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Real Estate Answering Service Costs in 2026
Listing enquiries arrive while every agent is at a showing, and the buyer who asks at 21:00 may be asking other agents too. What it costs to answer first, priced for one made-up 4-agent brokerage.
The short answer
Published prices put a live person on a brokerage’s missed calls from $44 a month plus $1.54 a minute (Specialty Answering Service), with Posh, Smith.ai and Ruby at the upper end. For a made-up 4-agent brokerage missing 120 calls a month, that comes to about $480 to $1,725. AI receptionists cost $81 to $263 for the same calls, and an evening and Saturday receptionist costs about $1,582 a month in wages. Per call answered, the range runs from about $14 down to under a dollar. Prices checked 3 November 2026.
Saturday, 14:30. The agent hosting an open house is walking a couple through the kitchen. Her phone buzzes with a sign call from someone parked outside another listing, the office line rings out, and a portal enquiry about a third home lands in her email. By Sunday evening, each of those people has probably asked another agent as well.
That is the job as the Bureau of Labor Statistics describes it. Agents’ schedules “often include evenings and weekends to accommodate clients’ schedules”, and most are self-employed: 54% of sales agents and 55% of brokers (BLS). This guide prices the ways to answer those calls and messages first. For what an AI agent does with listings and viewings, see AI for real estate and our roundup of the best AI chatbots for real estate agents. This one is about cost and speed.
Speed to lead: why the first reply wins
Real estate runs on repeat clients and referrals, which makes each first enquiry worth more than one sale. In NAR’s 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 88% of buyers used an agent or broker, 91% of sellers used an agent, and 91% of buyers said they would use their agent again or recommend them (NAR, 4 November 2025). A buyer who gets an answer tonight and a viewing on Saturday may send you the next two.
The research on lead response is old but blunt. In a 2011 Harvard Business Review article on online sales leads, James Oldroyd, Kristina McElheran and David Elkington wrote that “most companies are not responding nearly fast enough” (HBR). The fix is simple to say and hard to keep up: someone, or something, answers within minutes at 21:00 and on Saturday afternoon.
Measure yourself before you buy anything. Send an enquiry to your own website on a Saturday at 15:00 and on a Tuesday at 21:00, ring the office line at lunchtime, and time each reply.
What buyers, sellers and renters ask, and when
Sort a month of a brokerage’s calls and messages and four piles appear, each needing a different answer:
- Listing questions. Is it still available? What are the HOA fees? Is there parking? Are pets allowed? Sign calls come from people standing outside the house; portal enquiries arrive in the evening. The answer is on the listing page.
- Viewing requests. Can I see it on Saturday? The answer is a time, and a booking.
- Seller and valuation leads. What do you charge? What is my house worth? These are worth most and need an agent, but the first step is a booked call.
- Clients mid-transaction. Offers, inspections, closing dates. Always an agent.
The timing is predictable: weekday evenings after work, open house weekends, Sunday night planning for the week, and the spring market when everything doubles. Count four weeks of missed calls and slow replies in each pile. The first two piles are where a fast written answer wins the client; the last two are where a person must take over quickly.
Real estate answering services and AI receptionists, priced
US dollars, monthly billing, read on each vendor’s own page.
| Option | How it charges | Entry price | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Evening and weekend receptionist (hire) | Hourly wage | $18.27 an hour median | BLS May 2025 median for receptionists, before payroll costs |
| Office or transaction assistant (hire) | Salary | $48,310 a year median | BLS May 2025 median for secretaries and administrative assistants, $23.23 an hour |
| Specialty Answering Service (people) | Minutes, billed by the second | $44 plus $1.54 a minute | 220 minutes for $269. Patching a caller to you is $0.10 a minute |
| MAP Communications (people) | Minutes a month | $49 plus $1.37 a minute | Enterprise is $339 for 250 minutes. No long-term contracts |
| Posh (people) | Receptionist minutes | $65 plus $2.30 a minute | Prestigious is $700 for 350 minutes. Month to month |
| Ruby (people) | Minutes a month | $250 for 50 minutes | 500 minutes for $1,725. Spanish and bilingual answering |
| Smith.ai receptionists (people) | Calls a month | $300 for 30 calls | Basic is $810 for 90 calls. Booking onto your calendar adds $1.50 a call |
| Rosie (AI) | Minutes a month | $49 for 250 minutes | Scale, $149 for 1,000 minutes, adds calendar booking and live transfers |
| Sona by Quo (AI) | Calls, on a Quo phone plan | Quo from $19 a user; Sona from $25 for 40 calls | 100 calls for $49, then $0.65 a call |
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist (AI) | Calls a month | Free for 25 calls; Pro $150 for 75 | $2.50 a call over 75 on Pro |
| Your own Twilio number, for an AI agent | Per number and per minute | $1.15 a month for a local number | $0.0085 a minute incoming, speech recognition $0.02 per use, plus the AI software |
The sources: BLS receptionist wages, BLS administrative assistant wages, Specialty Answering Service, MAP Communications, Posh, Ruby, Smith.ai receptionists, Rosie, Quo, Smith.ai AI Receptionist and Twilio.
