Real estate lead follow-up over iMessage from a business number

Who uses iMessage for real estate leads?

iMessage lead follow-up fits solo agents, real estate teams and small brokerages with buyer inquiries from portals, their website and yard signs. The portal's auto-email is easy to ignore, and an agent who texts buyers from a personal phone keeps listing threads between family ones.

A ZeroSettle number moves those threads to a business line showing the agent's or team's name and photo. It does not fit purchased lead lists, which the terms forbid texting without consent, or Android-heavy markets (see when ZeroSettle is not a fit). More industries: 50 ways businesses use iMessage, closest being car dealership leads.

How iMessage for real estate leads works, step by step

There are two ways in: the buyer texts first from a QR code, or your code texts a form lead who gave consent. Prefer the QR route: a buyer who texts first never counts against ZeroSettle's limits and can tap every link you send.

1. Text-first. The sign rider and flyer box carry a QR code that opens Messages to your ZeroSettle number with “I'm interested in 22 Oak St (ref 2207)” prefilled; the listing page carries a Text button with the same link. The buyer points the iPhone Camera at the code, taps the link that appears, and taps Send.
2. Your server gets it as a signed message.received webhook event about 1–2 seconds after the line receives it, and reads the ref to find the listing and agent.
3. Form leads. When a portal or website lead arrives with a mobile number and consent to texts, your code, triggered by the CRM, calls POST https://portal.zerosettle.io/api/imessage/send with a link-free opener naming the agent and the home. A link would show as plain text (why first links aren't tappable), and Screen Unknown Senders (iOS 26 and later) can hide a cold text.
4. After the buyer replies, send listing photos (image_b64, up to 5 MB, captioned), a 30-second voice walkthrough (audio_b64, up to 6 MB, a native voice bubble) and the showing calendar link, now tappable.
5. Or let the hosted AI agent answer (Beta, no code). On a line group set to Managed by AI Agent, it answers price, HOA and open-house questions from your business_context, with goal demo_booked and your showing calendar as the link. Form leads start there with POST /api/imessage/agent/start, and inbound texts skip your webhook. You can't reply yourself on that group: sends return 403 managed_by_zerosettle.

ZeroSettle's docs say the hosted agent never invents facts the business context doesn't give, so include list price, HOA dues and open-house times. The Fair Housing Act prohibits housing discrimination because of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status or disability, so have the hosted agent stick to listing facts and, in the business context, send neighborhood questions to a call with you.

On Growth, each agent's line group carries their name and headshot, and their signs carry their number; webhook events carry the line_id, so your code routes each reply to the right agent. A team can run the hosted agent on one shared group, such as the office sign number, while agents' groups stay managed by API.

Example conversation: real estate leads

This thread starts from a yard-sign QR code, so the agent's number is a known sender from the first message.

Setup: a QR route plus a CRM-triggered opener

The setup is a QR code per listing, a send call for form leads, and a webhook receiver that verifies ZeroSettle's signature and routes replies by ref. Each QR code encodes a prefilled sms: link, as in the docs' customer support section:

sms:+18055550100&body=I%27m%20interested%20in%2022%20Oak%20St%20(ref%202207)

Any QR generator turns that into a sign image (placement tips: getting customers to text first). The rest is one small service:

# leads.py: run with  uvicorn leads:app --port 8100
import base64, hashlib, hmac, json, os, re, time
import requests
from fastapi import BackgroundTasks, FastAPI, Request, Response

BASE = "https://portal.zerosettle.io"
TOKEN, SECRET = os.environ["ZEROSETTLE_TOKEN"], os.environ["ZEROSETTLE_WEBHOOK_SECRET"]
app = FastAPI()
seen: set[int] = set()                    # use your database in production

def verify(secret: str, header: str, raw_body: bytes, tolerance: int = 300) -> bool:
    try:
        parts = dict(p.split("=", 1) for p in header.split(","))
        t, v1 = int(parts["t"]), parts["v1"]
    except Exception:
        return False
    if abs(time.time() - t) > tolerance:
        return False
    expected = hmac.new(secret.encode(), f"{t}.".encode() + raw_body, hashlib.sha256).hexdigest()
    return hmac.compare_digest(expected, v1)

def send(to, line_id=None, **fields):     # None: ZeroSettle picks the line
    return requests.post(f"{BASE}/api/imessage/send", headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {TOKEN}"},
                         json={"to": to, "line_id": line_id, **fields}, timeout=120).json()

def b64(path):
    with open(path, "rb") as f:
        return base64.b64encode(f.read()).decode()

