What is the best AI answering service for real estate agents?
The best AI answering service for a real estate agent is the one that answers in your name, knows your listings, books the showing, and gets a hot buyer to you while they are still on the line. Published prices for AI services run from about $29 to $899 a month, and live human services cost several times more. Below are eight options with prices read on each vendor's own page, what 100 calls a month really costs on each, and the five test calls that separate a good one from a bad one.
The short version
- For about 100 calls a month, the AI services below cost roughly $79 to $237 a month on their published plans. Live human services cost about $915 to $1,725 for the same volume.
- Price is the smallest difference. What matters is whether it can answer listing questions, book directly on your calendar, and transfer a hot lead to you live. Several services only include those on their higher plans.
- An answering service only covers phone calls. Many portal leads arrive as a web inquiry, and those need a text reply within minutes, which is a different system.
- Before you pay, make five test calls: an after-hours listing question, a price-opinion question, a neighborhood question, a request for a human, and a hang-up. The results tell you more than any feature list.
What should an AI answering service do for a real estate agent?
A general answering service takes a message. A real estate one has to do more, because the caller on a sign call or a listing ad is usually looking at a specific house right now and has other agents' numbers in front of them. Here is what a good call looks like when you are at a showing or it is 8:40 on a Saturday night.
Step five matters more than it looks. An AI should never offer an opinion on what a home is worth or what to offer, because that is the advice buyers hire you for. And it should not improvise answers about who lives in a neighborhood or which area is "better," because statements like that can run into Fair Housing law. We cover both in will AI replace real estate agents?
What are the rules for an AI answering your calls?
Three are worth knowing, and a good service handles all of them in the setup.
- Recording. Most AI services record and transcribe calls. Some states require every party's consent. In California, for example, "all parties to any confidential communication must give permission to be recorded," according to the Reporters Committee's recording guide. A one-line disclosure at the start of the greeting covers it. Our guide to how AI receptionists work has the state-by-state detail.
- Outbound AI calls. Answering calls is one thing. Some services also make calls, such as reminder or no-show recovery calls. In February 2024 the FCC ruled that calls made with AI-generated voices are "artificial" under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, so the consent rules for robocalls apply to them.
- Texting. If the service texts callers after the call, the number must be registered for business texting, known as A2P registration, and every text needs a way to reply STOP.
This is a plain-language summary, not legal advice. Your broker of record should review what the AI says to consumers before it goes live.
How much does an AI answering service cost?
These are the published plans for eight services, read on each vendor's own pricing page on September 13, 2026, plus ours. Six are AI and two are live human receptionists. Prices change, so the links go to the live page.
| Service | Type | Published price | Priced by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dialzara | AI, self-serve | $29/mo for 60 minutes up to $349/mo for 1,000 minutes; overage $0.35 to $0.48 a minute | Minutes |
| Rosie | AI, self-serve | $49/mo for 250 minutes, $149/mo for 1,000, $299/mo for 2,000 | Minutes |
| Frontdesk (My AI Front Desk) | AI, self-serve | Free plan with limited usage; $99/mo, or $79/mo billed annually, for 200 voice minutes plus chat, texting and a CRM; extra voice $0.25 a minute | Minutes and credits |
| Goodcall | AI, self-serve | $79, $129 or $249 a month per agent for 100, 250 or 500 unique callers, unlimited minutes; $0.50 per extra caller | Unique callers |
| AgentZap | AI, self-serve or managed | $109/mo for 150 minutes up to $899/mo for 1,500; overage $0.70 to $0.85 a minute; $499 one-time setup fee | Minutes |
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist | AI, self-serve or managed | Free for 25 calls ($3 per call after); $150/mo for 75 calls; $500/mo for 300 calls with setup done for you | Calls |
| Smith.ai Virtual Front Desk | Live humans | $300/mo for 30 calls, $810/mo for 90, $2,100/mo for 300; booking appointments $1.50 a call extra | Calls |
| Ruby | Live humans | $250/mo for 50 minutes up to $1,725/mo for 500 minutes | Minutes |
| LeadSixty | AI, done for you | One-time setup plus a month-to-month retainer, quoted on a call. We wrote this post. | Setup and retainer |
What does 100 calls a month really cost?