Read the meter before the price. Specialty Answering Service bills by the second, which suits short sign calls. MAP and Ruby count minutes. Posh counts “receptionist minutes”, which include account tasks such as scheduling as well as talk time. Smith.ai and Quo count calls, which suits the buyer who wants to talk through a listing for six minutes.
What each does well for agents
Specialty Answering Service has a real estate page: it says it can schedule property visits through your online calendar, give lockbox details to the agent booked to see a property, and that its operators work to answer every call “within 3 rings or less” (Specialty Answering Service). Smith.ai’s FAQ uses agents in a real estate firm as its example of routing calls to individuals. Ruby answers in Spanish and English. Posh is month to month, with a trial of 7 days or 250 minutes. Rosie lists real estate and adds warm and live transfers on Scale. Quo’s real estate page says Sona answers listing and open house questions and takes showing requests, on the same phone system and bill as your team’s calls.
Worked example: a 4-agent brokerage’s month
Larkspur Realty is a brokerage we made up for this example: a broker-owner and three agents, 14 active listings, and an office line answered by whoever is in, weekdays from 09:00 to 17:00. That is 40 hours of a 168-hour week. Evenings, weekends and most of every Saturday, the agents are at showings.
In a month, 120 calls to the office line reach nobody: about 75 in the evenings and at weekends, and 45 in the day while everyone is out. Of those, 50 are listing questions, 40 are viewing requests, 20 are sellers asking about a valuation and 10 are clients mid-transaction. The average call lasts 3 minutes, 360 minutes in all. The brokerage also gets about 150 website chats and 70 WhatsApp conversations a month, most in the evening. All volumes are assumptions.
| Option | The maths | A month | Who answers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Evening and Saturday receptionist, 20 hours a week | 20 h × $18.27 × 4.33 weeks, in wages | $1,582 | A person, 20 of the 128 shut hours |
| Ruby | 360 minutes needs the 500-minute plan | $1,725 | A person, any hour |
| Smith.ai receptionists | Basic $810 for 90 calls + 30 × $10.50, plus 40 viewings booked × $1.50 | $1,185 | A person, any hour |
| Posh | Prestigious $700 for 350 minutes + 10 × $2.00 | $720 | A person, any hour |
| MAP Communications | Enterprise $339 for 250 minutes + 110 × $1.28 | $479.80 | A person, any hour |
| Specialty Answering Service | 220 minutes for $269 + 140 × $1.44, plus 30 calls patched for 3 minutes × $0.10 | $479.60 | A person, any hour |
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist | Pro $150 for 75 calls + 45 × $2.50 | $262.50 | AI, any hour |
| Rosie | Scale: 1,000 minutes covers 360 | $149 | AI, any hour |
| Sona by Quo | One Quo user for the office line at $19 + $49 for 100 calls + 20 × $0.65 | $81 | AI, any hour, on Quo’s phone system |
| AI agent on your own Twilio number | Starter plan at $25, plus Twilio (see note) | About $36 | AI, any hour, plus the website chat and WhatsApp |
The live services cost about $480 to $1,725 for the same 120 calls, and those prices cover calls only: the 220 written enquiries still wait for an agent. The receptionist covers 20 of the 128 hours the office is shut, and with employer costs (wages are 70% of private-sector compensation, BLS, September 2026) costs closer to $2,260 a month. The AI options cost a fraction of either and answer at any hour.
What the table cannot price is the nervous seller at 20:00, or the buyer whose offer was just rejected. A trained person handles those better than any script, and the live services earn their price there.
What each answered call costs
Divide each monthly bill by Larkspur’s 120 calls and the spread becomes easier to judge against what a client is worth to you.
| Option | A month | Per call |
|---|---|---|
| Evening and Saturday receptionist | $1,582 | $13.18 |
| Ruby | $1,725 | $14.38 |
| Smith.ai receptionists | $1,185 | $9.88 |
| Posh | $720 | $6.00 |
| MAP Communications | $479.80 | $4.00 |
| Specialty Answering Service | $479.60 | $4.00 |
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist | $262.50 | $2.19 |
| Rosie | $149 | $1.24 |
| Sona by Quo | $81 | $0.68 |
| AI agent on your own Twilio number | About $36 | $0.30 |
Put one number of your own beside this table: what you keep from an average closed deal. Divide it by the per-call figure and you have the number of enquiries each option answers for the price of one lost client.
What to let an AI answer, and what goes to an agent
- Let it answer the facts on the listing page: price, bedrooms, HOA fees, parking, pets, open house times, your fees and your service area.
- Let it book viewings and valuation calls in the chat, at times you are free.
- Send to an agent offers, price negotiation, inspections, anything about a contract, and every question about who lives in an area.
- Send to a lender mortgage and affordability questions, with your preferred contact if you have one.
