Tenant calls that do not wait for office hours
A tenant finds water under the sink at 10pm. A prospect calls during a showing. An owner wants an update while your staff is at another building. For a property management company, the phone is busy at the worst times and the office is closed when the emergencies start.
An AI receptionist answers those calls. It is the property management version of our AI assistant: it picks up, follows your rules and hands each call to the right person with a written summary. It does not replace your team. It takes the first conversation so no call goes to voicemail.
Maintenance calls, day and night
The assistant asks the intake questions your coordinator would ask:
- Name, building, unit and a call-back number
- What is wrong, in the tenant’s own words
- Whether it is getting worse, and whether anyone is at risk
- Permission to enter, pets, and the best time for a visit
Your team gets a summary, not a voicemail to retype. If you use property management software, we check what it accepts from outside tools, such as a maintenance email address or a request form, and write that into the scope. We do not promise a direct connection to it. Where there is none, the request goes to your maintenance inbox or shared email, and a person creates the work order.
Emergency rules you set
You decide what counts as an emergency. Common examples are water leaking or flooding, no heat in winter, a lockout, a gas smell or a fire alarm that will not stop. We write the rules with you and test each one before launch.
When a call matches a rule, the assistant asks your questions and alerts the on-call person you name. Whether the live call can also be transferred depends on your phone setup, and we agree that in the written scope. The assistant is not an emergency service. For a safety call, such as a gas smell, the caller first hears the safety wording you wrote and approved, for example which emergency number to call. You write that wording, not the assistant, and we put it in the written scope. See after-hours answering for how night coverage is set up.
Prospect inquiries and showings
Prospects call about availability, rent, pets, parking and how to apply. The assistant answers from the list you approve and does not guess. It can offer showing times from the calendar you use and send a text confirmation. Anything it cannot answer goes to your leasing team with the prospect’s details.
Fair housing: the same answers for every prospect
The Fair Housing Act bars discrimination in housing based on race or color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status and disability, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The Justice Department names steering homeseekers to certain areas based on race as one form of discrimination, and the Act protects families with children under 18. The Act itself also bars any statement about a rental that shows a preference or limitation based on those characteristics, and treats a refusal to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices or services for a person with a disability as discrimination (42 U.S.C. 3604). An answer your phone assistant gives a prospect is a statement about a rental. State and local rules may add more protected groups.
A phone assistant is only safe here if it is built narrowly. We set it up this way:
- Same answers for everyone. The assistant gives every prospect the same approved answers on availability, rent, fees and application steps.
- No screening. It does not ask about or react to protected characteristics, and it does not decide who may apply. Your written screening criteria apply the same way to all applicants.
- No steering. If a prospect asks what kind of people live in an area, or whether a building suits families, it does not describe neighbors or neighborhoods. It gives the approved facts, such as rent, floor plan and distance to transit, or hands the call to a person.
- Accommodation requests go to a person. A request for an assistance animal or an accessibility change is passed to your team, not decided by the assistant.
This is not legal advice. Ask your own counsel to review the answer list before launch.
Owner and vendor calls
Owners and vendors usually need a person. We set the path for each: a named contact for each owner, a vendor contact for contractors and a message path for the rest. The assistant says it is an AI, then transfers the call where your phone setup allows it, or takes a message and alerts the right person. Lease disputes, payment arrangements, notices and complaints always go to a person.
Setup, step by step
- Listen to your calls. We review when calls arrive and what tenants and prospects ask.
- Agree the scope in writing: price, timeline and approval stages, before work starts.
- Write the call flow, emergency rules and answer list with you. You approve every answer.
- Connect the phone line, calendar and request path. Tools we connect include Calendly, Square Appointments and Acuity Scheduling for showings, and HubSpot or GoHighLevel if you keep a CRM. We confirm what connects to your property software.
- Test with real calls, including a fake emergency, an owner call and a fair housing question.
- Launch, with 30 days of help and fixes within the agreed scope.
AI disclosure and call recording
The assistant says it is an AI assistant at the start of the call, and callers can reach a person or leave a message. Recording is optional. Massachusetts requires that all parties know about recording, so if you record, the assistant announces it at the start, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Ask your own counsel how the rules apply to you.
What it costs and what is not included
Setup is from $900, usually 2-3 weeks. Phone answering is from $299/month (about 300 minutes), with the first month included in setup. Prices are as of October 2026.
Not included in any price: domain and hosting, new photography, third-party software subscriptions (billed at cost), SMS carrier registration (A2P 10DLC) and message fees, and AI usage above the plan allowance.
You can also start with our self-serve product PhoneAnswer or our done-for-you product CallReply. Ask which fits during a free demo.
Who this fits, and who should keep a person on the phone
It fits managers who miss calls at night, during showings or while the office is covering several buildings. It is a weak fit if you manage a handful of units and answer every call yourself, or if you want the assistant to judge applicants or settle disputes. It will not do either.
How to start
Ask for a free demo: 30-minute call; demo shared within 3 business days. Or call 617-991-9912 (our AI assistant answers and passes your request to the team).
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