Real Estate AI ISA Glossary

Lead response

Inbound lead

A person who contacted you first or asked to be contacted: a website or portal inquiry, an ad form, a call, a text, a chat message or an email. Replying to someone about their own inquiry is different from cold outreach to someone who never asked, and consent rules treat the two differently.

Speed to lead

How quickly a business makes real contact with a new lead after the inquiry arrives, by a person or an AI, not an automatic acknowledgment. It is the headline measure of lead response. In a widely cited industry study, leads called within 60 seconds converted 391% above average (Velocify, formerly Leads360); that is an industry benchmark, not a Swiftleads AI result.

Source: Velocify (formerly Leads360) speed-to-call study · See also: Missed lead cost calculator

Lead response time

The time from an inquiry's arrival to the first reply that actually answers it, by call, text, email or message, not an autoresponder. Track the median and the share answered within a minute, by source and by hour, including nights and weekends. Firms that tried to contact a lead within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify it as those that waited longer.

Source: Harvard Business Review, March 2011

After-hours lead

An inquiry that arrives when nobody is scheduled to answer it: evenings, weekends, holidays, or while agents are at showings and closings. Covering these takes staffed hours, an on-call rotation or an automated first reply that can hold a real conversation.

Autoresponder

An automatic, fixed message sent as soon as an inquiry arrives, such as “Thanks, an agent will be in touch.” It confirms receipt but does not answer questions or book anything. The 2013 WAV Group agent responsiveness study did not count autoresponders as responses.

Source: WAV Group, Agent Responsiveness Study, 2013

People and systems

ISA (inside sales agent)

A team member who works leads by phone, text and email rather than in the field: making first contact, qualifying, following up and setting appointments for the agents who show homes and take listings. Human ISAs work set hours and handle a limited number of conversations at once.

See also: AI lead response vs a human ISA

AI ISA (AI inside sales agent)

Software that does the first-contact part of an ISA's job with AI: it replies to new leads by voice, text, email or chat, asks qualifying questions, answers common questions from approved information and books appointments for agents, at any hour. People keep the advice, the negotiation and anything outside its instructions.

See also: AI lead response vs a human ISA

AI voice agent

An AI that holds a spoken phone conversation: it understands what the caller says, answers from the information it has been given and takes actions such as booking an appointment. In February 2024 the FCC ruled that AI-generated voices are “artificial” under the TCPA, so the TCPA's rules for artificial-voice calls apply to them.

Source: FCC news release, 8 February 2024

CRM (customer relationship management system)

The system that holds each lead's record: contact details, source, conversations, tasks, appointments and stage. Real estate CRMs include Follow Up Boss, kvCORE (BoldTrail), Lofty (formerly Chime), Top Producer and Salesforce. Lead response tools write their conversations and bookings back to it.

See also: CRM integrations

Follow Up Boss

A real estate CRM that collects leads from many sources in one place and assigns them to agents; it calls itself “The Real Estate Team OS.” Zillow Group lists Follow Up Boss among its products. Swiftleads AI works with Follow Up Boss through a connection our team configures for your account during onboarding.

Source: followupboss.com; Zillow Group annual report (10-K), fiscal 2025 · See also: Follow Up Boss integration

kvCORE

A real estate CRM and IDX website platform from Inside Real Estate. In mid-2024 Inside Real Estate brought kvCORE, BoomTown and Brokermint together under one brand, BoldTrail, though many teams still say kvCORE. Swiftleads AI works with kvCORE and BoldTrail accounts, configured for your account during onboarding.

Source: BoldTrail: kvCORE vs BoldTrail · See also: kvCORE (BoldTrail) integration

IDX (Internet Data Exchange)

The MLS arrangement that lets brokers display other brokers' listings on their own websites. An IDX lead is a visitor who registers, saves a search or asks about a home on such a site; because they contacted you, they are an inbound lead.

MLS (multiple listing service)

A database of homes for sale run by local real estate organizations, through which member brokers share listings and cooperate on sales. IDX websites and many home search sites display listing data that comes from MLSs.

Lead sources

Lead source

Where a lead came from: a portal, your website, a paid ad, a sign, an open house, a referral or a past client. Recording it on every CRM record is what lets you compare response time, appointments and closings by source, and decide where to spend.

Portal lead

An inquiry from a home search site such as Zillow, Realtor.com or Homes.com, from a shopper who asked about a home or asked to be contacted. Portals deliver these leads in different ways, from form inquiries to live phone connections, and each program sets its own terms. Zillow says connections are delivered when consumer contact information is provided to its Premier Agent partners.

