Spokane Realtor Alyssa Curnutt has sold 40+ deals from hyperlocal Instagram content. Her results come from a DM habit most agents skip: following up with every person who raises a hand.
Plenty of real estate agents build a solid feed:
- A home tour post
- A local highlight
- A personal story
Comments come in and follower counts climb. Then nothing happens.
Instagram coach Jimmy Conover joined The Broke Agent last week to talk about why (among other things). He breaks the missing piece into three steps: connect, qualify, convert. It’s a DM system built to catch every new follower, comment, or hand raiser before they disappear into the feed.
Here’s the rundown, complete with the DM script that turns new followers into real estate leads.
Why a New Follower Is a Lead Opportunity, Not Just a Number
Conover uses a specific label for these early signals: lead opportunities. A comment on a guide post or a new follow means someone raised a hand. Nothing happens on its own after that.
Agents treat the comment or the follow as the finish line. Conover wants it treated as the start.
This is also exactly why The Broke Agent has frequently reminded agents to engage with comments on their content, as well as with other people’s posts.
A comment or a follow puts the ball in your court. Letting it sit there is not a strategy.
As Conover puts it:
“Just because someone commented for your guide doesn’t make them a lead. It’s a lead opportunity. Let’s see what we can do with this opportunity.”
He compares the pattern to hosting an open house and letting every visitor walk out the door without a word:
“That’s happening every single day on our social media. We’re creating content. We’re showing homes. We’re asking people to comment for our guide. They comment for our guide, they come into the home, they tour it, and we’re like, ‘Peace. Thanks for coming.'”
The Connect, Qualify, Convert Framework
Every new follower or hand raiser goes through the same three steps in Conover’s system. He types every message himself, no automation involved.
Connect comes first. The only goal is a reply. This is his first message to a new follower:
“Hey, Eric. Thanks for the follow. Excited to connect. Are you here for the content or are you thinking about moving to Boise?”
He uses the person’s name and asks one easy question. Plenty of people won’t answer, and Conover expects that. The message needs to work on the fraction who do.
Once someone replies, Qualify starts. Conover asks a short list of questions to build a full picture of who he’s talking to:
- Current location
- What they don’t like about their current location
- How familiar they are with the new area
- What they picture in a new home
- Timeline and budget
Here’s how he frames it:
“I want to know your current location. I want to know your pain of your current location. I want to know your familiarity with my area because that’s going to create a gap of where you’re at and what you actually need help with.”
Convert closes the loop. Conover repeats back what he just heard, then offers a call:
“And then you say, ‘Hey, here’s what we typically do next.’ And we hop on a call to make sure that we’re only showing you homes in the areas that you want. And then you always end with, ‘Do you think that would be helpful?'”
Repeating the conversation back shows he listened. Ending with a question keeps the offer low pressure.
The Follow-Up Rule That Keeps This From Becoming a Time Suck
Conover limits how much chasing he allows himself to do. New hand raisers get a message the same day, and active conversations stay active. Anyone who stops replying gets one follow-up message, worded in a different way than the first.
If the first question was about content versus a move, the second one can ask about local ties instead:
“If you said, ‘Are you here for the content? Are you thinking about moving?’ Then you can say, ‘Are you local or just interested in the area?'”
After that follow-up (the second question), Conover moves on for good:
“I run by the rule of one follow-up… next day you move on.”
There’s no repeated messaging and no guilt trip. One nudge is enough, and the conversation either continues or ends there.
Why This Works Even for Agents With a Small Following
Conover built this system for agents with a modest following. Five to ten new followers a day is normal for most working agents, and that volume takes five to ten minutes a day to manage with this system.
Conover breaks the math down like this:
“If you’re getting 5-10 followers per day, this takes 5-10 minutes a day to actually do that strategy. And like you said, 80% aren’t going to respond. But if 20% do, you’re already engaged in conversation with them.”
Curnutt’s numbers back this up. Conover credits her results to these DM conversations:
“This is why Alyssa Curnutt has sold, you know, 40 plus deals from hyperlocal content. She’s not doing it by just posting amazing content. She’s having these active conversations with people.”
Curnutt explains exactly how she does this in her Hyperlocal Content Blueprint in BAMx. Sign up here to get full access.
Start With Tomorrow’s New Followers
No need to rebuild your whole Instagram strategy to test this. The next seven days of new followers and comments are enough.
Testing this takes three moves:
- Message each new follower the same day
- Ask the qualify questions once they reply
- Send one follow-up to anyone who goes quiet
Curnutt and Conover built their numbers by paying attention to people who raise their hands and following through with the same three steps, every day.
Try it for a week or a month. See what happens.
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