Speed-to-lead auto-reply for Follow Up Boss: email right away, text only with recorded consent

The problem

A buyer who asks about a home and hears nothing can simply ask another agent. The figures below are from a trade-press report of an analyst's small test and a vendor's count of forum comments, so treat them as indications.

• Mike DelPrete's secret-shopper test, reported by HousingWire: of 100 inquiries sent through brokerage websites during weekday business hours, 47% got no reply at all. The median reply that did come took 39 minutes. Source: HousingWire (Aug 2024) on Mike DelPrete's secret-shopper test of 100 listing inquiries and open-house visits (Trade press report of an independent analyst's test)
• Sifta counted 7,439 agent comments on r/realtors and r/RealEstate: the first reply came up once, while follow-up that fades in the weeks after it came up far more often. That's why this recipe also sends one follow-up. Vendor analysis. Source: Sifta: What real estate agents complain about (7,439 r/realtors and r/RealEstate comments, July 2026) (Vendor analysis of public forum comments)
• Follow Up Boss Automations 2.0 can already send an auto-email or text when a lead arrives. If you use it, you may not need this recipe; this one adds the consent check, the time-zone check and the shared opt-out list. Source: Follow Up Boss help: Automations 2.0 overview (replacing Action Plans) (Vendor documentation)

Background reading: Can real estate agents text leads? A TCPA and Do Not Call checklist by lead source · Speed to lead for real estate agents: an auto-reply that texts only leads who said yes

Who it's for

US solo agents and small teams (1-5 agents) on Follow Up Boss whose portal and website leads often wait hours because the agent is at a showing.

Tools and monthly cost

Example month: Illustrative arithmetic, not a measured result. Assume 60 new leads a month, 40 with text consent: about 70 outgoing texts plus 30 replies = 100 segments x $0.0083 = $0.83, plus carrier fees of about $0.35-$0.50. Twilio number $1.15 and A2P 10DLC $1.50-$10 a month. About 110 emails fit Resend's free tier. About $4-$13 a month plus your n8n server. Follow Up Boss ($69 per user on Grow) is the CRM you already pay for.

Setup

1. Read the 'TCPA, Do Not Call, advertising and Fair Housing' section on the real-estate hub first.
2. Make your lead forms record text consent: an unticked box with wording your broker approved, saved into a Follow Up Boss custom field (FUB_CONSENT_FIELD, default customTextConsent) with the form version and date. Leads without it get email only.
3. In Follow Up Boss, create an API key in the admin settings and register your integration to get an X-System name and X-System-Key (Follow Up Boss requires both headers on every API call). Set FUB_API_KEY, FUB_X_SYSTEM and FUB_X_SYSTEM_KEY. FUB_REQUEST_INTERVAL_MS paces calls; 429 replies are retried after Retry-After.
4. Register a Follow Up Boss webhook for peopleCreated pointing at 'mss-e1-fub'. The workflow checks the FUB-Signature header with your X-System-Key and ignores repeated deliveries.
5. Texts need a Twilio number with an approved A2P 10DLC campaign (US carriers block unregistered business texts). Point the number's incoming-SMS webhook at 'mss-e1-sms' (one inbound handler writes the shared opt-out Sheet that every real-estate recipe checks) and set TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN and PUBLIC_WEBHOOK_BASE so X-Twilio-Signature is verified.
6. Set AGENT_NAME, AGENT_FIRST, AGENT_LICENSE, AGENT_PHONE, AGENT_MOBILE, AGENT_EMAIL, AGENT_TZ, BROKERAGE_NAME, BROKERAGE_LICENSE, OFFICE_ADDRESS and EMAIL_FROM from .env.example. Every message is signed with your name, license number, brokerage, phone and office address; ask your broker what your state requires. Set LEAD_STAGES (default 'Lead'), FOLLOW_UP_HOURS (default 24), RE_BOOKING_URL and TEXT_START_HOUR / TEXT_END_HOUR (default 8 and 21). E1_SKIP_SOURCES (default 'Open House') stops a second reply to people the open-house recipe already follows up.
7. Test with a lead using your own email and cell before switching on. The workflow also has a manual 'run now' webhook used by our tests. Delete it, or put it behind n8n's header authentication, before you go live.

Download

Download real-estate-lead-auto-reply.zip

Contains the n8n workflow, the mock data, the test runner with its last results, and the mock server we tested against. All keys in .env.example are fake.

Test result

Every workflow was imported into n8n 2.45.4 and run end to end on our test machine. Follow Up Boss, dotloop, Google Calendar, Google Sheets, Twilio and the email sender (Resend, including its inbound webhook) were replaced by a local mock server built from their official API docs: it checks the same request shapes and required fields, enforces Follow Up Boss's rate limit (HTTP 429 with Retry-After), expires dotloop's access token so the refresh path runs, and records every call. Webhook signatures (Follow Up Boss FUB-Signature, Twilio X-Twilio-Signature, Resend/Svix) are really computed and checked. These recipes use no AI model; every decision is a written rule. Leads, clients, agents, brokerages and addresses are invented. Nothing was sent to a real phone, person or account.

Actual output from the test run

Scenario L1: the email and the text a new lead with recorded consent receives (invented lead and agent). Names and numbers are invented.

Subject: Thanks for reaching out - Jordan Lee, Example Realty Group

Hi Ana,

Thanks for your request. I'm Jordan Lee, a real estate agent with Example Realty Group. I'll call you shortly; you can also just reply to this email with the best time to reach you.

If it's easier, pick a time to talk: https://example.com/book-jordan

Talk soon,

Jordan Lee (license #000000-MOCK)
Example Realty Group (license #000001-MOCK)
(512) 555-0100
100 Example Ave, Suite 2, Austin, TX 78701

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Text: Hi Ana, this is Jordan Lee with Example Realty Group. Thanks for your request! I'll call you shortly. Reply STOP to opt out.