Headline prices are hard to compare because one vendor counts minutes, another counts calls, and a third counts callers. So we priced one realistic month for a busy solo agent or a small team: 100 calls, averaging 3 minutes each, from 100 different callers. That is 300 minutes. For each service we took the cheapest published way to cover it, before taxes, add-ons and one-time fees.
| Service | Month | Plan and math |
|---|---|---|
| Goodcall | $79 | Starter, which includes 100 unique callers |
| Frontdesk | About $114 | $99 for 200 minutes, then 100 extra minutes at $0.25; the plan's 1,000 included credits cover $10 of that |
| Dialzara | $135 | Business Pro, $99 for 220 minutes, plus 80 minutes at $0.45 |
| Rosie | $149 | Scale, $149 for 1,000 minutes, the first plan that books directly on your calendar |
| Smith.ai AI Receptionist | $212.50 | Pro, $150 for 75 calls, plus 25 calls at $2.50 |
| AgentZap | $236.50 | Starter, $109 for 150 minutes, plus 150 minutes at $0.85; $499 setup fee on top in the first month |
| Smith.ai Virtual Front Desk | $915 | Basic, $810 for 90 calls, plus 10 calls at $10.50; booking is $1.50 a call extra |
| Ruby | $1,725 | The 500-minute plan; the 200-minute plan is $720, and we did not find a published overage rate |
Two things jump out. The AI services cluster between about $80 and $240, so for most agents the choice will come down to features and fit rather than price. And a live human service costs anywhere from about four times to more than twenty times as much for the same calls. For some agents a human voice is worth that. For after-hours sign calls, most will not need it.
What is each one like for a real estate agent?
Short notes from each vendor's pricing and real estate pages. Where we describe a feature, it is what the vendor's page says, not something we tested.
- Dialzara. Cheapest entry point at $29, but that Lite plan lists warm transfer as not included; warm transfer starts on the $99 plan. Its real estate page says the AI is trained on your listings and pre-qualifies buyers on budget, timeline and preferences.
- Rosie. Simple minute-based plans. On the $49 plan it sends booking links by text; booking directly on your calendar, warm transfers and live transfers start on the $149 plan. Its real estate page says it knows your listings, from home details to pricing and showing availability.
- Frontdesk (My AI Front Desk). The $99 plan bundles phone answering with website chat, two-way texting and a CRM, which suits an agent who wants one tool. Its real estate page says it checks "live MLS-linked availability" and makes no-show recovery calls. Outbound AI calls fall under the FCC rule above, so check how consent is handled.
- Goodcall. Priced by unique callers with unlimited minutes, so long calls and repeat callers do not raise the bill. Its pricing page has no real estate plan, so judge it on your own test calls.
- AgentZap. The most detailed real estate page we read: its real estate page says it qualifies on buying, selling or renting, budget, timeline and pre-approval, and syncs call notes to CRMs such as Follow Up Boss and kvCORE. Every self-serve plan carries a $499 setup fee, waived on the $295 plan's six-month term, and a managed plan runs $899 a month on a six-month term.
- Smith.ai AI Receptionist. Priced per call, with a free tier of 25 calls a month, which makes it easy to test. The $500 Enterprise plan is set up and run by Smith.ai's team.
- Smith.ai Virtual Front Desk and Ruby. Live people answer, around the clock. Worth it if your callers expect a human or your calls need judgment. Expensive for after-hours sign calls.
- LeadSixty. We build and run an AI receptionist for you: we write the script with you, connect your calendar, test it and keep it tuned. For agents paying for portal leads, we pair it with text follow-up on every web inquiry. Priced as setup plus a monthly retainer, quoted on a call. We are the authors of this post, so weigh our entry accordingly.
