Guide · Portal leads: Portal leads from 99acres, MagicBricks and Housing.com: how to answer every enquiry fast

For many property dealers, channel partners and builders in Delhi NCR, portals are the biggest paid source of enquiries. They are also where leads most often go quiet: the enquiry sits in an app or an inbox, the first call comes hours later, and the buyer has already spoken to someone else. This guide covers how portal enquiries reach you, how to get them all into one place, what to send first, how to follow up, and how to judge each portal by results rather than by enquiry counts.

We don't sell portal packages or quote their prices, and we're not affiliated with any portal.

Why portal leads go cold

• The buyer is comparing. A buyer looking for a 3 BHK in Noida Extension may well enquire on several listings in one sitting. The first advertiser to reply with something useful has the best chance of a conversation.
• Enquiries arrive when nobody is watching. Buyers browse portals in the evening and at weekends, when sales teams are off.
• The lead lands in the wrong place. It sits in the portal's app on one person's phone, or in an email inbox someone checks twice a day.
• Follow-up stops early. One unanswered call, one more try the next day, then nothing.
• Nobody measures it. Without the time to first reply and the site visits per portal, renewals are decided by gut feel.

Research published in Harvard Business Review found that most companies are not responding to online sales leads nearly fast enough. It is US research, but the pattern will be familiar to anyone who has watched a portal lead go cold overnight.

Source: James B. Oldroyd, Kristina McElheran & David Elkington, “The Short Life of Online Sales Leads”, Harvard Business Review, March 2011. US data from before 2011 — useful context, not an Indian real estate benchmark or a promise of results.

How portals deliver your enquiries

Each portal shows your enquiries in its own advertiser dashboard and app, and can notify you by email. What else you get depends on the portal and your package, so confirm it with your account manager. In general there are three routes:

1. The portal's dashboard and app. Always available, but it keeps the lead inside the portal, on whoever has the login.
2. Email notifications. Each enquiry arrives as an email with the buyer's details and the listing. A system can read these emails automatically and create the lead in your CRM.
3. A direct connection to your CRM. Many CRMs list integrations with these portals. CRM vendors' setup guides describe the portal's own team activating the connection: you send them details from your CRM, and they push each new enquiry to it. Some connections instead use a key or login that the portal gives you, and some vendors say a premium or business package is needed.

Source: NeoDove, “99Acres Integration; Housing.com Integration”, NeoDove documentation, checked 8 November 2026. A CRM vendor's setup guide, not portal documentation; ask your portal account manager what your package includes.

Getting every portal lead into one place

The goal is simple: every enquiry, from every portal, lands as a record in one system that more than one person can see, within seconds of the buyer pressing "Contact". In order of preference:

• Use the portal's CRM connection if your package includes it. Ask the portal to activate it for each account and each project you advertise.
• Read the notification emails automatically if there is no connection. Forward each portal's lead emails to an address your system reads, and test that the name, phone number, project and listing come through correctly.
• Never rely on someone copying leads by hand. It will happen late, or not at all, at exactly the busy times when it matters.

Once leads land in one place, check for duplicates by phone number. The same buyer often enquires through two portals, or on two of your listings, and should be one record with one owner.

The first reply

Send two things, in this order:

1. An automatic WhatsApp or SMS message within seconds, from your business number: thank the buyer, name the project or listing they asked about, introduce the person who will call, and ask one easy question. Our WhatsApp message templates guide has samples in English and Hindi.
2. A call within minutes during working hours, from the person named in that message, who can see the listing the buyer enquired on.

Check what the buyer agreed to before you message them on WhatsApp. Meta's policy requires a buyer's opt-in before a business messages them first, and portal enquiry forms differ in what they ask. If you're unsure, call or send an SMS first, and ask whether WhatsApp is convenient. India's data protection rules also apply to these enquiries: reply about what the buyer asked for, and keep marketing for buyers who agreed to it.

Follow-up that doesn't stop at one call

Agree a simple routine and let the system remind the team:

• Day 0: automatic message within seconds, then a call within minutes. If there's no answer, a WhatsApp or SMS saying you tried to call.
• Day 1: a second call at a different time of day.
• Day 3: a short message offering floor plans or a site visit, with an easy way to say no.
• Day 7 to 10: a last message asking whether the buyer is still looking, then close the lead with a reason.

Stop at once if the buyer asks you to. Record every attempt on the lead's record, so a manager can see which leads were never reached.

Measuring each portal

Enquiry counts flatter every portal. Judge each one, each month, on what happened after the enquiry:

Compare portals on the same measures over at least two months before you renew, upgrade or drop a package. "Is this portal reliable?" is best answered by your own numbers, once your first replies are fast enough to make the comparison fair.

Questions to ask your portal account manager

1. How are enquiries delivered on our package: dashboard, app, email, and can you push them to our CRM? Who activates that, and how long does it take?
2. Which details come with each enquiry: name, phone, email, the listing or project, and the time?
3. Are buyers' phone numbers verified before an enquiry reaches us?
4. Is the same enquiry shared with other advertisers, and how many?
5. What happens with invalid or duplicate enquiries: can they be reported or replaced?
6. Does our response time affect how our listings are shown?
7. What has the buyer agreed to on your enquiry form: a call, SMS, WhatsApp, marketing?
8. Can we get a monthly export of all enquiries, to match against our own records?

Keep the answers in writing, and ask again at each renewal.

A checklist for portal leads

1. Every portal account and listing is under the company's control, with more than one person able to log in.
2. Every enquiry from every portal reaches one system automatically, with the listing and the time.
3. Duplicates are merged by phone number before the lead is assigned.
4. Every enquiry gets an automatic first message within seconds and a call within minutes in working hours.
5. Enquiries that arrive at night or at weekends get an answer, and a call first thing the next working morning.
6. Follow-up continues past the second attempt, and stops when the buyer says no.
7. Every lead is closed with a reason, so you know why portal leads don't convert.
8. You review time to first reply, site visits and bookings per portal every month, before every renewal.

Our Lead Response Accelerator sets this up on the portals, WhatsApp number and CRM you already use. If you're still choosing a CRM, start with our guide to real estate CRMs in India.

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