Source: Zillow Group annual report (10-K), fiscal 2025 · See also: AI lead response for Zillow and other portal leads

PPC lead (paid ad lead)

A lead from an ad you pay for per click or per result, such as a search ad or a social media lead form. The person asked about a home, a valuation or a service through your ad, so they are an inbound lead; what they agreed to on the form decides how you may follow up.

Open house lead

A visitor who signs in at an open house, on paper or on a tablet. They have met the agent in person, so a same-day follow-up is natural; what the sign-in form says about contact and consent decides how you may follow up by phone and text.

Sign call

An inbound call or text from someone who saw a yard sign or listing rider and used the number on it. It is usually about that specific home, sometimes from the street outside it, so the caller wants the price, the details and a showing time.

Home valuation lead

A homeowner who asked what their home is worth, usually through a valuation form on a website or an ad. It is an early seller lead: a good first reply confirms the address and the timeline and offers a CMA or a listing appointment.

Qualifying and booking

Lead qualification

Finding out whether, when and how a lead is ready to act, with a few agreed questions: buying or selling, area, timeline, price range, financing and whether they already have an agent. Questions stay on the home, the timing and the financing, never on characteristics protected by fair housing law.

Pre-approval and pre-qualification

A lender's letter saying how much it is willing to lend, up to a certain amount and based on certain assumptions. The CFPB notes that lenders use “prequalification” and “preapproval” differently, some issuing a preapproval only on verified information, and that neither letter is a guaranteed loan offer.

Source: CFPB: prequalification vs preapproval letters

Proof of funds

A document, such as a recent bank or brokerage statement, showing that a cash buyer has the money to buy. Some sellers and listing agents ask for it, or for a pre-approval letter, before a private showing or with an offer.

Showing request

A buyer's request to see a specific home, in person or by video. Handling one well means confirming the home, offering real times from the agent's calendar and booking the showing, with the buyer's answers to your questions on the record. Under NAR's practice changes, agents working with a buyer need a written buyer agreement before touring a home.

Source: NAR: The Facts

Written buyer agreement

An agreement between a homebuyer and their agent that sets out the agent's services and compensation. Under NAR's practice changes, which took effect on 17 August 2024, NAR says real estate professionals will require a written agreement before touring a home with a buyer.

Source: NAR: The Facts

Buyer consultation

A first meeting, in person or by video, between a buyer and an agent to discuss needs, budget, financing and how the agent works. It is often where the written buyer agreement is explained and signed.

CMA request

A request for a comparative market analysis: an agent's estimate of a home's likely sale price, based on recently sold, pending and active comparable homes nearby. A homeowner asking for one is a listing opportunity; the CMA itself is prepared by an agent.

Listing appointment

A meeting, in person or by video, where an agent presents to a homeowner who is thinking of selling: the pricing, the marketing plan and the terms, with the aim of signing a listing agreement.

Routing and handoff

Lead routing

The rules that decide who gets each new lead and its appointment, for example by source, area, price range, language, listing or rotation. Good routing is written down, applied the moment a lead arrives and visible on the CRM record, so nobody waits for a manual assignment.

Round robin

A routing rule that hands new leads to agents in turn, so each one gets an equal share. Teams often add conditions, such as only agents who are on shift, who cover that area or who speak the lead's language.

Lead pond

A shared pool of leads that no single agent owns, which any eligible agent can claim, often used for older or unclaimed leads. The term is common in real estate CRMs.

Live handoff (warm transfer)

Passing a conversation that is in progress to a person, with its context, so the lead does not have to start over. In AI lead response, a live handoff usually happens when the lead asks for a person or is ready to talk now; a callback is the fallback when nobody is free.

Follow-up

Lead nurture (nurture campaign)

Keeping in touch with leads who are not ready yet, over weeks or months, with relevant follow-up until they are. Good nurture follows what the lead said, such as their timeline, area and price range, and stops the moment they opt out.

Drip campaign

A scheduled series of automated messages, usually emails or texts, sent at set intervals after a lead joins a list. A drip keeps contact going but cannot answer questions or book an appointment on its own, so replies need to reach a person or a conversational system quickly.

Multi-channel follow-up

Following up on more than one channel, such as a call, a text, an email and WhatsApp, in an order that fits how the lead inquired and what they agreed to. Each channel has its own consent and opt-out rules, and an opt-out on one channel should be honored on all of them.

Metrics

Contact rate

The share of new leads you reach in a two-way conversation, by phone, text, email or chat, out of all leads received in the period. It sits between response time and appointments: fast replies that never reach the lead do not move it.