A note on vendor statistics. Several answering-service pages quote figures like "78% of buyers work with the first agent who responds" or the share of buyer calls that come after hours, often without a link to a study. We could not trace those to a primary source, so none of them appear in this post. Ask any vendor for the source before a number shapes your decision.
Not sure which setup fits your lead flow? On a free 30-minute Where AI Fits call we look at where your calls and leads come from, what happens to them after hours today, and whether a $79 tool, a live service or a done-for-you system makes sense. If a cheap tool is the right answer, we will say so.
Book a Where AI Fits callSelf-serve, live humans or done for you: which fits?
| AI, self-serve | Live humans | AI, done for you | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost at about 100 calls | About $79 to $237 | About $915 to $1,725 | Setup plus retainer |
| Who writes the script and keeps it current | You | You brief them, they follow it | The provider, with you |
| Knows your listings | If you load and update them | If you brief them | Kept current by the provider |
| Handles several calls at once | Yes | Depends on staffing | Yes |
| Best for | Agents who will spend an afternoon setting it up and test it monthly | Agents whose callers expect a person | Teams paying for leads who want the result, not another tool |
Why is an answering service only half the answer?
It only covers the phone. Many buyer leads never call. They tap "contact agent" on a portal listing, fill out a form on your website, or register on your IDX search, and those inquiries arrive as a message, not a ring. An answering service does nothing for them.
Those leads have the same clock. The Lead Response Management study, which analyzed more than 15,000 leads, found the odds of qualifying a lead fall 21 times when the reply comes at 30 minutes instead of 5. If you pay for portal leads, the bigger win is usually a text reply within a minute of every web inquiry, with the same qualifying questions and the same booking, and the answering service covering the calls. That combination is what our real estate lead follow-up is built around. To see what slow replies cost you today, try the lead leak calculator.
How do you test an AI answering service before you commit?
Most of these services offer a free trial, a free tier or a money-back guarantee. Use it to make these five calls from a phone the system has never seen.
- The 9 pm listing call. Ask whether one of your listings is still available and whether you can see it Saturday. It should answer from your approved facts and book a time, or send a link, without inventing anything.
- The price opinion. Ask "do you think they would take $20,000 less?" It should decline to guess and offer to have you call back.
- The neighborhood question. Ask "is this a good area for families like mine?" It should not offer a view on who the area suits. It should offer facts about the property, or your callback.
- The human request. Say "I want to talk to a person." You should get a live transfer or a clear promise of a callback, and the alert should reach your phone within a minute.
- The hang-up. Call and hang up after the greeting. See whether you still get the number and a note, so a nervous caller is not lost.
Then read the summaries. A good service gives you the caller's name, number, what they asked, their timeline and what was booked, in your CRM or your inbox, without you listening to the recording.
Questions agents ask about AI answering services
What is the best AI answering service for real estate agents?+
How much does an AI answering service cost for a real estate agent?+
Can an AI answering service book showings?+
Is an AI answering service better than a live answering service for realtors?+
Is it legal for an AI to answer and record my calls?+
Do I still need text follow-up if I have an answering service?+
- Vendor pricing pages, read September 13, 2026: Dialzara, Rosie, Frontdesk and its billing explainer, Goodcall, AgentZap, Smith.ai AI Receptionist, Smith.ai Virtual Front Desk, Ruby.
- Vendor real estate pages, read September 13, 2026: Dialzara, Rosie, Frontdesk, AgentZap.
- Federal Communications Commission. "FCC Makes AI-Generated Voices in Robocalls Illegal," news release, February 8, 2024. fcc.gov (PDF)
- Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. "Reporter's Recording Guide: California," citing Cal. Penal Code § 632(a). rcfp.org
- Lead Response Management Study (InsideSales.com with Dr. James Oldroyd). More than 15,000 leads; 21-fold decrease in the odds of qualifying from 5 to 30 minutes. leadresponsemanagement.org
Published September 13, 2026. Every price was read on the vendor's own page and checked again before publishing; see how we research and write. Vendors change prices often. Found an error or a change? Email hello@leadsixty.com.
Every call answered. Every web lead texted. Neither one waiting for you.
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