You should respond to a property enquiry within five minutes, and ideally within 90 seconds. Buyers usually enquire with several developers at once, and the first one to have a real conversation sets the price, the expectations and the site visit. Responding the next morning is often the same as not responding at all.
Why speed matters so much in real estate
A buyer who fills in your form is thinking about your project right now. Ten minutes later they are scrolling past another developer's ad. By the evening they have had three calls from competitors. Research backs this up: a widely cited Harvard Business Review study of online sales leads found that firms which contacted leads within an hour were nearly seven times more likely to qualify them than firms that waited longer.
Where developers lose time
- Enquiries arrive out of hours. Many enquiries come in the evening and at weekends, when the sales team is off.
- Leads sit in a spreadsheet. Form leads are downloaded once a day and shared later.
- Routing is manual. Someone has to decide which salesperson gets which lead.
- Diaspora time zones. A buyer in London or Dubai enquires during their day, which may not be yours.
What a good first response looks like
Speed alone is not enough. The first reply should:
- Greet the buyer by name and mention the project they enquired about.
- Answer the obvious question straight away, usually price or payment plan.
- Ask one or two qualifying questions: budget, timeline, own use or investment.
- Offer a specific next step, such as a site visit or video walkthrough at a set time.
How to respond in 90 seconds, every time
An AI agent connected to your forms and WhatsApp can do all of the above within 90 seconds, at any hour. It qualifies the buyer, answers common questions about the project and payment plan, and books the site visit straight into a salesperson's calendar with a summary of the conversation. Your team spends its time with buyers who have already said yes to a visit.
What to track
| Metric | Target |
|---|---|
| Time to first response | Under 5 minutes, ideally 90 seconds |
| Share of leads contacted the same day | 100% |
| Lead-to-visit rate | Rising week on week |
If you want to see how this would work with your current lead flow, ) or look at our results on the work page.