Most estate agencies in Cyprus get a large share of their buyer and tenant enquiries from property portals such as Bazaraki. The same person often contacts several agencies about similar properties on the same evening. The agency that replies first — and replies well — usually gets the call, and the viewing.

Here is a simple routine any office can adopt, whatever software it uses.

1. Get every enquiry into one place

Portal enquiries arrive by e-mail, by phone, through messages and on WhatsApp. When they land in five personal inboxes, some are answered twice and some never. Decide on one place where every enquiry is recorded, with the date and time it arrived and the listing it is about.

2. Decide who answers — before the enquiry arrives

"Whoever sees it first" means nobody on busy days. Agree simple rules:

  • An enquiry about a listing goes to the agent who handles that listing.
  • A known client goes to their own agent.
  • Everything else goes to the agent on duty, or in turns.

Write the rules down and apply them every time, including evenings and weekends.

3. Reply within minutes, not hours

Speed matters more than a perfect reply. A short, personal answer is enough to start:

Hello Maria, thank you for your enquiry about the 2-bedroom apartment in Germasogeia. It is still available. When would be a good time for a quick call today?

Then call. A phone call converts far better than a long e-mail thread.

4. Qualify in the first call

In five minutes, find out:

  • Buy or rent, and the budget.
  • Areas they would consider — often wider than the one listing they saw.
  • Timeline: moving next month, or just looking?
  • Financing: cash, mortgage approval, or selling another property first.
  • Must-haves: bedrooms, parking, pool, title deeds, pets.

Record the answers as a requirement, not as free text. That is what lets you send the right properties later.

5. Offer alternatives the same day

The property they asked about may not be the one they buy. Send two or three similar listings the same day, with photos and a link they can open on their phone. Then propose viewing times.

6. Follow up — politely, and not forever

Many leads don't answer the first message. Plan a short sequence: a second message after a day or two, a call after a few more days, a final useful message after a week. Stop as soon as they reply — nobody likes an automatic message after they have already spoken to you.

7. Measure it

Once a month, look at three numbers per agent and per source: how many enquiries arrived, how quickly the first reply went out, and how many turned into viewings. If one portal brings many enquiries but few viewings, you will see it — and you can compare that with what the portal costs you.

Common mistakes to avoid

  • Copy-paste replies that ignore what the person asked. Mention the property and one detail from their message.
  • Only answering by e-mail. If they left a phone number, call or send a WhatsApp message too.
  • Pushing one property. Ask what they need before you sell. The best match is often another listing.
  • Losing the lead after the viewing. Write down what they liked and didn't like, and use it for the next properties you send.

How Estate CRM helps

In Estate CRM each agency gets its own e-mail address for portal enquiries: forward Bazaraki and other portal e-mails to it and each one becomes a lead with a reply task, routed by your rules — the listing's agent, the client's own agent, by source, language or in turns. Follow-up sequences send the next message or create the next call task, and stop by themselves when your team replies. Reports show reply times and cost per lead by source.

The routine matters more than the tool. But a tool that makes the routine automatic is what keeps it working on a busy Saturday.

Related guides: Portal leads by e-mail · Lead routing · Follow-up sequences