I Watched a Real Estate Agent Lose a $400,000 Deal Over a Text Message

Amit PrasadBusiness Member

Investor · Member since 2026 · 20 posts · 14 votes

4mo

Being an agent, every text/phone call is important. Unless I'm driving, they're getting a response with 20 minutes.

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Jay HinrichsBusiness Member

Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes

4mo

happened to me once when I was starting out. .Of course text messages were still a dream there was no text in 1975 it was phone calls and a message machine.

from that day on I answer the phone live 95% of the time even if it is to say thanks for the call I cant talk this second will call you in 10 minutes is that OK ? And clients always say sure thats OK.

Plus I never text unless I have to. I hate it personally.

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Paul Olusola
OP
Technology · Member since 2026 · 84 posts · 28 votes
3mo
Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:

happened to me once when I was starting out. .Of course text messages were still a dream there was no text in 1975 it was phone calls and a message machine.
from that day on I answer the phone live 95% of the time even if it is to say thanks for the call I cant talk this second will call you in 10 minutes is that OK ? And clients always say sure thats OK.
Plus I never text unless I have to. I hate it personally.

Answering live 95% of the time is an elite standard, Jay no wonder you've stayed at the top since '75. There's definitely no replacing a live human voice for building real trust. The challenge I see newer agents facing today is that a lot of Gen Z and millennial buyers will straight up refuse to pick up an unknown number, preferring a text conversation first before they commit to a call. How do you balance the 'live call' approach when dealing with clients who actively avoid the phone?
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Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
3mo
Quote from @Paul Olusola:

Quote from @Jay Hinrichs:

happened to me once when I was starting out. .Of course text messages were still a dream there was no text in 1975 it was phone calls and a message machine.
from that day on I answer the phone live 95% of the time even if it is to say thanks for the call I cant talk this second will call you in 10 minutes is that OK ? And clients always say sure thats OK.
Plus I never text unless I have to. I hate it personally.

Answering live 95% of the time is an elite standard, Jay no wonder you've stayed at the top since '75. There's definitely no replacing a live human voice for building real trust. The challenge I see newer agents facing today is that a lot of Gen Z and millennial buyers will straight up refuse to pick up an unknown number, preferring a text conversation first before they commit to a call. How do you balance the 'live call' approach when dealing with clients who actively avoid the phone?

U cant help if clients dont pick up.. but as someone spending money on advertising to not pick up is a huge mistake in my experience
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Ryan SpathBusiness Member

Real Estate Agent · Boise, ID · Member since 2017 · 585 posts · 381 votes

4mo

Quote from @Paul Olusola:

Not a bad deal. Not a difficult buyer. Not a market problem.

A text message that nobody replied to.

Here's what happened.

Agent gets a lead on a Friday evening. Buyer is motivated, pre-approved, clear timeline. Sends a text asking about a specific property. The agent is at dinner. Sees it at 9pm. Figures they'll reply first thing Saturday morning.

Saturday morning comes. The buyer has already booked a showing with another agent who replied at 7am.

By Monday that buyer is under contract on a different property.

The original agent never even knew how close they were.

I've seen this more times than I can count working with agents across different markets. And every single time the story is the same. It's not about skill. It's not about the quality of the listing. It's not about the market.

It's about who responded first.

The frustrating part is that this is completely preventable. Not by working harder. Not by checking your phone at dinner. But by having a system that responds when you can't.

The agents I've watched lose deals like this aren't bad at their job. They're just operating without infrastructure that matches the speed of today's buyer.

A buyer who reaches out on a Friday night isn't waiting until Monday morning. They're moving. And if you're not moving with them someone else is.

The question I keep asking myself when I hear these stories:

How many deals have you lost to slow response times without ever knowing it?

Speed to lead, in sales you have to respond! I always put myself in the buyers shoes, when someone is ready to make a purchase they are ready and if you are not someone else will be!

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G. Brian DavisPro Member

Investor · Hatboro, PA · Member since 2016 · 3k+ posts · 887 votes

4mo

If there’s no backup system in place when you’re offline, you’re basically leaving the door open for someone else to step in.

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Tony Welfy
Member since 2026 · 2 posts · 3 votes
4mo
Quote from @G. Brian Davis:

If there’s no backup system in place when you’re offline, you’re basically leaving the door open for someone else to step in.
What kind of backup systems
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Henry Lazerow

Real Estate Agent · Chicago, IL · Member since 2017 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes

4mo

This story sounds fake lol but yes as a agent you need to answer right away. That is part of why my clients like me so much I answer fast at all hours and enjoy making sales.

