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AI receptionist for real estate agents
A buyer standing in front of your sign calls the number, waits four rings, then calls the next agent. This page prices the services that answer instead, from $99 a month for a solo agent to $500 a month for a team, and explains why short calls make per-call billing the right shape for this business.
Prices read from vendor pricing pages in July 2026. Everything is compared on the pricing index.
What calls does a real estate agent actually miss?
Your lost calls are not spread evenly. They cluster at exactly the moments you are earning, which is what makes them so expensive.
- The sign call during a showing. You are with a client, so you let it ring. That caller is standing outside a house right now and will phone the next number they see.
- The portal lead that goes cold in ten minutes. You already paid for this lead. Speed of first response decides whether you keep it, and nobody responds fast while driving between appointments.
- The same six questions. Price, square footage, taxes, HOA, schools, and when can I see it. Answering them by voicemail tag costs you an hour a day and answers nothing quickly.
- Rental and unqualified enquiries. Not worth your time individually, but they train you to ignore the phone, which is how a real buyer gets missed.
- Evenings, weekends and open house day. The hours buyers actually look are the hours you are least able to talk. Your business line is your personal phone, and it does not have an off switch.
What one missed call costs you here
One closed side typically nets an agent somewhere in the $3,000 to $9,000 range after the split, depending on price point and brokerage. A lease is a few hundred. Those are typical ranges to anchor on, not a claim about your market. Use your own average net commission per closed side.
Then be brutal about conversion, because agent maths goes wrong here more than anywhere else. The share of callers who eventually close is small, often a few percent of raw enquiries. Even so the numbers are stark: if you take 60 calls a week, miss a third of them and only 2 percent of those missed callers would have closed, that is around one extra closing a quarter. One closing a quarter at the range above pays for every plan on this page for the entire year, several times over. And unlike a plumber's missed job, your lead was already bought and paid for.
You miss about 10 calls a week. Roughly 3 of them would have booked.
Put your net commission in the third field and a low, honest close rate in the fourth. Full workings on the missed call calculator.
Which service fits an agent or a team
Smith.ai, because your calls are short and your leads are expensive
Smith.ai bills per call, not per minute, which suits a call mix full of 40-second sign enquiries and the occasional long buyer conversation. Their AI plan is $150 a month for 75 calls with extra calls at $2.00, and the Enterprise AI tier is $500 a month for 300 calls at $1.67 per extra call with multi-location support, which is the one teams grow into. There is also a free tier covering 25 calls a month at $3.00 per call after that, which is a sensible starting point for a part-time agent. Watch the direction of overage on their human plans: extra calls there cost more each than the calls inside the plan. Check current Smith.ai pricing.
Nextiva XBert, if you also want a business line
Most agents run their business on a personal mobile number, which is fine until it is not. Nextiva sells both: business phone service from $15 a month per user, and the XBert AI receptionist at $99 a month for 100 interactions, then $0.99 per interaction. The billing definition is well suited to sign calls: a conversation only counts when a call passes 30 seconds or a chat receives three or more AI replies, so the quick "is it still available" calls cost nothing. Run the arithmetic at your volume before signing, since 300 conversations works out at $297 rather than $99. Check current Nextiva pricing.
Answrr, when buyer, seller and rental calls need different scripts
Answrr counts AI agents rather than features: $99 a month for 300 minutes (5 hours) with 3 agents, $199 for 750 minutes (12.5 hours) with 10, and every plan includes every feature, so the tiers only differ by volume and agent count. That structure fits an agent who wants one script for listing enquiries, another for buyers and a third for rentals. Brokerages should look at the Agency plan at $699 a month for 5,000 minutes (83 hours) with full white label on a custom domain. The trial is 14 days with 60 minutes and no credit card, which is the cheapest test in this market. Check current Answrr pricing.
My AI Front Desk, if follow-up is your weak point
Answering is only half of speed to lead. The other half is what happens in the next ten minutes. My AI Front Desk bundles voice, SMS, chat and email on one plan: Business-in-a-Box at $99 a month for 200 voice minutes, plus 20 outbound calls a day, 400 SMS and 100 chats, across 20 or more languages, with a 7-day trial. Two things to keep in view: the $20 Basic plan answers no phone calls at all, and billing runs from a credit pool where voice draws 25 credits a minute, roughly $0.25 a minute once you reload. Check current My AI Front Desk pricing.