The neighbourhood line matters. The Fair Housing Act covers race or color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status and disability, and the Justice Department describes steering “homeseekers to certain areas based on race” as one form of discrimination (US DOJ). “Is it a good area for families like ours?” is a question for a licensed agent.
Nine questions to ask any real estate answering service
How fast does it answer on a Saturday? Test it yourself during an open house.
Can it book a viewing, and where? On the call, in a chat, or by a link, and into which calendar?
Does it know which agent has which listing? Ask how calls and bookings reach the right person.
How does a hot lead reach an agent? A patch, a transfer, or a conversation handed over with everything said?
How is a call counted? Per second, per minute, per call, or minutes that include admin time?
Does it answer the website chat and WhatsApp too? Evening browsers write more than they ring.
How does it handle neighbourhood questions? Listing facts, then an agent.
Will it say it is an AI? It should, in a greeting you write.
What is the notice period? MAP lists no long-term contracts; Smith.ai’s AI plan asks for 30 days.
Our guide to AI receptionists for small business covers the general questions, and capturing website leads after hours shows what those evening enquiries are worth.
Where EzyConn fits
EzyConn is an AI agent for customer conversations. For a brokerage it answers buyers, sellers and renters from one set of answers: your listing pages, brochures and fee sheets uploaded as PDF or Word files, text you write, and exact questions and answers you set, which it uses first. It shows its source and answers in multiple languages.
- Viewings booked in the chat. From Starter, on the website chat or WhatsApp, the AI offers times from your Google Calendar or Microsoft 365 calendar and books the viewing, and the buyer gets a confirmation. A buyer who asks about the 3-bed on Alder Street at 21:30 is booked for Saturday at 11:00 before messaging the next agent. See the bookings page.
- The phone line. From the Starter plan, the AI answers inbound calls on a Twilio number you own, with your greeting and one of six English voices, from the same listing content. Each call is saved as a conversation in the inbox, and Twilio bills you directly. See the AI phone answering page.
- The hand-over. For an offer or a valuation, the AI offers a person. Once the buyer accepts, an agent is assigned (by hand, round-robin, least busy or last active) and notified with the whole conversation in the inbox and in Slack, and the AI pauses. One click hands it back.
The pre-chat form can ask for name, email, phone and consent, and Zapier and signed webhooks can pass each conversation to the tools you already use. AI replies on email come with the Professional plan, which suits brokerages that get portal leads by email.
EzyConn is priced per workspace, not per agent. The Free plan includes the AI agent, needs no card and does not expire, with 2 people and 500 messages a month. Starter is $25 a month (₹2,499 at checkout), with 4 people and 5,000 messages. Checkout bills in Indian rupees, and paid plans start with one month free. Larkspur’s 340 conversations at about six messages each come to about 2,040, inside the allowance.
Reports show first reply times, which is the speed-to-lead number, along with how many conversations the AI handled, how many it escalated and how many an agent led, and the reasons it could not answer. Every limit is on the pricing page. To test it, add a free AI chatbot to your website in about 3 minutes, or start free and ask it what buyers ask about your busiest listing.
Real estate answering services: common questions
How much does a real estate answering service cost?
Live answering starts at $44 a month plus $1.54 a minute (Specialty Answering Service) or $49 plus $1.37 a minute (MAP Communications). Ruby starts at $250 for 50 minutes and Smith.ai at $300 for 30 calls. For a brokerage missing 120 three-minute calls a month we found about $480 to $1,725 at list prices, checked 3 November 2026.
What is the cheapest answering service for realtors?
Among those we priced, AI. Smith.ai’s AI Receptionist is free for 25 calls a month, Rosie starts at $49 for 250 minutes, and Sona by Quo starts at $25 for 40 calls on top of a Quo plan from $19 a user. An AI agent on your own Twilio number adds $1.15 a month for the number plus the software.
Can an AI receptionist book showings?
Many can, but check where: on the call, in a website or WhatsApp chat, or by a link. Rosie lists calendar booking on its Scale plan, and Smith.ai’s live receptionists book onto your calendar for $1.50 a call. Ask which calendar it reads.
Is an answering service worth it for a solo agent?
Most agents are self-employed and work evenings and weekends (BLS), so a solo agent is often their own receptionist during showings. Count a month of missed calls first. If the number is small, an AI plan with a free tier is the low-risk test.
Virtual assistant or answering service for real estate leads?
They do different jobs. A virtual or in-house assistant handles paperwork, listings and follow-up, at a BLS 2025 median of $23.23 an hour for administrative assistants. An answering service or an AI answers the enquiry the moment it arrives. Many brokerages need the second before the first.
How fast should an agent reply to a new lead?
In minutes, at any hour the buyer is looking. Buyers browse in the evening and may message several agents at once, so the first useful reply has the best chance of setting up the viewing. Send an enquiry to your own website on a Saturday afternoon and time the answer.
What should an AI say when asked about a neighbourhood?
Only the facts on the listing, then offer an agent. The Fair Housing Act covers race or color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status and disability, so questions about who lives where belong with a licensed agent.