A slow response, a follow-up call that goes nowhere, or a conversation that ends without a clear next step. These are the mistakes that quietly cost real estate agents clients and commissions.
As BAM co-founder Byron Lazine likes to remind agents:
“You’re not broke because you need more leads. You’re broke because you’re slow.”
And speed is only part of the problem. Luke Acree, President of ReminderMedia and co-host of the Stay Paid Podcast, has a line about follow-up that stings a little. He says agents lose more business to silence than they lose to the competition.
The good news is that these are mistakes you can fix without spending another dollar on lead generation.
We’ve pulled together five of the most common follow-up mistakes identified by BAM contributors, including Byron, Luke Acree, and Tom Toole, along with the scripts, systems, and simple changes that can help you turn more conversations into appointments and more leads into clients.
1. Taking Too Long to Respond
Byron’s standard is to return every call and text within 90 seconds. Every time. He says responding in that first 90 seconds can boost conversion by more than 370%.
Fast doesn’t have to mean long. You don’t need to complete a full buyer consultation on that first call, and firing off 20 questions before you’ve earned the right to ask them could do more harm than good.
He compares the first call to a setting a first date:
“Appointment first. Details later.”
So, what happens when a lead calls while you’re walking into something else? Keep it short and get a time on the calendar:
“I want to get all the information to you. I know this is important to you. Give me the top 2 details and let’s meet at 4 or 6 today.”
Keeping that pace takes a little prep. These are the habits Byron recommends for staying reachable on the client’s schedule:
- Time blocks that leave room for interruptions
- Templates ready to send so you can reply on the spot
- Help from an ISA (inside sales agent) team, a virtual assistant or your office to cover hours when you can’t pick up
2. Going Silent After Two Attempts
Tom Toole has called out agents who give up after about two attempts at reaching a lead by phone. They leave a message or two, the lead doesn’t call back, and the agent takes it as a no.
Tom reads it as bad timing. His standard is at least six call attempts per lead, mixed with texts and emails that give the lead something useful. He tracks every touch along the way.
For brand-new leads, he has a set cadence he calls “10-6”:
- 10 calls
- 6 texts
- All within the first 14 days
Byron puts follow-up on his short list of systems every new agent needs. In his words:
“Have a follow-up system for all these new conversations. Not hit and run. Ongoing follow-up and real service.”
For longer-term contacts, Luke works from a calendar rhythm that trades off between check-in calls and something of value:
- Month 1: a check-in call
- Month 3: something of value or an event invite
- Month 5: a check-in call
- Month 7: something of value or an event invite
Between calls, Tom recommends a property drip, which is a regular email of homes and sales.
- Sellers get recent sales near their home, sent weekly or a couple of times a month.
- Buyers get a search that reaches into nearby towns and counties.
The whole point is to give people a reason to remember your name and associate it with regular value-based communication and helpful insights to guide them to their next step.
3. Calling Just to “Check In”
If you’ve been with BAM long enough, you know not to open a phone conversation with, “Hey, [Name]! Just calling to check in and see if you’re ready to sell.”
Byron and Tom have both dragged the “just checking in” call because it doesn’t work. And because it’s more likely to get you blocked than lead to a real estate deal.
Personal calls are fine, if you’ve earned that level of familiarity. Luke recommends calls with no pitch attached, and Tom’s rules for value-based follow-up agree with that: a call about a client’s life should stay about the client’s life.
The trouble comes when a check-in is a sales pitch in disguise.
Tom’s alternative is the OFQ formula, which he credits to Phil Jones. Here’s how it works:
- Opener: your name and brokerage
- Fact: a local market stat the client may not know
- Question: what that stat means for their plans
Tom’s go-to question from his June 2026 post on pipeline bottlenecks is “How is that going to impact your real estate plan?”
BAM’s 6 Phrases article, based on an Instagram reel from eXp agent Ramon Casaus, offers swaps for common follow-up lines:
- Swap “Just checking in” for “The last time we spoke…” plus a piece of news that could affect their plans
- Swap “Following up” for “I was thinking about you.”
One line to stop using: “Sorry to bother you.”
Ramon’s point is that you have no reason to apologize when you’re bringing the client something of value.
4. Leaving the Next Step Up to the Client
During a BAMx Live Role Play Mastermind, Byron and Tom shared Shilo data showing 83% of agents don’t set a clear, defined next step on the phone.
The call winds down, someone says “Sounds good,” and it ends with nothing on the calendar.
The fix comes from a principle Alex Hormozi calls BAMFAM, short for Book A Meeting From A Meeting. Every call should end with the client knowing when they’ll hear from you next and why.
Here’s a framework for ‘just looking’ leads, built for people who clicked a Facebook ad or say they’re a year out
- Normalize the stage. Treat “just looking” as a normal part of the process with a line like: “Totally makes sense. That’s exactly who this ad was for. The smart ones start looking early so they can learn the market before they have to make decisions under pressure.”
- Clarify their motivation with two or three discovery questions.
- Offer fast value and stop talking.
The discovery questions from the framework are:
- “What are you hoping to change about where you live now?”
- “Are you local, or would this be a move into the area?”
- “Roughly less than a year, year or two, or just gathering ideas?”
For step three, the script offers a custom home search and a short buyer game plan:
“Based on what you said, what I usually do for people in research mode is set up a custom search that only sends you homes that match your criteria, and I’ll give you a quick buyer game plan so you understand pricing and competition before you’re on the clock.
“It takes about 10 minutes to dial it in together. Would it be crazy to spend 10 minutes today or tomorrow?”
5. Not Knowing Why Your Client Wants to Move
Follow-up works better when you know a prospect’s motivation and timeframe, since those tell you how often to reach out.
Here’s Tom’s list of the details you should know about every client and keep in your CRM:
- Where they want to buy
- Their price point
- Whether they’re financing, and how much cash they can put down
- Whether they’re pre-approved
- Whether they’re working with another agent
- Their motivation for moving
To find out what’s driving a move, Tom suggests open-ended questions like these:
- “What gets you excited about making a move?”
- “What’s important to you about making a move like this?”
Luke uses the FORD framework for notes after each call, so the next conversation feels personal:
- Family
- Occupation or retirement
- Recreation
- Dreams
The more you know about each person you serve, the more quickly you can identify the information that will help them the most.
Build Follow-Up Into Every Day
None of these fixes stick unless follow-up has a spot on your calendar. Here are a couple of example daily targets:
- 10 real conversations a day, which can take 100 calls
- 15 conversations a day, including 5 follow-ups with people already in your pipeline
The goal is to get more appointments booked, because whoever goes on the most appointments sells the most houses.
If you’re a BAMx member, the weekly BAMx Live Role Play Mastermind is a good place to work through the objections you are hearing and practice scripts with billion-dollar producers.
