Before it takes a single call, it needs what a good leasing agent carries in their head: per-unit pet, parking and smoking policy; availability dates and rent; the objective screening criteria you actually apply; your application fee and its steps; and a rule for questions outside the script. Whatever is missing, it has to handle some other way: a transfer, a callback or a guess.
What Per-Unit Listing Details Does It Need?
The fields callers ask about are already standardized by the real-estate data industry. Version 2.0 of the Real Estate Standards Organization's Data Dictionary (the current version for RESO certification, with 1.7 now marked Legacy) defines PetsAllowed as "Indicates whether or not pets are allowed at the property being leased, usually as a list of yes, no and more detailed restrictions/allowances.", AvailabilityDate as "The date the property will be available for possession/occupation." and ParkingFeatures as "A list of features about or a description of the parking included in the sale/lease." Those are per-listing fields, which is where a phone script goes wrong: a building where two units take cats and the rest don't can't be answered at the building level.
It's also a standing job rather than a setup task. The Census Bureau put the US rental vacancy rate at 7.3% in the second quarter of 2026, a point-in-time share rather than a turnover rate (Housing Vacancy Survey, CB26-116). On a 300-door book that's about 22 units whose availability, rent and policy fields must be right at any moment (a different 22 a quarter later).
What Screening Criteria Should It Be Able to State?
Only objective, manager-set criteria, applied the same way to every caller: income relative to rent, move-in date, occupancy limits, pet and smoking policy. Write them out before day one in the words you want repeated, because a script is a statement made hundreds of times. 42 U.S.C. § 3604(c) makes it unlawful to make, print or publish any "notice, statement, or advertisement" about the rental of a dwelling "that indicates any preference, limitation, or discrimination" based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin. The wording is in scope, not only the decision at the end, which makes that criteria text a configuration artifact worth a lawyer's read before go-live. General information, not legal advice.
What Application and Fee Details Does It Need?
Three application questions need an answer ready: what the fee is, what happens after they apply, and how long it takes. Give it a real number, the steps in order, and an honest window for each. The fee is no trivia to the person asking: Zillow's 2024 Consumer Housing Trends Report found 84% of renters paid an application fee, and among those who did, the median sum of all their fees was $80 (the report scopes findings about applying to recent renters, people who moved in the past year). Check what your state or province lets you charge before that number goes into a script, because the agent repeats it verbatim; our rundown of application-fee rules covers the limits.
What Happens When a Caller Asks Something Outside the Script?
Decide it before go-live, and treat it as a question for any vendor rather than a setting you assume is there. Sort calls into three buckets: answered on the spot (policy questions), promised a follow-up (unusual requests), and needing a person right now. Then ask what each system does with all three, and what its default is. LetHub answers rental inquiries by text, chat and phone in about 30 seconds, its AI voice agent takes the calls, and it syncs with AppFolio, Buildium, RentVine, DoorLoop, TenantCloud and Propertyware for listing data.
What Should Be Ready Before Go-Live?
- Pet, parking and smoking policy: current, per unit, not per property
- Availability date and asking rent for every open unit
- Objective screening criteria, written out verbatim
- Application fee amount and the steps that follow it
- Which situations get a call handed to a person
Pull those five together before you evaluate anything. Then hear one. The AI voice agent answers on 404-383-6213, and a demo covers the rest.
Frequently Asked Questions
What information does an AI voice agent need before it can take calls?
Five things: current per-unit pet, parking and smoking policy; availability dates and rent; the objective screening criteria you apply to every applicant; the application fee and its steps; and a rule for questions outside the script. Missing any one means the agent guesses on that topic.
Can an AI voice agent quote screening criteria to callers?
Yes: objective, manager-set criteria applied identically to everyone, in wording you approved first. The Fair Housing Act reaches statements, not only decisions: § 3604(c) bars any statement about a rental that indicates a preference based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin. The script text is a compliance artifact.
Does an AI voice agent need pet and parking policy for every unit?
Yes. Pet allowance and parking are standard per-listing fields in version 2.0 of the RESO Data Dictionary, the real-estate industry's current published field standard, which is a per-listing value, so a building-level answer can be wrong for the unit being asked about. A policy that varies by unit has to be entered per unit, not assumed at the property level.
What happens if a caller asks something outside the script?
Decide that before launch instead of inheriting a default: which questions get answered immediately, which get a follow-up promise, and which need a person on the line. Then ask any system you evaluate what it does with each of those three.
