How to Auto-Reply to 99acres and MagicBricks Leads on WhatsApp in Under a Minute

A buyer who enquires on 99acres or MagicBricks rarely enquires about just one property. They tap "Contact" on five or six listings in one sitting, and every one of those brokers or builders gets the same lead. The one who replies first — with something useful, on WhatsApp, where the buyer already is — usually gets the site visit.

This guide shows how to make that reply automatic: every portal lead gets a personal WhatsApp message within a minute, day or night, and serious buyers get a site visit booked without you picking up the phone.

Why speed matters more on Indian portals

The research on lead response time is old but consistent. A Harvard Business Review study of 2,241 companies found that firms which contacted a lead within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify it as firms that waited even one more hour — and the average company took 42 hours to respond.

Portal leads in India make this sharper, for three reasons:

• The lead is shared. Several brokers and builders often receive the same enquiry. Being second means competing with someone who has already started the conversation.
• The buyer is on their phone right now. Most portal browsing happens on mobile. Five minutes later, they're on another app.
• WhatsApp is where they reply. Many buyers let unknown calls ring out but will answer a WhatsApp message that clearly mentions the property they asked about.

What a good first reply looks like

The first message should prove you read the enquiry and make replying effortless. For example:

Hi Priya, thanks for your enquiry on MagicBricks about the 3BHK on Baner Road. It's available. Are you looking to buy in the next 3 months, and is your budget around ₹1.2 Cr? I can share the floor plan and book a site visit this weekend.

It names the property, answers the obvious question, asks two qualifying questions and offers a next step. A generic "Thank you for contacting us, our executive will call you" does none of that.

The system, step by step

1. Capture the lead the moment it lands

Both 99acres and MagicBricks notify you of new enquiries by email (and SMS), and paid plans can also send leads to a CRM. Any of these can trigger automation. The simplest reliable route is the email notification: a workflow watches a dedicated inbox, reads the buyer's name, phone number and the property, and turns it into a clean lead record. Housing.com, Facebook lead ads and your own website form feed into the same record.

2. Send the WhatsApp reply within 60 seconds

The reply goes out through the WhatsApp Business Platform (the official API), not a personal WhatsApp account — automating a personal account risks the number being banned. The first message to a new lead uses an approved template; once the buyer replies, the conversation can be free-form.

Meta charges per message for templates sent outside a customer's 24-hour reply window, while replies inside that window are handled as service messages. Rates change, so check Meta's current pricing for India before you estimate costs.

3. Let AI qualify the buyer

When the buyer replies, an AI model reads the conversation and asks what a good sales executive would ask: budget, timeline, preferred location, ready-to-move or under-construction, loan or self-funded. It answers routine questions from your listing details — size, price, possession date, amenities — and never invents what it doesn't know.

Each lead gets a simple score:

• Hot — budget and timeline fit, wants to visit soon → you are alerted immediately.
• Warm — interested but 1–3 months away → enters a follow-up sequence.
• Not a fit — outside budget or location → politely closed, no time wasted.

4. Book the site visit automatically

Hot buyers are offered two or three real slots from your calendar. When they pick one, it's booked, they get a confirmation with the location pin, and you (or the assigned executive) get a WhatsApp alert with the buyer's answers. A reminder goes out the morning of the visit.

5. Follow up with everyone else

Most buyers won't book on day one. A polite sequence keeps you in the conversation: the floor plan on day 1, a price breakdown on day 3, a visit invitation on day 6, a check-in after two weeks. The sequence stops the moment the buyer replies or asks you to stop. See what a good follow-up sequence looks like.

What you need to set this up

• A WhatsApp Business Platform account on a dedicated number, with the business verified by Meta
• Access to your portal lead notifications (a forwarding rule on your email is enough to start)
• A calendar for site-visit slots (Google Calendar works well)
• A place to keep lead records — Google Sheets is fine; a CRM is better once volume grows
• Your listing details and the questions you always ask buyers

Common mistakes to avoid

• Automating a personal WhatsApp number. Use the official API. It's the only way to run this safely at volume.
• Sending a brochure with no question. A PDF alone gets no reply. Always ask one easy question.
• Pretending the AI is a person. Introduce it as your assistant. Buyers don't mind a fast, helpful assistant; they mind being misled.
• No hand-off. The AI should pass a lead to a human the moment they ask for one, raise a complaint or start negotiating.

What it costs

XMEL builds this for Indian real estate businesses from ₹24,999 setup plus ₹4,999 a month (WhatsApp and call usage billed at cost; GST extra), starting with a 14-day pilot on your real leads. See the India pricing, or estimate what slow replies are costing you with the ROI calculator.

The short version

Every portal enquiry is a buyer comparing you with other brokers right now. A WhatsApp reply in under a minute that names the property, asks two easy questions and offers a site visit puts you first in that comparison — and automation makes sure it happens at 2 PM and at 2 AM alike. Learn more about the full AI inside sales agent for real estate.