or ring the agent first and fall back to the office, so an agent standing in somebody else’s kitchen is not the only chance the enquiry gets.
How do we stop agents handing out personal mobile numbers?: By making the agency number just as easy to be reached on, rather than by banning anything. If a call to the office number finds the agent wherever they are, the reason to give out a mobile mostly disappears, and the agency keeps the record and the relationship.
Can the phones work differently on weekends?: Yes, and in this industry they should. Saturday morning and Sunday evening are when the enquiries arrive, and a setup built for Monday to Friday sends those callers to a voicemail nobody hears until Monday.
Should sales and property management share a number?: They can share an advertised number but they should not share a queue. Sales enquiries are lost within moments and are worth a lot. Property management calls are relentless and mostly not urgent. A short menu at the front keeps an appraisal enquiry out of the queue behind a hot water service.
Can we show a vendor how many enquiries their listing got?: You can show what the agency number received, answered and missed, which is already more than most agencies can produce. Tying enquiries to one specific listing needs a separate number for that campaign, so it is worth deciding up front whether that is worth doing.