Buyers and sellers write to an agency when they have a minute: in the evening, on weekends, between two showings. If no one answers, they contact the next agent. In Deskbolt's data, 52% of conversations start in the evening, at night or on a weekend (9,529 conversations for our clients, July to October 2026, in each agency's local time).
1.Four kinds of tools
They differ in where they work (on your website, or once a lead has left its details), in who builds them, and in what they know about your listings.
| Kind of tool | What it does | Watch for | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Real estate AI agent for your website | Answers visitors on your website, from your listings, and qualifies them for your team. | Who builds and maintains it, and which CRMs it sends leads to. | Deskbolt · Serviceform (Mira) |
| General-purpose AI chatbot builder | A chatbot you set up and train on your own content, for any industry. | You build and maintain it; check how it learns your listings and keeps them up to date. | Chatbase · Tidio (Lyro) |
| AI inside sales agent (ISA) | Follows up leads by text, email or phone once they have left their details. | It works on the leads you already have; check whether it also answers visitors on your website. | Ylopo (AI Text + Voice) · Verse |
| AI built into a real estate CRM or website platform | AI features that come with a CRM or website platform built for agents. | It is tied to that platform: change platforms and you lose it. | Lofty · Luxury Presence |
Examples as their own websites described them on November 1, 2026. We don't list their prices: they change often and depend on volume, so check each pricing page.
2.What to check before you buy
Whatever the kind, eight questions tell a chatbot that brings you leads from one that just talks. The quickest test: write to it on your own website, the way a buyer would.
1.It answers about the listing the visitor is on
Most questions are about one home: is it still available, how many bedrooms, can I visit it. Open a listing on your site, ask about it, and see whether the chatbot answers from that listing or sends the visitor to a form.
2.It qualifies buyers, sellers, renters and landlords
A lead your team can call back comes with a project: budget, area, timeline, type of home. Check that the chatbot asks for these during the conversation, and that it tells a buyer from a seller, a renter or a landlord.
3.It says when it doesn't know
An AI that makes up a price or an availability costs you more than no answer at all. Ask it something your website doesn't say: a good agent says so and offers a follow-up by your team.
4.It sends complete leads to your CRM
Check where each lead goes (your CRM, your inbox, a dashboard), what it contains (contact details, the project, a summary of the conversation), and how soon it gets there.
5.It replies in the visitor's language
Buyers from abroad write in their own language. Check that the chatbot answers in the visitor's language, and that the chat itself (welcome message, forms, buttons) follows your website's.
6.You know who sets it up
A chatbot builder needs someone to write its instructions, load your content and keep it current. If no one on your team has that time, choose a tool that is set up for you, and ask how long it takes.
7.You can see the price before you buy
Look for a public price, what it counts (conversations, leads, users or websites) and what happens when you go over. A free trial on your own website tells you more than a demo.
8.It follows privacy laws
In Europe, check GDPR compliance and a Data Processing Agreement. In the United States, check CCPA/CPRA and chat-recording consent in the states that require it. Ask where the data is hosted and whether it is used to train AI models.
3.Where Deskbolt fits
Deskbolt is an AI chatbot for real estate agency websites: the first kind above. Here are its answers to the eight questions, with only what our website already says.
| What to check | Deskbolt |
|---|---|
| The listing the visitor is on | Knows every listing on your website and answers from the one the visitor is looking at: price, rooms, area, features. It also reads the links visitors share before it answers. |
| Qualification | Buyers, sellers, renters and landlords become leads; spam, sales pitches and job applications are set aside but kept in your dashboard. Each lead comes with name, email and phone (checked as they're typed), budget, area, timeline and type of home. |
| When it doesn't know | It doesn't guess: when the answer isn't in your listings or on your website, it says so and offers a follow-up by your team. |
| Leads in your CRM | Each lead reaches your dashboard, your inbox and your CRM the moment it's qualified, with an AI summary of the conversation: Follow Up Boss, HubSpot, LionDesk, Real Geeks and Cloze, or any other tool through the API or a signed webhook. See the integrations. |
| Languages | The AI agent converses in 159+ languages and replies in the language each visitor writes in; the chat itself follows your website's language, in 13 languages. |
| Setup | Our team builds your AI agent and sets it up; your part is a 15-minute questionnaire, about 20 minutes of your time in total. It goes live with one snippet or a WordPress plugin, with our help. |
| Price | Starting at $265/month. Every plan includes every feature and one AI agent; plans differ by volume only. 14-day free trial, no credit card required. See the plans. |
| Privacy | GDPR, with a Data Processing Agreement; CCPA/CPRA, and chat-recording consent in California and the other all-party-consent states. Data encrypted in transit and at rest, hosted on Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services, mainly in the United States; no personal data is used to train public AI models. See security and compliance. |
See it for yourself: Mia answers on Acme Estates, our fictional demo agency in Miami. Ask her about a home the way your buyers would.
4.Questions
Which kind of AI chatbot is best for a small agency?
Usually one you don't have to build or maintain, that knows your listings and sends leads where your team already works. Try it on your own website before you commit.
Can an AI chatbot replace my contact form?
You can keep both. A form records a message and waits for your callback; an AI agent answers right away and collects the same details along the way.
How long does setup take?
It depends on who builds it. With a chatbot builder, as long as you spend on it. With Deskbolt, our team builds the agent and sets it up; you answer a 15-minute questionnaire: about 20 minutes of your time in total.
What does an AI chatbot for real estate cost?
Prices change often and depend on volume, so check each vendor's pricing page. Deskbolt starts at $265/month; every plan includes every feature and one AI agent, and the 14-day free trial needs no credit card.