Real estate leads: how agents get more appraisals and listings in a soft spring

Listings are scarce this spring: Cotality's Home Value Index for 1 October 2026 showed values fell in every capital except Darwin in September, new listings were 9.2% lower than a year earlier, and sales over the past three months were down 19.1%. In 2025 Cotality described "the usual start of spring upswing in new listings", yet homes now take a median of 39 days to sell.

A steady system for appraisal leads means your pipeline does not hang on the next referral, so a slow month is not a scramble, so you can plan listings a quarter ahead, so Sundays are for your family instead of the phone.

Vendor and appraisal leads come from a handful of sources, each with its own consent rule under the Spam Act or the Do Not Call Register. Get the rule right first, then make the message worth reading.

Cold calls must be checked against the Do Not Call Register, and marketing emails and texts need consent, a clear sender and a working unsubscribe. ACMA's April to June 2025 report on scams, spam and telemarketing listed real estate services among the most complained about industries, alongside solar and retail.

• Once a number has been on the register for 30 days, call it only with consent; a number published online is not consent.
• Call only from 9am to 8pm on weekdays and 9am to 5pm on Saturday, never on Sundays or public holidays.
• Identify yourself and end the call immediately if asked.
• Honour SMS and email unsubscribes within 5 working days. ACMA penalised Telstra $626,000 in 2025, partly because its opt out asked people for personal information.

Underquoting rules stop an agent advertising a price below their own reasonable estimate, and NSW and Victoria are both tightening them.

NSW: ranges can be no wider than 10%, and "offers above" or "+" are banned. New laws expected towards the end of 2026 require a price or price guide in every ad, ban advertising below rejected offers, and lift the maximum penalty to $110,000 or 3 times the commission, whichever is greater.

Victoria from 1 October 2026: estimates still rest on the 3 most comparable sales, the Statement of Information becomes the Property Price Statement, and "offers above", "from" and "+" remain banned.

A suburb market update wins appraisals when it tells homeowners something useful about their own streets, such as recent sales, days on market and what buyers asked at open homes. Google's spam policies call out doorway abuse, including pages "targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page", so I would rather see one real update per suburb you sell in than dozens of clones with the name swapped.

Google says early AI Mode testers asked questions nearly 3 times longer than traditional searches, so answer questions like "how long are homes taking to sell in my suburb" in plain text. The AI search guide explains how.

Reply to an appraisal enquiry within minutes, with a personal message, because the homeowner may be asking more than one agent. In a Harvard Business Review audit of 2,241 US companies sent a web enquiry, 23% never responded at all. Treat an appraisal like a quote and follow it up, using the sequence in the quote follow up guide.

An answering service on the office line during Saturday opens means the call from two streets over gets booked, so Monday starts with appointments instead of callbacks. The missed calls guide covers text back.

Ask every vendor and buyer for a review after settlement, quote testimonials exactly as given, and never pay for or filter reviews.

• Google bans asking only happy clients and asking for reviews that name a staff member, so do not ask vendors to mention the agent by name.
• Consumer Affairs Victoria says agent testimonials must be accurate, with no invented quotes, even from real clients.
• The ACCC issued a removalist a $6,600 infringement notice for claiming testimonials were genuine when they were not.
• Reply briefly and politely to every review. The Google review rules guide covers the details.

1. 1Time how long your last five appraisal enquiries waited for a personal reply.
2. 2Wash your calling list against the Do Not Call Register and record the date.
3. 3Check every advertised price against your estimate and your state's rules.
4. 4Write one real suburb update with recent sales and your own view.
5. 5Take the free 15 second lead score quiz to see where your appraisal leads leak.