def on_form_lead(lead):                   # called by your CRM; hold 9 PM to 8 AM leads until 8 AM
    if lead.get("text_consent"):          # else call or email
        r = send(lead["mobile"], lead.get("agent_line_id"),
                 text=f"Hi {lead['first_name']}, it's {lead['agent']} about {lead['address']}. "
                      "Are you pre-approved yet, or just starting to look?")
        return r                          # error.code "new_contact_limit": retry after error.retry_after_s

def notify_agent(msg, ref):               # your CRM; on Growth, msg["line_id"] names the agent's line
    print(msg.get("line_id"), msg["handle"], ref or "no ref: ask which home", msg.get("text"))

def walkthrough(to, line_id, home):       # after the buyer replies
    send(to, line_id, audio_b64=b64(home.voice_m4a), audio_format="m4a")
    send(to, line_id, image_b64=b64(home.kitchen_jpg), text="That's the kitchen they just redid.")
    send(to, line_id, text=f"Pick a showing time: {home.calendar_url}")

@app.post("/webhook")
async def webhook(req: Request, tasks: BackgroundTasks):
    raw = await req.body()
    if not verify(SECRET, req.headers.get("X-ZeroSettle-Signature", ""), raw):
        return Response(status_code=401)
    ev = json.loads(raw)
    m = ev.get("message") or {}
    if ev["event"] == "message.received" and m["id"] not in seen:   # retries repeat the id
        seen.add(m["id"])
        ref = re.search(r"\bref\s*(\d+)", m.get("text") or "", re.I)
        tasks.add_task(notify_agent, m, ref and ref.group(1))   # your CRM
    return Response(status_code=200)      # 2xx within 10 s

Register the receiver with PUT /api/imessage/webhook and store the secret, shown once (webhook steps). A buyer who deletes the prefill arrives without a ref, so ask which home. Set each group's name and headshot with PUT /api/imessage/profile?group=lg_… or in the console; for the CRM side, see connecting iMessage to your CRM.

Limits and consent for real estate leads

Only form leads use ZeroSettle's new-contact allowance, once each; buyers who text from a QR code never count.

Source: ZeroSettle iMessage API docs, “Errors, limits, and compliance”. A new contact is a handle the line delivers a text, voice message or photo to first.

The limit math for one listing's first week

Take a new listing with illustrative numbers: 21 yard-sign texts, 34 open-house visitors who scan a door QR code instead of signing a paper sheet, and 28 form leads with consent to texts.

• Sign and open-house texts: 55 conversations, 0 new contacts.
• Form leads: up to 28 new contacts across the week; Pro allows 5 a day per number, so on a busy day the extras wait for the next day's reset (or the team moves to Growth); a form lead who already texted from the sign is an ongoing conversation, not a new contact.
• Launch morning: if 12 leads land within 15 minutes, Pro sends the first 5 right away, one after another, and the other 7 get 429 new_contact_limit and wait for the 3 AM Eastern reset (retry_after_s says when). On Growth, sends that name one agent's line_id reach 3 new contacts per 15 minutes, so the twelfth goes about 45 minutes after the first.
• Late leads: your code holds a 10:40 PM lead's opener until 8 AM; ZeroSettle's docs ask for nothing promotional before 8 am or after 9 pm in the recipient's time zone.
• Quiet buyers: on either plan, a third unanswered text returns 403 awaiting_reply; ZeroSettle's docs warn that repeated texts to people who never answer are the fastest way to get a number flagged.

When ZeroSettle is not a fit for real estate leads

ZeroSettle is the wrong tool for real estate leads in these cases:

• You'd text purchased lead lists without consent. ZeroSettle's terms forbid unsolicited messaging, and ZeroSettle suspends lines used for it.
• You need SMS for Android buyers. There is no fallback: iMessage goes to an iPhone or another Apple device, and non-Apple phones get RCS or SMS/MMS instead (Apple). On Android the QR code opens the SMS app, so the sign needs a second way to reach you.
• You want to keep texting from your personal number. ZeroSettle numbers are business numbers it assigns; porting isn't offered.
• You want one thread with both co-buyers. Conversations are one-to-one; group chats aren't supported yet.
• Your brokerage requires a specific compliance-archive integration. None is built in; build it on the webhook or GET /api/imessage/messages.

Comparing tools built for sales teams? See ZeroSettle vs Project Blue.

How much does iMessage for real estate leads cost?

Real estate lead follow-up costs the plan price, because ZeroSettle messages are unlimited (counted); the only extra is an AI credit pack if the hosted agent sends more texts than the plan includes.

Both carry a 30-day money-back guarantee on the subscription. The hosted AI agent uses one AI credit per text it sends (Pro includes 1,000 a month, Growth 5,000; packs are 1,000 for $50 or 5,000 for $200). See ZeroSettle pricing, get a number, or read the AI agent docs.