Prices side by side
| Service | Plan | Price | Included | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smith.ai | AI Receptionist Pro | $150/mo | 75 calls | Per call, so a 45-second sign call costs the same as a 10-minute one. Extra calls are $2.00 each. |
| Nextiva XBert | XBert AI Receptionist | $99/mo | 100 interactions | A call under 30 seconds is not billable at all. Past 100 interactions, each is $0.99. |
| Answrr | Starter | $99/mo | 300 minutes (5 hours) | Per minute, $0.25 over the bundle, but you get 3 separate AI agents so buyer, seller and rental calls can differ. |
| My AI Front Desk | Business-in-a-Box | $99/mo | 200 voice minutes | Includes outbound calls and SMS for follow-up. The $20 tier below it answers no calls at all. |
Verified July 2026. Compare every published plan on the pricing index.
What to ask before you sign
- How fast does a new lead hear back, and by which channel? A call answered and a text sent within a minute are two different products. Ask which one is in the plan price and which is metered.
- How is a 40-second sign call billed? Not billed at all under Nextiva's 30-second rule, one full call at Smith.ai, one full minute on most per-minute plans. Multiply by your monthly call count before choosing.
- What does it ask a buyer, exactly? Financing status, timeline, and whether they already have an agent. If the script does not ask the third question, you will keep paying for calls that were never yours.
- Can I run different scripts per listing or lead type? Answrr counts agents, 3 on Starter and 10 on Growth. Goodcall counts logic flows, 1 on Starter and 3 on Growth. If a vendor will not tell you the number, assume one.
- What happens when I cannot take the transfer? You are in a showing half the day. Decide in advance whether it books a viewing, texts you the details, or holds the caller, and make them show you it working.
Where to go next
Law firms run almost the same intake problem with far higher call values and stricter scripting, and the comparison there is useful: see AI receptionists for law firms. If you manage rentals and dispatch contractors, the response-speed and dispatch notes on the HVAC page explain why the trades you rely on answer or do not. All published pricing sits on the pricing index.
Frequently asked questions
How much does an AI receptionist cost a real estate agent?
A solo agent lands between $99 and $150 a month. Nextiva's XBert is $99 a month for 100 interactions, Answrr is $99 for 300 minutes (5 hours), My AI Front Desk is $99 for 200 voice minutes plus SMS and chat, and Smith.ai's AI plan is $150 for 75 calls. Teams handling real volume look at Smith.ai's Enterprise AI plan at $500 a month for 300 calls with multi-location support. Smith.ai also runs a free tier covering 25 calls a month, which is enough for a part-time agent. Verified July 2026.
Will it text a lead back, not just answer the phone?
Some will, and for portal leads the text usually matters more than the call. My AI Front Desk includes 400 SMS, 100 chats and 20 outbound calls a day on its $99 plan. Rosie sells texting as a separate product at $50 a month for 25 conversations. Nextiva counts a chat as a billable conversation once it receives three or more AI replies. Ask specifically whether follow-up texts are included in the plan price or metered, because that is where a cheap plan turns expensive.
Per call or per minute for short sign calls?
Per call, almost always. A sign call lasting 40 seconds costs a full billable call on a per-call plan and a full rounded minute on most per-minute plans, so the model that wins is the one that ignores short calls entirely. Nextiva does not count a call under 30 seconds as a conversation. Smith.ai charges per call regardless of length, which turns in your favour on long buyer conversations. Per-minute plans like Answrr at $0.25 a minute over the bundle suit you only if calls are few and long.
Can it qualify a lead before I call back?
That is the part worth paying for. Ask the vendor to show you the qualifying script: budget, timeline, financing status, and whether the caller is already working with an agent. Then ask how a qualified lead reaches you, a text with the details or an email you read after the showing. Answrr gives you 3 separate AI agents on its $99 plan and 10 on the $199 plan, so buyer calls, listing enquiries and rentals can each run a different script rather than one script trying to cover all three.
Pricing is gathered from vendor websites and changes without notice. Confirm current pricing, what counts as a billable call and any add-on costs with the vendor before buying.