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Dan H.Pro Member
Investor · Poway, CA · Member since 2015 · 7k+ posts · 8k+ votes
4mo
Quote from @Henry Lazerow:

This story sounds fake lol but yes as an agent you need to answer right away. That is part of why my clients like me so much I answer fast at all hours and enjoy making sales.
If not fake, at a minimum a lot of assumptions with the big one being the buyer would have liked the missed property enough to offer without viewing the property they went under contract. Big assumption. The initial agent the buyer contacted may have missed a sale, but what is the rate of viewings that go under contract of even motivated buyers. If I am representative, I would guess 5%. Assuming similar conversion rate, there is a small chance the initial agent list out on a commission.

this is not meant to imply that agents should not get back to potential clients quickly (they should, even 5% chance of commission warrants getting back to potential clients quickly).
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Eric James

Investor · Malakoff, TX · Member since 2017 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes

4mo

I interact with quite a few agents. It is amazing to me how incredibly ignorant most of them are

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Peter MckernanBusiness Member

Residential Real Estate Agent · Irvine, CA · Member since 2013 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes

4mo

One big thing the help this is having the leads come into a CRM and that is your number linked to the lead source to give an automated response when it comes in to warm the buyer/lead up.. Then you can keep them in the loop a little longer. This does not solve all your problems, but shows you have readiness, systems and professionalism. The best thing is a phone call though and speed to lead is a real thing.

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Armen Gomtsyan

USA · Member since 2026 · 4 posts · 1 vote

4mo

Theres a real debate in this thread and i think both sides are half right. The skeptics have a point that you cant prove that exact deal was lost, the buyer never saw the place, so the clean $400k figure is more story than fact.

But i look at this from the data side, not the field, and that gap is exactly the point. Slow-response loss never shows up anywhere. The agent "never even knew how close they were," because thats how it always works. Nobody gets an alert that says you lost a buyer to a 14-hour reply. it just quietly doesnt become anything.

So the number being unprovable and the leak being real are the same fact, not opposite ones. Its real precisely because you cant measure it. The deals you lose this way are invisible by design, and invisible problems are the ones that never get fixed.

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Hok L.

Member since 2026 · 3 posts · 0 votes

3mo

The invisible loss problem is real and underappreciated. I think about this as a measurement problem — you can only optimize what you can measure, and slow-response losses never appear anywhere in your metrics. The deal just quietly disappears.

For investor clients specifically this is even more critical. Flippers and buy-and-hold investors move on tight timelines and have multiple agents feeding them deals simultaneously. A 14-hour response doesn't just lose one deal — it signals you're not built for the speed their business requires and they quietly stop calling.

The fix for investor-focused agents isn't a CRM auto-responder — it's a simple rule: investors get a live response within 15 minutes regardless of time, because they're not emotionally browsing, they're running a business and every hour of delay has a real cost to them.

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Victor PatelBusiness Member

Real Estate Broker · Cincinnati, OH · Member since 2022 · 133 posts · 89 votes

2mo

I think there's some truth to this, but it's probably more nuanced than "the first person to reply wins."

In my experience, the first meaningful response has the advantage—not just the fastest one.

If an agent sends an automated "Thanks for reaching out!" and disappears for 12 hours, while another agent responds an hour later with answers, market insight, and a plan to see the property, I'd bet on the second agent more often than not.

That said, I completely agree that buyers' expectations have changed. People are used to ordering a car, booking a hotel, or getting answers online instantly. They expect the same level of responsiveness from real estate professionals.

The solution isn't to be glued to your phone 24/7. It's to build systems:

Instant acknowledgment.
Automated qualification.
Easy scheduling.
Clear expectations for when you'll personally follow up.

AI and automation are becoming part of that infrastructure. They can answer common questions, collect buying criteria, and even schedule appointments while you're with another client or spending time with family.

At the end of the day, relationships still close deals. But responsiveness gets you into the conversation in the first place. The best agents in the next few years won't necessarily be the ones working the longest hours—they'll be the ones with the best systems behind them.

[email protected]513-764-4775

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I Watched a Real Estate Agent Lose a $400,000 Deal Over a Text Message

I Watched a Real Estate Agent Lose a $400,000 Deal Over a Text Message

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