Open-house sign-in to Follow Up Boss, with a thank-you and one follow-up

The problem

Open-house visitors are local and actively looking, but paper sign-in sheets often never reach the CRM. The figures below are from a trade-press report of an analyst's small test.

• Mike DelPrete's secret-shopper test, reported by HousingWire: about 42% of open-house visitors weren't asked for their contact details, and 62% of in-person shoppers got no follow-up after the tour. 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)
• Follow Up Boss Automations 2.0 does not fire on 'Visited Open House' events (only Action Plans do), so open-house sign-ins often get no automatic follow-up. Source: Follow Up Boss API: POST /events ('Visited Open House' triggers Action Plans but not Automations) (Vendor API documentation)
• Open-house sign-in apps (including ones built into CRMs) do much of this. If yours already follows up, you may not need this recipe. 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 listing agents and buyer's agents who hold open houses and end up with a stack of sign-ins nobody follows up.

Tools and monthly cost

Example month: Illustrative arithmetic. Assume 4 open houses a month with 15 sign-ins each: 60 thank-you emails and about 50 follow-ups fit Resend's free tier. If 20 visitors tick the consent box: about 40 texts and 10 replies = 50 segments x $0.0083 = $0.42 plus carrier fees, using the Twilio number from the lead recipe. About $1 a month plus your n8n server.

Setup

1. Read the 'TCPA, Do Not Call, advertising and Fair Housing' section on the real-estate hub first.
2. Host the included sign-in page (signin.html) on a tablet browser. It sends a form key (E4_FORM_KEY) and has a hidden company_website honeypot. Have your broker approve the consent wording next to the unticked text box; record its version in E4_CONSENT_VERSION.
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. Events are posted with source E4_SOURCE (default 'Open House'); keep E1_SKIP_SOURCES in the lead recipe the same so visitors don't get two replies.
4. 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.
5. 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. E4_THANKS_DELAY_HOURS (default 2), E4_FOLLOW_UP_DAYS (2) and E4_FOLLOW_UP_HOUR (10) set the timing.
6. Sign in yourself on the tablet before the first open house. 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-open-house-follow-up.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 O3: thank-you email two hours after the visit, and the text sent only to the visitor who ticked consent (invented visitors). Names and numbers are invented.

Subject: Thanks for visiting 214 Elm St, Austin TX

Hi Ana,

Thanks for coming to the open house at 214 Elm St, Austin TX. I'm Jordan Lee with Example Realty Group. If you have questions about the home, the neighborhood or what it might take to make an offer, just reply.

Want to see more homes like it? Pick a time: https://example.com/book-jordan

Don't want these emails? Reply "unsubscribe" and I'll stop.

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, it's Jordan Lee with Example Realty Group. Thanks for visiting 214 Elm St, Austin TX today! Any questions, just reply. Reply STOP to opt out.