AI phone receptionist for real estate agencies
Quick summary
- Both agents are out with the keys. The person who could pick up is standing in someone else's hallway.
- The first question on a new call is buy, rent or sell. Mix those up and you file the caller against the wrong books.
- Buyers who can actually come to the phone ring after six and on Saturday, when the caller has two agencies on the same screen.
- The assistant answers every line at once, asks area, budget and size, and books a viewing only when the calendar is free.
- It never invents an asking price or that a listing is still available. If the file does not say so, it takes a request and you call back.
- It answers in the caller's language. English is how a large share of serious buyers start, not a courtesy.
TL;DR
Both agents are standing in someone else's hallway with a set of keys. The people who ring — a buyer after work, a vendor on a Sunday, a tenant who just saw the listing — will not wait. The assistant answers, asks buy, rent or sell first, then area, budget and size, and either books a viewing when the calendar is free or takes a request. It will not invent an asking price or tell anyone a property is still available unless your own listing file says so.
Key takeaways
- Put the assistant on the published number with a delay, so an agent who is actually at the desk still takes the call.
- Teach it the first question on every new enquiry: buy, rent, or sell. Nothing useful happens before that.
- Give it area, budget band and size as the next three fields, not a free chat about what they are looking for.
- Let it book viewings only when the calendar and the listing file both confirm the time; otherwise it takes a callback.
- Route vendor calls — valuations, mandate questions, what happened with the offer — to a named agent, not into a pile you read on Monday.
- Turn English on as a working language, not as a fallback. A share of the people who can actually buy will start in it.
The phone rings while the keys are out
Saturday, 11:10. One of you is in a third-floor hallway in Ampelokipi with a couple who asked to see the storage. The other is in the car between a Glyfada maisonette and a second viewing at noon. The number on the listing is ringing. Nobody can pick up. The caller saw the two-bed twenty minutes ago, has Saturday late morning free, and will tap the next agency on the same screen if this one goes to the beep.
They did not search for your firm. They searched for a two-bedroom in a postcode. Three cards came back. The agent who answers keeps the viewing. The one who does not is closed, as far as they are concerned.
That is a normal Saturday in a two-agent office in Greece. After work, Saturday morning, Sunday afternoon: both of you are in someone else’s hallway with a set of keys, or driving with the mobile in a bag. A vendor who has decided to sell rings on a Sunday evening. A couple relocating from Munich rings at 20:30 Greek time. A tenant who just opened the listing rings while you are mid-viewing. By the time you listen to the voicemail, another agency has booked Saturday on a comparable flat.
What the assistant does on your published number
You put the assistant on the number already printed on the portal, the window card and the Google profile. It talks to the person who just tapped the listing, asks buy, rent or sell, writes down area, budget and size, checks whether a viewing time is actually free, and either books that time or puts a complete request in front of an agent.
A caller who asks “is the Patission flat still available, and what’s the price” is asking you to commit two things that change without warning — a let, a sale agreed, a vendor who withdrew last night. If the assistant answers those from memory, you will have to break the promise on a Saturday doorstep.
Hours, the areas you cover, how a viewing works, whether you take new rental applicants this month: those can be finished on the phone. A listing’s status, an asking price that is not in the record, a negotiation, a comment on a title or a tax question: those become a request. The assistant never decides that a property is still on your books. The number stays yours. One forwarding rule at the provider — everything, or only what has rung unanswered for the seconds you choose. Calls an agent takes at the desk never leave the office.
Buy, rent or sell — three different people
The three conversations that follow that question do not share a calendar, a document, or a commission. Treat them as one enquiry and a vendor spends five minutes being offered two-beds in their own neighbourhood.
Buy. Area, budget band, size, and whether they need to be in by a date. An agent can work with Kifisia, up to a stated budget, three bedrooms, before September. An agent cannot work with “something nice”. If they name a listing, write the name down exactly. Do not add a status the file has not confirmed.
Rent. The same three fields, plus when they want to move in, and whether they are calling about a specific listing or about the area. Deposit questions and “does the landlord accept a dog” are taken down. They are not answered unless the file has the answer. Two months’ deposit is common on Greek rentals; that does not mean this landlord takes it.
Sell. They are not looking for a flat. They want a valuation visit, or they want to know what happened to the offer, or they want to take the property off the market. The assistant does not quote a likely sale price. It takes an address, a preferred time for someone to come, and the name of the agent if they have one.
Get the first question wrong and every field after it is filed against the wrong books.
Area, budget, square metres — then stop
A transcript that says “northern suburbs, something nice, not too expensive” is a voicemail with better punctuation. A transcript that says “rent, Ampelokipi, around €900, 70 sqm or more, Saturday late morning” is something an agent can confirm or decline in one text.
