AI receptionists for real estate, where minutes decide the lead
Real estate has the sharpest version of the missed-call problem on this site, because a buyer inquiring about a listing is inquiring about four listings. The agent who responds first has an advantage the others cannot buy back later, and an agent at a showing cannot respond at all.
That makes the deciding feature live transfer rather than booking, which is unusual for this category. An inquiry routed to an agent's mobile within the call beats a beautifully captured message every time. Rosie gates transfer to $149, which matters here.
We lead on that one feature. Transfer to a mobile sits on our $49 plan, so a listing inquiry can reach an agent mid-showing without an upgrade. Speed to first contact is the whole trade, and no brokerage has yet proved this out on our software.
Goodcall's unique-caller model has an odd fit with this trade: a buyer who rings four times about one property is one unit, which suits the long courtship of a purchase. Its per-number pricing suits it less, since agents often have their own lines.
For a small brokerage or an individual agent, the cheapest plan that includes transfer is usually the right answer, and configuring which inquiries interrupt a showing matters more than which vendor you picked.
How this was put together
Compared in September 2026 on speed to first contact, by the team behind one of the entries.
What we compared
- Whether live transfer to a mobile is included at the entry price.
- How each handles a caller asking about a specific listing.
- Whether the assistant can capture qualification details without making the caller feel processed.
- Published price, allowance and overage rate.
What we could not test
- Whether a transferred call actually reaches an agent mid-showing, which depends on the agent rather than the vendor.
- How each handles a caller who names a street rather than a listing reference.
- CRM integration depth, which in this vertical varies enormously and is described loosely by most vendors.
The shortlist at a glance
Billing unit first, because it decides more of the final bill than the headline price does.
| Charges by | Entry plan | After the allowance | |
|---|---|---|---|
| GreetKeeper | per answered call | $49/mo for 200 answered calls | $0.45 a call on Starter, published |
| Goodcall | per unique caller | Starter $79/mo ($66 annual) for 100 unique customers | $0.50 per additional unique customer, published |
| Smith.ai | per call | Free tier at $0 for 25 calls, then $3.00 a call | Published, and the per-call rate falls as the tier rises |
| Rosie | per minute | Professional $49/mo for 250 minutes | Not published |
| Dialzara | per minute | Business Lite $29/mo for 60 minutes | Published on every tier, from $0.48 a minute down to $0.35 |
Read from each vendor's own pricing page in September 2026.
GreetKeeper
Transfer to a mobile at $49, which is the feature that decides a listing inquiry.
Worth it for: An agent or small brokerage that wants a listing inquiry put through to a mobile while the caller is still on the line, and viewings booked into a calendar.
Not for: Anyone needing CRM writes beyond a calendar, which we do not have. No customers, no reviews, no real-estate-specific features, no certifications, no uptime figure, English only.
Charges per answered call. Entry plan $49/mo for 200 answered calls. After the allowance: $0.45 a call on Starter, published.
Goodcall
Uncapped minutes and one unit per caller suit a buyer who rings repeatedly.
Worth it for: A brokerage where the same prospective buyer calls several times over weeks about one property.
Not for: An office where every agent has their own number, since each number is a separately priced agent.
Charges per unique caller. Entry plan Starter $79/mo ($66 annual) for 100 unique customers. After the allowance: $0.50 per additional unique customer, published.
Smith.ai
A human team behind the AI, which suits a high-value inquiry.
Worth it for: A brokerage where a live person qualifying a serious buyer is worth $150 a month.
Not for: Individual agents on a tight budget, and anyone expecting the legal-specific tooling they are known for to help here.
Charges per call. Entry plan Free tier at $0 for 25 calls, then $3.00 a call. After the allowance: Published, and the per-call rate falls as the tier rises.
Rosie
Cheap capture, with the transfer gate in the worst possible place for this trade.
Worth it for: An agent who wants inquiries captured accurately and will call back between showings.
Not for: Speed to contact, which is the whole game here. Live transfer starts at the $149 tier rather than the $49 one.
Charges per minute. Entry plan Professional $49/mo for 250 minutes. After the allowance: Not published.
Dialzara
The cheapest way to stop missing inquiries, with Spanish included.
Worth it for: An individual agent with modest call volume, or one working a bilingual market.
Not for: A busy brokerage. Sixty minutes on the entry plan is very little in a trade where calls involve a lot of question-answering.
Charges per minute. Entry plan Business Lite $29/mo for 60 minutes. After the allowance: Published on every tier, from $0.48 a minute down to $0.35.
When the phone is not where your leads are
A large share of real-estate inquiries now arrive through portals, forms and text rather than by phone, and portals often have their own response-time mechanics that matter more than your phone system. Check where last month's inquiries actually came from before buying anything here.
If your problem is response speed generally rather than phone specifically, the fix may be a different workflow rather than an answering service. An assistant that answers a call in ten seconds does not help if portal inquiries sit unread for six hours.
And for a team, the routing question is harder than the vendor question. Deciding which agent gets an unassigned inquiry at 8pm on a Sunday is an internal argument that no vendor resolves for you.
Our own pricing, in full
Including the rate after the allowance, which is the number most of this list leaves off.
| Plan | Monthly | Calls included | After that |
|---|---|---|---|
| StarterFor a single location taking calls one line at a time. | $49 | 200 | $0.45 per call |
| ProfessionalBooking, routing and transfers included, not an add-on. | $149 | 750 | $0.35 per call |
| ScaleFor busy phones and longer opening hours. | $349 | 2,000 | $0.25 per call |
The short version
- Booking is included on every tier. Rosie keeps booking and live transfer behind its $149 plan.
- The overage rate is on the pricing page. Rosie, Ruby, Slang and AnswerConnect do not publish theirs.
- Calls are counted, not minutes, so a long useful conversation costs the same as a short one.
Questions people ask about this list
Can it answer questions about a specific listing?
It answers what you train it on. Keeping listing details current is real work, and a business that will not maintain that is better off having it capture the inquiry and transfer.
Can it transfer to an agent mid-showing?
It can attempt a transfer under whatever rules you write. Whether the agent picks up is not something any vendor controls, which is why deciding what happens when the transfer fails matters here.
Should it qualify the buyer?
Lightly, if at all. A prospective buyer who feels interrogated by software on a first call is a worse outcome than a thin lead. Capture the property, the name and the number, and let a person do the rest.
Why is GreetKeeper first on a list it wrote?
Because speed to first contact decides this trade, and transfer to a mobile is on our entry plan rather than behind an upgrade. Goodcall's meter fits repeat callers better than ours, and they have customers. We have none, no reviews, and nothing built specifically for property.
Hear one of these handle your own call
Your scenario, your greeting, a couple of minutes.