How to build a WhatsApp chatbot for your real estate agency

Start from what customers actually send. Buyers ask for price, carpet area, possession date, floor plans, loan eligibility and whether they can visit this weekend.

Then look at what goes wrong today:

• Meta/Google leads go cold in 24 hours. Buyer fills "Interested in 2BHK in Whitefield" form at 7 PM. You call Tuesday. They've toured 3 properties.
• Site visit no-shows are common. You arrange a site visit for Saturday. The family doesn't show. No call, no message. Broker's time wasted.
• Post-visit follow-up is inconsistent. Buyer visits property, seems interested. You follow up once. No reply. You assume they're not interested. They buy elsewhere.

Each of these is a conversation with a predictable shape — a question, a lookup, a confirmation. That shape is what a chatbot handles well.

1. Buy or rent?
2. What type? Apartment, villa, plot, commercial — as a list.
3. Where? Localities you cover, as a list, or free text.
4. Budget range — as buttons.
5. When? Ready to move, within 6 months, just exploring.
6. Matching listings with photos and prices, and [Book a site visit] on each.

Five quick answers turn an anonymous "interested" into a lead an agent can act on.

Notice what the business side does: it answers with the specific detail (time, reference, next step), it asks for one thing at a time, and it gives the customer a one-word way to reply. Those three habits matter more than how clever the bot is.

The bot offers the listing's open visit slots, takes the buyer's name and how many will come, and confirms with the address, pin and agent. The agent sees the booking with the buyer's answers, and the morning reminder cuts no-shows.

Reputoo supports both, and most real estate agents end up using both:

• Keyword flows — a fixed menu or trigger word ("MENU", "BOOK", "STATUS") leads down a set path. Predictable, easy to audit, right for anything with a fixed answer.
• AI chatbot — reads the customer's own words and answers from your knowledge base (website, price list, policies). Right for the long tail of questions nobody wrote a menu item for.

A sensible start for a real estate agency: keyword flows for the top two or three tasks, AI for everything else, and a person behind both.

Carpet area, possession date, amenities, parking, floor, facing, maintenance charges, RERA registration number — the bot answers from the listing's details, which must be accurate and current. Anything not in the details goes to the agent rather than being guessed.

• Price negotiation and offers.
• Loan eligibility and bank questions.
• Legal questions about title, approvals and agreements.
• Anything the listing details do not cover.

The bot hands over with the buyer's qualifying answers attached, so the agent's first call starts with the right conversation.

• Complaints, refunds and anything where the customer is upset.
• Anything involving money the bot cannot see — a disputed bill, a custom quote.
• Health, safety or legal questions.
• Any customer who asks for a human. Do not make them ask twice.

For real estate agents specifically: negotiation, documentation, and anything about legal title or loan approval stays with the agent.

Handover on Reputoo moves the chat into the shared inbox with the conversation so far, so staff never ask the customer to repeat themselves.

1. Connect your WhatsApp number to Reputoo (official API; takes minutes).
2. Add your website and documents to the knowledge base so the AI answers in your real estate agency's own terms.
3. Build keyword flows for the top tasks above. What to connect: A CRM or lead sheet fed by property portals; WhatsApp conversations should update the same lead.
4. Choose who gets handed-over chats, and during which hours.
5. Test from a personal phone, then share the number or a QR code with customers.

For rentals, the bot asks move-in date, budget, family or bachelor, pets, and furnishing, then shows matching listings and books viewings. Landlord rules — no pets, family only — are applied honestly rather than hidden.

The day after a visit, the bot asks how it went — [Interested] [Want to see more] [Not for me] — and routes the answer: interested buyers to the agent for next steps, "see more" to matching listings, "not for me" to a question about what was wrong, which improves future matches.

Buyers write in many languages and mix: "2BHK chahiye Andheri mein 1.5 cr tak". Keyword flows cover common terms (BHK, sqft, possession); the AI chatbot understands the rest and replies in the buyer's language.

• Qualify as a buyer and a renter across budgets and localities.
• Book a site visit and reschedule from the reminder.
• Ask a question the listing covers and one it does not.
• Ask about a loan and check the agent takes over.

Watch time to first reply, leads qualified, site visits booked and visits that happen. Read handovers weekly for questions to add to listing details.

Buyers ask how much loan they can get, which banks the project is approved with, and what EMI to expect. The bot can list the banks the project is approved with and offer an EMI illustration from a simple calculator, clearly labelled as an estimate — and then pass the buyer to the agent or a loan partner for anything specific. It never states that a buyer will be approved.

Buyers abroad get the same qualifying flow plus a question about their time zone, and are offered a video walkthrough or a video-call visit with an agent at a time that suits them. The bot sends the documentation list your team uses for NRI purchases.

Owners who want to sell or let can start in the chat too: property type, location, size, expected price or rent, and timeline. The bot books a valuation visit with an agent and sends what documents to keep ready.

Offices, shops and warehouses need different questions: area, use, floor loading, parking, lease term. A separate path in the bot keeps commercial enquiries from getting residential listings, and routes them to the commercial team.

Every handover carries the buyer's qualifying answers, the listings they looked at, and the reason — negotiation, loan, legal, or a question the listing does not answer. Agents start the call knowing what the buyer wants.

Buyers who did not find the right property can ask the bot to tell them when something matching appears. The bot saves their criteria and, with their consent, sends new matching listings as they come in — the most useful marketing message a buyer can receive.

Plot buyers get questions about size, approvals, road width and facing, and listings with map pins. Site visits to plots include directions from a known landmark.

At night the bot qualifies, sends brochures and books visits, and flags hot leads — ready to buy, budget confirmed — for the first agent in the morning.

Buyers ask what they need to book a flat. The bot sends your checklist — ID and address proof, PAN, photographs, income documents for a loan — as your team has written it, and tells them how documents will be collected securely. It never asks buyers to send sensitive documents to the bot itself unless your process says so.

For new projects, buyers ask about construction-linked plans, down-payment schemes and what is due when. The bot explains the plans published for the project and sends the payment schedule; anything custom goes to the sales team.

"Can you send more photos of the kitchen?" or "is there a video of the view?" — the bot sends what is in the listing's media set and, if a buyer wants something that is not, asks the agent to send it.

"What's the best price?" is the most common question after "what's the price?". The bot shares the published price and any published offers, and says the agent can discuss the rest in person or on a call — booking that call. It never hints at discounts it has not been told about.

Site-visit reminders carry [Confirm] [Reschedule] [Cancel]. Rescheduling offers the agent's other slots; cancelling asks, optionally, why — "found another property", "budget changed" — which helps the next match. Free-text replies go to the agent.