The Secret to Growing Your Real Estate Business? Answer Your Friggin’ Phone
The one habit that will change your business in 90 days – and it costs absolutely nothing. Respond first, consistently, and make people feel seen.
I hope you read that title like I would say it in our Monday coaching calls, because after nearly 40 years of coaching real estate agents — and still actively investing in real estate myself — I’ve sat on both sides of the table more times than I can count. And every single time I show up as a buyer, the same thing happens almost every single time.
I reach out. And I wait. And wait some more. Agents don’t answer their friggin’ phones.
I’m not talking about a few bad apples. I’m talking about an industry-wide pattern that, in my experience, affects close to 90% of agents. The number one complaint from buyers and sellers alike? Agents simply don’t respond — not quickly, and sometimes not at all! Have agents just stopped caring about getting new business?
The one thing that will change your business more than any marketing dollar, tool, or course is the exact thing our industry is failing at: response. Picking up your phone when it rings. Calling back promptly. Returning their emails.
The good news? The failure of that 90% of agents is your golden opportunity.
Put Yourself on the Other Side of the Screen
Close your eyes for a moment. You’re not an agent. You’re a buyer, and you’re thinking about purchasing a home — the biggest financial decision of your life. You’re excited to move to your next stage in life. You find a listing you love. You start picturing your future there. Your kids playing in the yard, your Christmas and Thanksgiving meals in the dining room. Your heart is racing a little as you fill out the contact form. You’re already thinking about packing. You text the agent on the yard sign. You leave a voicemail.
Then you wait. One day. Two days. Three days. Just crickets.
How does that feel? Probably pretty terrible. Their lack of response tells you that you don’t matter. It tells you that this agent is disorganized, overwhelmed, or — worse — saw your message and chose not to respond. Every single missed message is a relationship that never got a chance to begin. It’s a first impression that screams: this person doesn’t know how to run a business!
That’s the experience your leads are having when you don’t respond quickly. Not a neutral experience — an actively negative one. The kind they tell their friends about. And that negative experience shapes how they feel about working with you before the first conversation ever happens. We’ve written about how much that initial touchpoint matters — it’s worth a read alongside this one.
The Pizza Test
Here’s a simple analogy that applies to every business — including yours.
You’re having some friends over, and you decide to order some pizza. You call the place down the street. The phone rings. Nobody answers. What do you do? You call the next place. You don’t wait around. You keep calling pizza places until someone picks up.
Your leads work the same way. A buyer or seller tries to reach you. You don’t respond. They fill out the next form, call the next agent, text the next face on a sign. That agent answers, and just like that, they become the buyer’s new agent — not because they were more skilled, more experienced, or better at their job. Simply because they answered their phone.
This is both humbling and incredibly empowering — because it means showing up is completely within your control.
Related reading: Relationship Building: The Bedrock of Successful Businesses
Leads and Clients Are the Same People
Here’s where a lot of agents lose focus without even realizing it: they treat their active clients one way and their leads another.
Active clients get fast responses. Texts answered within the hour. Calls returned same day. But leads? Those sit in an inbox for 24, 48, sometimes 72 hours.
Think about that. How does a client become a client? They start as a lead. Every single client you’ve ever had was once just a person who reached out — and you reached back. The only difference between a lead and a client is that one got a response fast enough to start a relationship.
When you give leads slower service than clients, you’re making a decision — maybe without realizing it — that only certain people deserve your attention. And the ones who don’t get it? They move on to the agent who picked up. Our post on lead conversion strategies for real estate agents breaks down more of the mindset shifts that make a real difference here.
You’re Also Letting Your Sellers Down
Here’s the part most agents never think about — and it’s the one that really hits home. When you don’t respond to buyer inquiries, you’re not just losing a potential client. You’re hurting the seller who trusted you with their biggest asset.
A buyer sees your listing on Zillow, Realtor.com, or Homes.com and reaches out with a serious question. You don’t respond. That buyer goes to another agent and writes an offer on a different house. Meanwhile, your seller’s home sits on the market another week. Another two weeks. Their carrying costs go up. Their anxiety goes up. Their trust in you goes down.
If that seller ever found out that real buyer inquiries about their home were disappearing in your inbox, they would be — rightfully — furious. You made a commitment to market their home. Responding to inquiries is part of that commitment.
Every ignored inquiry isn’t just a lost transaction. It’s a broken promise to the seller who trusted you with their home.
What the Data Actually Says
Research consistently shows that responding to a lead within five minutes dramatically outperforms responding within an hour — not because your message is different, but because timing signals availability, professionalism, and genuine interest. Failing to respond within that window decreases your chance of converting that lead by 400%.
And here’s the kicker: according to Inman’s 2025 Real Estate Technology Survey, the average agent takes over 15 hours to respond to a new lead inquiry. That’s not a typo. Over half a workday to respond to someone who is actively trying to hire you.
That gap — between what leads expect and what they get — is one of the biggest untapped opportunities in this industry right now. The NAR Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends Report is one of the best resources out there for understanding what today’s clients actually expect from their agent.
The Fix Is Free — Here’s What It Actually Looks Like
This isn’t a call to work 24 hours a day. It’s a call to build a simple system you can trust — one that makes sure no one falls through the cracks. Here’s what that looks like in practice:
- Every inquiry gets a response within the same business day. Even a quick “Got your message — I’m with a client right now and I’ll call you tonight” is worth its weight in gold. That one sentence tells the person they matter.
- Portal leads get a response within 5 minutes if at all possible. Set up text alerts for every lead source — Zillow, Realtor.com, Homes.com — and build the habit of an immediate acknowledgment even if the full conversation comes later.
- Build a simple follow-up sequence. If someone doesn’t respond to your first outreach, that doesn’t mean they’re not interested. A well-timed second and third touchpoint can be the difference. Our post on building a follow-up system that converts walks through exactly how to structure this.
- Treat every lead like a future client. Because they are.
You don’t need a new CRM, a VA, or a fancy automation tool to start. You need the phone that’s already in your pocket and a commitment to respond before the day is out.
One Change. 90 Days. A Different Business.
If you simply changed how fast and consistently you respond to people who reach out to you — nothing else, just that — your business would look measurably different within 90 days. More conversations. More conversions. More referrals from clients who felt genuinely taken care of.
The bar in this industry is low. That’s not a criticism — it’s an invitation. Because it means you don’t have to be perfect. You just have to show up, and you’re already miles ahead of your competition. Answer your email. Return the text. Call back the lead. Be the agent that someone can count on from the very first moment they reach out.
That’s the secret, and it’s yours for free.
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