How to respond to Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket enquiries

Why does response time matter with portal enquiries?

Portals make enquiring quick. On Rightmove an applicant presses Call Agent or sends a message through Request Details, and Rightmove does not contact the agent or arrange the viewing on the applicant's behalf. Everything after that click is the agency's job.

Because enquiring takes seconds, an applicant can contact several agents in one sitting. The first to reply with a straight answer and a viewing time has their attention; a reply the next morning may reach someone who has already booked elsewhere.

What are the steps for handling each enquiry?

Handle every enquiry the same way, whichever portal it came from. Answer the applicant's question first, then ask yours.

• Acknowledge: within minutes in opening hours. Call first; if there is no answer, message with your name, the property and when you will try again.
• Qualify: ask the questions below in conversation, not as a form.
• Book the viewing: offer two or three specific times, confirm in writing with the address and who will meet them, and send a reminder.
• Follow up: work through a set schedule if they go quiet.
• Record: log the enquiry, each contact attempt, the answers and the outcome against the applicant and the property.

Qualifying questions for buyers

You want to know whether the buyer can proceed, how soon, and what else to show them. A buyer with a home to sell and no agent is also a valuation lead.

• Position: first-time buyer, cash buyer, investor, or a home to sell?
• Chain: is their home on the market, under offer or sold subject to contract, and how long is the chain?
• Mortgage: do they have a mortgage agreement in principle, and for how much?
• Budget: price range and deposit; a cash buyer should expect to show proof of funds with an offer.
• Timescale: when must they move, and is there a fixed date such as a lease ending?
• Proceedability: could they proceed if an offer were accepted today? Grade it: ready now, ready once sold, or early stage.

Qualifying questions for tenants, and the rules in England

Ask every lettings applicant the same questions in the same way. Since 1 May 2026, the Renters' Rights Act 2025 has added rules for lettings in England that bind letting agents as well as landlords. The rules below are for England; for property in Wales or Scotland, check the separate guidance there.

You must not do anything to make someone less likely to rent a property, or prevent them renting it, because they have children or get benefits. That includes withholding information about the property, stopping someone viewing it, or knowingly offering them unreasonable viewing times. Each offence can be fined up to £7,000.

A written advert or offer, including an email or text, must state the rent as a specific amount, and you must not ask for, encourage or accept offers above it. Encouraging includes telling an applicant you have received other offers.

You must not ask for, encourage or accept rent before the tenancy agreement is signed, even if offered. After signing, you can usually ask for no more than one month's rent before the start, or 28 days' rent if rent is not paid monthly, so you cannot ask for several months upfront to make up for an affordability shortfall.

• Move date: when do they want to move, and what notice must they give?
• Household: how many people will live there, for room sizes and any licence limit? Exceptions for children, such as overcrowding or licence conditions, must be justified as a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.
• Income: household income and its sources. In an affordability check, count benefit income the same way as other income.
• Pets: tell the landlord early. Once a tenancy starts, a tenant can ask in writing to keep a pet; the landlord has 28 days to respond in writing and cannot refuse without a fair reason.
• Guarantor and references: is there a guarantor if income falls short, and who can give a reference?

Who answers out of hours, and who owns each enquiry?

Portals take enquiries at any hour, so some will always arrive after the office closes. Decide who covers them: a rota of negotiators, a call-handling service or an AI receptionist. Each needs your property details, the diary and a rule for what it passes to a person the next morning.

Every enquiry needs one named owner within minutes: the branch that lists the property, sales or lettings, then a negotiator by patch or by rota.

• Agree which viewing slots can be booked out of hours
• Send valuation requests to the valuer or branch manager the same day
• Give enquiries that match no property a named owner, not a shared inbox

How do you follow up enquiries that do not reply?

An applicant who misses the first call may have been at work or driving. A set schedule stops good enquiries being dropped after one attempt, and stops anyone being chased for weeks.

• Day 0: call; if there is no answer, message straight away and call again later at a different time.
• Day 1: call again, and message two specific viewing times.
• Day 3: send something useful, such as the floor plan or a similar property.
• Day 7: a last short message saying how to reach you.
• After that: property alerts only if they agreed to them; stop if they ask.
• In England, a message offering a rental must state the rent as a specific amount.

What should you record, and what should you measure?

Record each enquiry once, against the applicant and the property: portal, arrival time, every contact attempt and who made it, the answers and grade, the viewing and feedback, and contact preferences. You then have the history when they ring back, and can show a vendor or landlord what their listing produced.

Records protect the agency too. If a council investigates a rental discrimination complaint, GOV.UK lists time-stamped texts, voicemails and emails, and copies of the advert, as evidence you can send.

• Response time: from arrival to the first reply that answers the applicant, not an automatic acknowledgement
• Share within target: the proportion answered within your target time, by branch, weekday and weekend
• Enquiry-to-viewing rate: viewings booked from enquiries in a period, divided by unique enquiries in that period, by portal, branch, negotiator and property

How Propily handles portal enquiries

Propily turns Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket enquiries into leads. Zoopla delivers leads directly; Rightmove and OnTheMarket enquiry emails are read from your connected inbox or a Propily inbound address. An enquiry delivered twice is recorded once, each lead is matched to the property and the branch that lists it, and unmatched enquiries are flagged for a person.

After opt-outs are checked, each new lead gets an approved WhatsApp opener. The AI receptionist then answers questions about the property, qualifies the applicant with your questions and books the viewing into your team's diary, and each lead gets a fit score from 0 to 100. It can answer at any hour, including evenings and weekends, and hands over to your team with the full conversation.