Budget is a band, not a negotiation. Size is sqm or bedrooms, whichever the caller offers. Area is a neighbourhood or a postcode, not “close to things”. If they are relocating, furnished or unfurnished and a metro line are worth writing down. “Near the sea” is not, unless they name a neighbourhood.
The two sentences that get you in trouble
“Yes, that one is still available.” “The asking price is…”
A listing that was live at breakfast can be let by lunch. A vendor can take it off the market after one phone call you were not on. Last week’s printout may have moved, or may never have been yours to speak — a shared listing, a colleague’s mandate, a figure the vendor has not approved.
The assistant quotes a figure only when that figure is in the record you gave it. It does not give a range for the street. A range spoken on your number becomes, in the caller’s notes, the price. It confirms a property is still on the market only when your own listing file says so at that moment. If the file is silent, stale, or unreachable, it takes the area, budget and size, books nothing against that address, and leaves it for you. Confirming a let or sold property as live is worse than letting the call ring out: the viewer turns up, an agent turns up, and someone is holding keys for a flat that went yesterday. The same rule covers the energy certificate, the deposit, and the square metres on a specific address. If it is in the file, the assistant can repeat it. If it is not, it writes the question down.
The vendor is not looking for a flat
If the assistant treats every caller as a buyer, that will offend the person who pays you. A vendor calling about their own flat does not want to be asked their budget. They want a named agent, or a valuation visit, or a straight answer about an offer that was supposedly coming Friday.
Configure that path first. If the caller says they want to sell, or they name a property already on your books as theirs, the assistant stops collecting buyer fields. It takes a callback for a person. “Wants to withdraw, ring this evening” is a different Tuesday from “wants a valuation in Glyfada”. Do not finish the call by booking them a viewing of someone else’s house. “Are you the only agency, or is this shared?” The assistant does not answer unless you wrote the answer against that listing. It takes the name, the address, and a time for you to call. The assistant does not warm up a likely sale price on a Sunday night.
How CITT handles it
- The number on the listing stays yours. One forwarding rule at the provider — everything, or only what has rung unanswered for the seconds you choose. Calls an agent takes at the desk never leave the agency.
- Every line is answered at once. Saturday at 11:00 is as many conversations as there are people ringing about the new listing. Nobody sits on hold while you finish pointing at a kitchen.
- It knows the agency from your material, not from the internet: areas you cover, whether you are taking new rental applicants, how a viewing works, where to park, which agent handles which neighbourhood.
- It checks the calendar before it offers a viewing, and only against a time that is actually free. A time an agent is already standing in another hallway is not offered.
- It confirms by SMS when a viewing is truly booked, in the language of the call, without anyone typing a number in the car.
- It refuses the two sentences that get agencies into trouble: a price that is not in the file, and “yes, that one is still available” when the file has not said so.
- You get the transcript, the buy-rent-sell answer, and the three fields — written into whatever you already use to run the books.
English is a working language here
In a Greek agency, English is not a nice extra. A large share of the people who can actually complete a purchase start in it. German, French, Russian and Albanian turn up in the same week, often after six. You do not configure a language per flat.
The assistant picks up the language from the first sentence and stays in it, including if the caller switches mid-call. Seventy-plus languages. A relocating buyer will often give you more if they stay in the language they started in: furnished or not, a metro stop, a date they land, a company paying the rent. Write those down. Do not invent a flat that matches.
What it will not do
It will not invent an asking price. It will not tell a caller a property is still available unless your listing record says it is. It will not negotiate a reduction, split a deposit, or see what the landlord will take. It will not give an opinion on a title deed, a cadastral issue, a tax treatment, or whether a foreign buyer can complete. Those are not reception questions.
It will not commit a vendor. The assistant takes the offer as words, reads them back, and leaves the call for you. The vendor hears it from a person. It will not book a viewing on a listing it cannot see. When the file is unreachable, the answer is a callback, said plainly. If two people want the same 11:30 and you have one set of keys, that is your call.
Keys, the other agency, and the open house
Agencies in the same building list the same street. Sometimes they list the same flat. The caller has both numbers on one screen. The assistant on your number does not talk down the other card, and it does not pretend your listing is exclusive unless the file says it is.
One set of keys is with you on the viewing. Another is with the colleague who has not come back from Glyfada. The concierge has a third set until two. The assistant cannot see any of that. It does not promise that someone will be at the door at 11:30 with keys in hand unless the calendar and the listing file both support a viewing. If they do not, it takes the request.
