# Instagram and Facebook leads for estate agents: stop letting DMs go cold > Instagram and Facebook leads for estate agents: route DMs and lead ads to a named person, reply inside the 24-hour window and turn enquiries into viewings. Source: https://owlvox.com/blog/social-media-leads-estate-agents Published: 2026-10-02 Category: Messaging ## In short - Estate agents can stop Instagram and Facebook leads going cold by routing every DM and lead form to a named person on the rota and replying inside Meta's 24-hour messaging window. - Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp only let a business send free-form messages within 24 hours of the customer's last message, and the 24 hours restart each time the buyer replies. - When an Instagram or Facebook DM asks if a property is still available, answer that first, then ask one qualifying question at a time rather than sending a form. - People who fill in a Facebook lead ad form should get a call the same day, mentioning the property or offer in the first sentence, provided the form collected consent. On Sunday evening, a reel of a two-bed flat with a balcony does better than anything you posted all month. By Monday the Instagram inbox is full of "is this still available?", a few people have messaged the Facebook page instead, and one has found the director's personal account. The lead ad you ran alongside it has collected names and phone numbers that are sitting in Meta, waiting for someone to download them. By Wednesday, most of those people have stopped checking. Some have booked a viewing with the agency down the road, which answered on Sunday night. This article covers why social enquiries go cold, how to route them to someone who will answer, how to work inside Meta's 24-hour messaging window, how to turn a casual question into a viewing, and what to measure. ## Why social enquiries go cold faster than portal leads A portal enquiry usually lands in a branch inbox that someone is paid to watch. A DM lands wherever the account happens to be logged in, which is often the phone of whoever does the marketing. Lead ad forms are worse. They sit inside Meta until somebody remembers to look. The timing works against you as well. People scroll in the evening and at weekends, which is when the branch is shut. And "is this still available?" takes five seconds to send, so the same person has often sent it to three agents. The first useful reply tends to get the conversation. None of this is anybody's fault. Nobody decided to ignore Instagram. It just never became anybody's job. ## Route every DM and lead form to a named person Before you think about speed, decide who owns the messages. A shared inbox that nobody owns is a slower way of having no inbox at all. Here is a checklist you could work through this week: 1. **List every place a social enquiry can arrive.** The branch Facebook page, the Instagram account, Messenger, each lead ad form, and any personal accounts staff use to post listings. 2. **Bring them into one place the team can see.** Meta's business inbox can show Facebook and Instagram messages together. Lead ad forms need to go somewhere a person will notice, not a download page. 3. **Put the inbox on the rota.** Name who covers it each part of the day, including evenings and weekends, the same way you rota viewings. 4. **Split sales and lettings if different people handle them.** A tenant asking about a flat should not wait while a sales negotiator works out who to forward it to. 5. **Ask staff to redirect from personal accounts.** A polite "I've passed this to the team, they'll reply from the branch page" keeps the conversation where it can be tracked. 6. **Write down what a good first reply looks like.** Not a script. Three or four lines everyone can adapt. ## Reply inside the 24-hour window Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp only let a business send free-form messages within 24 hours of the customer's last message. This is Meta's customer service window. Once it closes, you cannot simply carry on the conversation until they message you again. In practice, a DM sent on Friday evening and answered on Monday morning is already outside the window. That is why weekend cover matters more on social than anywhere else. A reply on Saturday, even a short one, keeps the door open. Every time the buyer replies, the window starts again. So end your messages with a question that is easy to answer. "Are you looking to buy or rent?" gets a reply. "Let us know if you have any questions" usually does not. The other habit worth building is asking for a phone number while the window is still open. Once you have one, and consent to call, the conversation no longer depends on the buyer remembering to open Instagram. Rules on calls and marketing differ by country, so check the rules in your market. WhatsApp has the same window and a few habits of its own, which we cover in [our guide to WhatsApp for estate agents](/blog/whatsapp-for-estate-agents). ## Turn "is this still available?" into a viewing ### Answer the question first If it is available, say so. If it is under offer, say that too, and offer something similar from your own listings if you have it. A buyer who asked a yes-or-no question and got a form link instead has learned something about your agency. ### Then ask one question at a time A DM is not the place for six questions in one message. Ask one, wait, then ask the next. Something like: > Yes, it's still available. Are you looking to buy or rent at the moment? > > Buy. First time. > > Good to know. Is it around this price you're working to, and have you got a mortgage in principle yet? By the third or fourth message you usually have budget, bedrooms, area and timescale. That is enough to suggest a viewing, or a better match, and to ask for a phone number to confirm it. ### Lead ad forms need a call, not a message Someone who filled in a lead ad form has already given you their details. Sending them another form is unkind. Call them while they still remember the ad, and mention the property or offer in your first sentence, because they may not remember which agency it was. Check that the form collected consent for the contact you are making. ## Measure it with numbers you already have You do not need a dashboard to start. Count these by hand for two weeks and you will know where the leads are going: 1. **Time to first reply**, split into office hours and out of hours. 2. **Messages answered after 24 hours.** Treat each one as a missed lead, because in most cases it is. 3. **Enquiries where you got a phone number.** 4. **Viewings booked from social**, with the source recorded on the lead. 5. **Lead ad forms contacted the same day.** The second number is usually the uncomfortable one. It is also the easiest to fix, because it is mostly a rota problem. ## Where Owlvox fits Owlvox answers Instagram DMs, Facebook Messenger, Facebook lead ads, WhatsApp and website forms the moment they arrive, day or night, in English, French or Arabic. It answers "is this still available?" from your own listings, offers a near miss as a maybe and names it as one, and asks about budget, bedrooms, area and timescale as the conversation goes. Once it has a phone number and enough context, it can call the buyer with an AI voice agent inside your calling hours, with consent recorded, and book the viewing into the diary. It does not yet book viewings straight from Instagram messages. There it captures and qualifies, and the booking happens on the call. It remembers the conversation across channels, so a buyer who started on Instagram does not repeat their budget on the phone. When a matching property comes on later, it messages waiting buyers who are still inside Meta's 24-hour window and flags the rest to your team on the board. Anyone who asks for a person is handed over. You can see [how Owlvox works](/how-it-works), and it is in early access if you would like to [request early access](/early-access?from=blog). ## Frequently asked questions ### How quickly should an estate agent reply to an Instagram or Facebook enquiry? As quickly as you reasonably can, and always within 24 hours. Instagram and Messenger only let a business send free-form messages within 24 hours of the customer's last message, so an enquiry left over a weekend may be out of reach by Monday. A short reply that asks one useful question is better than a complete answer that arrives too late. ### What should an estate agent do with Facebook lead ad leads? Contact them the same day, while they still remember the ad, and mention the property or offer they responded to in your first sentence. Check that the form collected consent for the contact you plan to make, since rules on calls and marketing differ by country. Then qualify them as you would any other enquiry and record the source on the lead. ### Who should manage an estate agency's Instagram and Facebook messages? A named person for each part of the day, including evenings and weekends, rather than whoever happens to run the marketing. Bring the Facebook page, Instagram account and lead ad forms into one place the team can see, and split sales and lettings if different people handle them. The aim is that every message has an owner as soon as it arrives.