Appointment set rate

The share of leads that book an appointment, such as a showing, a buyer consultation or a listing appointment. Measured by lead source and by response time, it shows where leads stall before they ever meet an agent.

Show rate

The share of booked appointments that actually take place. Confirmations and reminders on the lead's preferred channel, and an easy way to reschedule, are the usual ways to raise it.

Lead conversion rate

The share of leads that become closed transactions. Because buyers and sellers can take months, measure it over a long enough window, by lead source and by response time, and against your own baseline rather than someone else's average.

Cost per lead (CPL)

What a lead source cost in a period divided by the number of leads it produced in that period. Cost per appointment and cost per closed deal show more than CPL alone, because a cheap lead that is never reached is not cheap.

GCI (gross commission income)

The total commission an agent, team or brokerage earns before splits, fees and expenses. It is the usual top-line revenue figure in real estate, and the basis of most return-on-investment estimates for lead response.

See also: ROI calculator

Consent and compliance

TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act)

The U.S. federal law the FCC uses to limit unwanted calls. In the FCC's words, it “restricts the making of telemarketing calls and the use of automatic telephone dialing systems and artificial or prerecorded voice messages,” and FCC rules require telemarketers to obtain prior express written consent before robocalling consumers.

Source: FCC news release, 8 February 2024

Prior express written consent

Under FCC rules, a written agreement signed by the person called, where electronic signatures count if federal or state law recognizes them, that clearly authorizes a seller to deliver telemarketing calls or texts to a specific number using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice. It must disclose that signing is not a condition of purchase.

Source: 47 CFR 64.1200 (eCFR)

Opt-out (revoking consent)

A request to stop calls or texts. FCC rules let people revoke consent by any reasonable method, including replying “stop,” “quit,” “end,” “revoke,” “opt out,” “cancel” or “unsubscribe” to a text, and require the request to be honored within a reasonable time of no more than ten business days. CTIA's guidelines add one final confirmation message, then no more messages.

Source: 47 CFR 64.1200 (eCFR); CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices, May 2023

DNC (Do Not Call)

The National Do Not Call Registry is, in the FTC's words, “a list of phone numbers from consumers who have indicated their preference to limit the telemarketing calls they receive.” Telemarketers must check it at least every 31 days, and businesses also keep their own company-specific do-not-call list of people who asked them to stop.

Source: FTC: Q&A for telemarketers and sellers about the DNC provisions; 47 CFR 64.1200 (eCFR)

Calling hours

FCC rules bar telephone solicitations to residential subscribers before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m., local time at the called party's location. State laws can add their own limits.

Source: 47 CFR 64.1200 (eCFR)

A2P 10DLC

Application-to-person (A2P) business texting over standard 10-digit long code (10DLC) U.S. phone numbers. Brands and their messaging providers are verified through The Campaign Registry before they may send, and a brand registers through its messaging provider rather than directly.

Source: The Campaign Registry

CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices

The U.S. wireless industry's guidelines for business texting. They expect senders to get consent to message, get express written consent for marketing messages, let people opt out at any time with “STOP” or normal words such as “cancel” or “quit,” and send one final confirmation after an opt-out.

Source: CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices, May 2023

STIR/SHAKEN

The caller ID authentication framework U.S. voice providers use to attest that the caller ID on a call is accurate, so that spoofed numbers are easier to spot. FCC rules required voice service providers to implement it in their IP networks by 30 June 2021, with some exceptions.

Source: 47 CFR 64.6301 (eCFR)

Call recording consent

Federal law allows a call to be recorded when one party to it consents, but some states require the consent of everyone on the call. Recording disclosures and controls should be set for the states you work in.

Source: 18 U.S.C. § 2511 (Cornell LII)

CAN-SPAM Act

The U.S. law that sets the rules for commercial email. The FTC's compliance guide includes: no false or misleading header information, identify the message as an ad, tell recipients where you are located, tell them how to opt out, and honor opt-out requests within 10 business days.

Source: FTC: CAN-SPAM Act compliance guide for business

Fair Housing Act

The federal law that protects people from discrimination when they rent or buy a home, get a mortgage or take part in other housing-related activities. It prohibits discrimination because of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status or disability, which is why qualifying questions stay on the home, the timing and the financing.

Source: HUD: Housing discrimination under the Fair Housing Act

Related

• AI lead response for real estate teams
• AI lead response for real estate brokerages
• CRM integrations
• All comparisons
• Security and compliance
• ROI calculator
• Missed lead cost calculator