Real Estate Answering Service for Agents
New callers are asked who they are before your phone rings. Every call to your cell comes to VettedCalls first. We answer in your business name, put real callers through to you, and ring you right away when a caller says a priority word. On Receptionist, a call you don't pick up goes to an AI receptionist with instructions written for real estate agents, unless it's a priority call or a saved contact, which go to voicemail.
Get started with VettedCallsEight calls to an agent's cell, and where each one goes
Your cell number is on the yard sign, the listing, your card and, sooner or later, somebody's lead list. Here's what happens to the calls all of that brings in.
| Who's calling | What happens |
|---|---|
| A buyer parked outside your listing, calling the number on the sign | We answer in your business name and ask who's calling and how we can help. They say which house, press 1 or 2, and your phone rings in the Cloud Softphone app with their number showing. When you answer, you hear their name and what they're calling about before they're put through. |
| The same buyer, if they want to see it today or say they're pre-approved | "Want to view today" and "pre-approved" are among the real estate keywords every agent account starts with, and "today" is one of the six universal ones. The call skips the press 1 or 2 question and rings you right away, for up to 40 seconds. |
| A showing request while you're with another client | On Receptionist, the AI receptionist answers after 12 seconds during business hours, or right away after hours. It asks about the property and what days work, and you confirm the showing when you call back. On Pro, the call goes to voicemail after 25 seconds, and a caller who pressed 1 gets a text saying you're with a client, with the number you'll call back from. |
| A buyer you toured homes with last month | A caller who passed screening in the last 60 days skips it, and every call restarts the 60 days. No greeting; when you answer, you hear just a beep. |
| Your lender, your title officer, an agent you co-op with often | Add them as saved contacts, and their calls skip screening and ring you at any hour of the day or night. |
| A robocall selling seller leads | It gets the greeting, never presses 1 or 2, and the call ends. If it sat silent or the AI took it for spam, the number picks up a flag on the registry we share across every customer. At 10 counted flags it's blocked for all of them. |
| A live salesperson working a lead list | When it isn't sure, the screening AI is told to treat a caller who sounds human as a real person, so someone pitching you live gets through, and you hear their reason when you answer. Mark the number as spam and it's blocked for your account until you unmark it. |
| An investor who says they're a cash buyer | "Cash buyer" is one of the real estate defaults, so the call rings through as a priority call, the same as a buyer ready to write an offer. If it's a wholesaler you never want to hear from, mark the number as spam. |
The spam that comes with a public number
A listing agent can't keep their number private. Putting it on the sign is the point. What we can do is make every unknown caller say who they are before your phone rings. A robocaller doesn't press anything, so it stops at the press 1 or 2 step. A number that keeps calling that way can end up on the shared registry, which blocks a number for every customer once it has 10 counted flags, with any one account's flags counted at most once in 24 hours. Entries expire after 30 days, and each call from a blocked number restarts the 30 days. Those calls still come out of your minutes, whether we block the number or the call ends during screening, though each one usually uses just one minute.
Your own spam list is separate from the registry. Marking a number blocks it for your account, takes it off your saved contacts and your 60-day list, and leaves the shared registry alone, so a vendor you're tired of hearing from isn't blocked for an agent down the street who might want the call.
The trade-off is in the keywords. The real estate defaults are there to catch buyers who are ready to move, and a few of them, like "cash buyer", are words wholesalers and lead sellers use too. We'd rather you take one of those calls than miss a buyer with an offer ready. For more on how the screening works, see call screening. The text a caller gets when you miss them is on our missed-call text back page, prices for both plans are on the pricing page, and mortgage brokers, home inspectors and appraisers have their own section on our professional services page.
Priority Passthrough
Priority Passthrough lets customers who say one of your selected priority words ring straight through to you, regardless of the time of day. Every account starts with six priority words: urgent, emergency, help, asap, right now, today.