An open house is not a normal viewing. If you run one, write it in: the address, the hours, whether people can just come or must give a name. The assistant can point a caller at those hours. It cannot invent a private 11:30 in the middle of it.
The assistant does not take an offer
Someone calls and says they will take the Patission flat at the asking price, or at ten thousand under. The assistant writes the words down, reads them back, and leaves the call for the agent who holds the mandate. It does not accept. It does not counter. The vendor hears the offer from you. If you are in a hallway, you hear it from the transcript on the way back to the car.
The same rule covers “tell the landlord I’ll take it” on a rental. Application, deposit, references, move-in date: taken down. Accepted: not on this call, not by this voice.
What to put in before the first live day
Not a brochure. The facts you already recite at the desk.
The areas you actually cover, and the ones you pass on. Whether you are taking new rental applicants this month. How long a viewing usually lasts, and which days you show. Where to park at the office, if you have one. Which agent covers which neighbourhood, if that split is real. The sentence you want used when a listing cannot be confirmed. The sentence you want used when someone asks for a price that is not on the file.
Then the two forbidden sentences, written down so nobody improves them later: we do not confirm that a property is available unless the file says so; we do not give a figure that is not in the record. If those are in place, the first week of transcripts will be usable.
AI receptionist, in-house staff, or a call centre
| CITT | In-house | Call centre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Answers while agents are at a viewing | Yes | Only whoever stayed behind | Yes |
| First question on a new enquiry | Buy, rent or sell | Usually | Whatever the script opens with |
| Invents a price or "still available" | Never — file or callback | Sometimes from memory | Risk, if the sheet is stale |
| Books a Saturday viewing | Against the calendar you gave it | If they are at the desk | Usually takes a message |
| Evening and Sunday callers | Same as any other hour | No | At a surcharge |
| Speaks the buyer's language | 70+ languages | Greek, sometimes English | Whatever was staffed |
| What it will not do | Negotiate or commit a vendor | — | Know which set of keys is out |
What one unanswered Saturday morning costs a two-agent office
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- Two agents, both out on viewings between 10:00 and 13:00 on a typical Saturday.
- About 18 inbound calls in that window; whoever stayed behind reaches perhaps 6.
- Of the 12 that ring out, 5 are new buyer or tenant enquiries about a specific listing or area.
- A completed rental instruction is worth about €800 in commission in this example — replace this with your own average before you trust the answer.
- Not every enquiry becomes an instruction. This example assumes 1 of those 5 would have become a viewing that later completed. Change that conversion if yours is lower.
- 5 new enquiries reach nobody on one Saturday morning.
- 4 of them do not leave a message; they dial the agency that listed the next flat.
- If even 1 of the 5 would have become a rental instruction, that morning is €800 that never appears on your books.
- Saturday mornings alone, over 46 weeks — 46 × €800. Put your own weeks in if you close in August.
About €36,800 a year, from one recurring three-hour window — and only if you accept the conversion above. Change it.
What it costs
CITT is pay as you go: no packages, no minimum, no contract. The current rates — the monthly fee per number and the per-minute rate — are on the pricing section of the home page, which is the only place they are published.
Frequently asked questions
Do we have to give up the number on the portal ads?
No. The number printed on the listing, the window card and the Google profile stays yours. You add one forwarding rule with the telephony provider: every call, or only the ones still ringing after the seconds you choose. An agent who picks up at the desk is never forwarded and never charged.
Can it tell a caller the flat is still available?
Only if your own listing file or feed says so at that moment. If the file is silent, stale, or unreachable, the assistant does not guess. It takes the caller's area, budget and size, books nothing against that address, and leaves it for you. Confirming a let or sold property as live is worse than a missed call — the viewer turns up, and you own the wasted Saturday.
Will it quote an asking price from memory?
It quotes a figure only when that figure is in the record you connected or in what you typed in yourself. It will not estimate, round, or give a sense of the area. A number spoken on your number is your number. Anything else is a callback.
What does it ask a new caller first?
Buy, rent or sell. Then the area they care about, a budget band, and the size in square metres or the number of bedrooms. Those four answers are what an agent can act on at 21:00; a five-minute chat about what kind of home they want is not. Vendor calls skip that question and go to a named agent.
Can it handle a caller who speaks no Greek?
It picks up the language from the first sentence and continues in it, including switching mid-call. In a Greek agency that is not a rare event: English is how a large share of serious buyers arrive, and German, French, Russian and Albanian turn up in the same week. You do not configure a language per listing.
What do we see after a call?
A transcript, a short summary, whether they want to buy, rent or sell, the area, budget and size the caller gave, and whatever viewing it booked or refused to book. Those land where you already look, and can be written into the system you already use, against the listing if one was named.
