Real Estate · Answers

How do Australian real estate agencies answer after-hours calls?

The short answer: buyer enquiries don't keep office hours — portals surface listings at night and callers ring the moment they see them. Agencies typically choose between voicemail, a human answering service at around A$200-A$400/mo, or an AI receptionist like KarmasAI, which answers 24/7 from A$49/mo and captures every enquiry into a lead pipeline.

Missed buyer enquiries cost you listings, not just buyers

The obvious cost of an unanswered enquiry is the buyer — they wanted the address, the price guide or an inspection time, got a voicemail instead, and rang the agent on the next listing. But the quieter cost is on the vendor side. Sellers notice how their agent's phone is handled, because it's a preview of how their campaign will be handled. An agency that answers every call, every hour, walks into listing presentations with a straightforward claim: no enquiry on your property will ever ring out.

After-hours is when the pressure peaks. Buyers scroll the portals after dinner, plan their Saturday inspections on Thursday night, and call when something catches their eye. If your office number goes to voicemail at 5:30pm, the highest-intent hours of the buyer's day are the hours you're not answering.

The three realistic options

1. Voicemail (A$0)

Free, and largely invisible in its failure. Most after-hours callers won't leave a message — they redial the next agency. The messages you do get arrive without structure: half a phone number, no property reference, and a callback queue that eats your team's morning.

2. Human answering service (typically A$200-A$400/mo)

A real person takes the call in your agency's name and writes down a message. That beats voicemail, but the operator doesn't know your listings, can't answer "is it still available?", and can't book a time. The enquiry still waits for a callback — and per-minute overage makes launch weeks expensive.

3. AI receptionist (KarmasAI, from A$49/mo)

KarmasAI answers in about three seconds, in a natural Australian voice, at 11pm on a Sunday just as readily as 11am on a Tuesday. It answers common questions from the business profile you set up, captures the caller's name, number and the property they're asking about, and can book a time with an automatic SMS confirmation. Urgent calls — a tenant emergency, a vendor mid-campaign — are warm-transferred to the on-duty agent with context.

Every conversation lands in a lead pipeline and unified inbox with the full transcript and recording attached, so Monday morning starts with a sorted list of enquiries instead of a bank of voicemails. Missed-call text-back catches anyone who hangs up before the greeting finishes. Google Calendar is live; AgentBox is rolling out.

What it costs

KarmasAI is AUD, GST-inclusive and month-to-month: Starter at A$49/mo (75 minutes), Plus at A$99/mo (250 minutes), Growth at A$199/mo (500 minutes) and Pro at A$399/mo (1,000 minutes), with a A$999/mo Scale tier and custom Enterprise plans for multi-office groups — details on the pricing page. For context, full-time receptionist salaries in Australia are commonly cited around A$55,000-A$65,000 a year before superannuation, and they still only cover business hours. One extra buyer captured — or one vendor won because your phones never ring out — covers a year of the Starter plan many times over.

For a wider look at what AI can do on agency phones, read our guide to AI receptionists for Australian real estate or start at the real estate page.