An account set up for real estate agents also has these trade priority words, on by default:
- ready to make an offer
- want to view today
- cash buyer
- pre-approved
- closing this week
- open house tomorrow
- relocating
You can add up to 20 of your own in the dashboard, and the trade defaults stay on. When a caller says one, the AI flags it as a priority call. It skips the text question and rings you right away, for up to 40 seconds, in or out of business hours, on every plan.
Miss a priority call and it goes to voicemail, on Receptionist as well as Pro. You get a text alert. The caller isn't texted, because a priority call skips the press 1 question.
Common calls for real estate agents
Each one tagged by how soon it needs you.
- Ready to make an offer emergency
- Cash buyer wanting to view today emergency
- Closing this week, problem with paperwork soon
- Offer just came in on a listing soon
- Open house tomorrow: last-minute question soon
- Buyer pre-approved, wants to view soon
- New listing inquiry from a sign / Zillow / Redfin soon
- Relocation buyer soon
- Standard listing consultation routine
- FSBO considering listing soon
The work it knows about
On Receptionist, the AI receptionist answers with instructions written for real estate agents. They cover this work:
Sellers
- Listing consultation and CMA
- Pre-listing prep advice
- Pricing strategy
- Marketing and photography coordination
- Showing management
- Negotiation and offer review
Buyers
- Buyer representation
- Neighborhood and area expertise
- Property tours and showings
- Offer negotiation
- Contract-to-close coordination
Other
- Relocation services
- Investment property
- Foreclosure and short sale
- FSBO conversions
What it asks callers
The AI receptionist gets the caller's name and reason, confirms the callback number by its last four digits, and asks what days work. Its instructions for real estate agents list more to gather:
- Buyer or seller
- For buyer: target neighborhoods/zip codes, price range, timeline, pre-approval status
- For seller: property address, ballpark sale timeline, why selling
- Specific property of interest if calling about a listing
- Currently working with another agent yes/no
- For relocation: current location and target city
- For investor: type of investment
- How they heard
Sample replies
A few of the example replies in the AI receptionist's instructions for real estate agents.
What the AI receptionist won't do
- It doesn't book appointments. It asks what days work, and you confirm the time when you call back.
- It doesn't ask callers for their email.
- If a caller asks whether it's an AI, it neither confirms nor denies.
- It confirms the callback number by its last four digits.
The AI receptionist comes with the Receptionist plan. Pro has no AI receptionist, so a call you miss on Pro goes to voicemail. Receptionist is coming soon, and Pro is available now.
Questions about VettedCalls for Real Estate Agents
What text does a buyer get if I miss their call from the sign?
If they pressed 1, a text that starts "[your first name] at [your business]: sorry I missed your call", with a short reason (on a real estate account, that you're with a client) and the number you'll call back from. A caller who pressed 2 gets no texts. On Receptionist, a call the AI receptionist answers doesn't send it.
Where does it go when a buyer texts back?
The reply lands on your VettedCalls number, and we pass it along to your cell. It only goes that one way: you write back from your own cell, because the VettedCalls number doesn't send your replies. A buyer who texted in the last 4 hours also skips screening if they call.
Do spam calls from lead lists use up my minutes?
Yes. Every call we answer counts toward your minutes, rounded up to the next whole minute, and that includes the ones we block, which usually use one minute each. A salesperson who presses 1 and reaches you uses minutes for as long as you talk, so mark that number as spam and it's blocked for your account from then on.
I'm at a closing all afternoon. What happens to showing requests?
On Receptionist, your phone rings for 12 seconds during business hours and then the AI receptionist answers. It gets the buyer's name and what they want to see, confirms their callback number by its last four digits, and asks what days work. You confirm the showing when you call back. On Pro, the call goes to voicemail after 25 seconds, and the transcript comes to you by email.
Related trades
The AI receptionist has instructions written for 58 trades and professions, plus a general set for everyone else. Here are a few of them.