How do real estate leads get into a CRM? Five routes into PropSpace

Real estate leads usually reach a CRM in five ways: property portals, Meta lead ads, your own website, another system connected through an API, and manual entry. For a UAE brokerage that typically means Property Finder and the other portals, Facebook and Instagram, your brokerage website, tools like call tracking or WhatsApp platforms, and an agent typing in a number they took at a viewing.

A brokerage can use four of those routes without ever mapping which enquiry came through which. That matters, because each fails differently, and unless you have built an alert yourself, nothing tells you when one has stopped.

The five routes in

Portals. Enquiries from connected portals import automatically. The integration varies by portal: Property Finder connects directly through its API, and sends three different kinds of enquiry, WhatsApp, call and email. When you are chasing a missing lead, establish which type it was first.

Set a Default Agent when you connect. That is the fallback for an enquiry PropSpace cannot match to an agent, usually because the agent details on the portal do not match a user in your account. It gives unmatched enquiries somewhere safe to land.

There is also the departed agent problem. A lead referencing a listing whose agent has left still routes to that agent. A manager can move it to the Lead Pool, where anyone can claim it, but somebody has to notice first.

Meta. Facebook and Instagram lead forms, straight in. Name, mobile, email and message map automatically. Anything else on your form you map yourself, and unmapped answers are written to the lead notes rather than discarded.

The good part arrived during 2026. PropSpace now records the campaign, ad set and individual ad behind each lead, with the ad name in the notes, and you can route on any of it. Marina off-plan enquiries go to the Marina off-plan team instead of everything landing in one undifferentiated Facebook pile.

Two things to expect. The first sync pulls your existing form leads, not just new ones, and can take a few hours, so an empty screen ten minutes after connecting is normal. And this integration captures Meta lead-form submissions. It does not turn PropSpace into a shared Facebook or Instagram messaging inbox.

Your website. Two directions, two jobs. The Website API lets your site read live listing, agent and location data, so you are not maintaining listings twice. Your enquiry forms post into the Leads API and arrive as proper leads.

Other systems. This is the one people forget. If a system can send a web request, it can create a lead in PropSpace: Google Ads lead forms, TikTok, landing pages, chatbots, call tracking, WhatsApp platforms, exhibition badge scanners, referral partners, your own internal tools.

You do not need us to build the integration first. A Super Manager generates a key in Developer Settings and you are away. Two things are enough to create a lead: the type, and the contact. If nobody on your team writes code, Zapier is available on request and covers most of it.

It runs outward too. PropSpace can notify a system you control the moment a lead is added, edited, deleted or reassigned, so your dialler or your reporting knows immediately rather than on tomorrow's export. The detail is in our guide to the PropSpace APIs.

Manual. Still real, still the leakiest. A number taken at a viewing lives in an agent's phone for three days. That lead does not exist in your business until it is typed in, and if the agent leaves, it leaves with them.

Who gets the lead

Assignment runs in order. A lead naming an agent goes to that agent. A lead naming no agent but referencing a listing goes to that listing's agent. Otherwise, with rotation enabled, it goes to the next eligible agent in the queue. That holds however the lead arrived, including through the API, so an integration does not have to decide who should work each lead.

Lead Rotation builds the queue and decides who is eligible, filtered by specialisation, lead type, location and price range. On the leads screen it tells you who is next and you select them.

Auto Lead Rotation removes that manual step and assigns automatically, whether the lead was created in the CRM or imported.

Worth deciding deliberately. With Auto Lead Rotation on, an enquiry about one of your listings may go to the next agent in the queue rather than to the agent who owns that listing. For some brokerages that is the point. For others it starts arguments. Better to choose than to discover it when an agent asks why somebody else got their lead.

When nobody works it

Lead Escalation Settings is the safety net most people never switch on. Set a number of days, and if a lead goes that long without an update, PropSpace emails your managers. It covers tenant, buyer, landlord, seller and landlord-plus-seller leads.

It notifies. It does not reassign, and it does not move anything.

The Lead Pool is where stalled leads go to be claimed. An agent takes one with Assign to Me. You can hold contact details back until they claim, which stops the pool being browsed for phone numbers, and cap how many any one agent takes per day.

Two things worth knowing. Leads are put into the pool by someone with permission to do it, which can include managers, admins and agents depending on how you have set it up. And once a lead is in there, nothing happens to it until somebody claims it.

So the pool is a place for leads to be picked up, not a process that picks them up. Pair it with escalation, or with your own review routine, or leads just die somewhere quieter. There is more on recovering stalled enquiries in our guide to lead repooling and distribution.

The two that quietly break

Everything above works. These two are where the data gets messy, and neither announces itself.

The same person enquires twice

Someone sees your listing on a portal and enquires. A week later they find your website and fill in the form. Two routes, same person, two records.

PropSpace does not silently merge them, and there is a decent argument for that. Two enquiries a week apart might be one buyer returning, or a couple using different numbers. Merging automatically and getting it wrong is worse than leaving both.

So merge them when you spot them. Select both in the leads table, Merge Leads, choose which survives. The history comes with it.

The habit that prevents it costs five minutes: whoever reviews the pipeline weekly scans for repeated names and numbers. It stops two agents working the same buyer without knowing.

Your source list turns to mush

Quieter and more expensive.

If an integration sends a lead source that does not exist in your account, PropSpace adds it rather than rejecting the lead. Helpful, until three integrations each invent their own spelling and you have "Facebook", "facebook" and "FB Ads" as separate sources.

The rule to give whoever builds your integrations: the source is where the lead came from, not what processed it. If a chatbot captured a website enquiry, the source is your website. The tool goes in the notes.

Why it matters is one screen. Analytics, Lead Report, By Source is how you decide where next month's marketing budget goes, and it is only ever as good as the names feeding it.

Worth knowing

PropSpace MLS is not a lead source exactly, but it solves the same problem from the other end. It is an internal listing exchange between PropSpace agencies, included at no extra cost, so when you have a warm buyer and nothing suitable on your books you can search other agencies' stock and contact the listing agent directly. Unit numbers and owner details stay hidden throughout.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best way to capture real estate leads in a CRM?

Automatically, directly from the original source wherever possible, with a consistent source value and a fallback rule for leads that cannot be assigned. Manual re-entry and email forwarding both lose leads, and neither tells you when they have.

How do portal leads get into PropSpace?

They import automatically from connected portals. Property Finder connects directly through its API using credentials from PF Expert, with a Default Agent as the fallback for enquiries that cannot be matched.

Why are my Property Finder leads not showing?

In order: establish whether it was a WhatsApp, call or email enquiry, check the connection is live, then check whether the lead appears in PF Expert at all. If it is not there either, the problem is upstream of your CRM.

Can PropSpace capture Facebook and Instagram leads?

Yes, natively. Standard fields map automatically, custom form fields can be mapped, and anything unmapped is saved to the lead notes.

Can I route Meta leads by campaign?

Yes. PropSpace records the campaign, ad set and individual ad, and any of those can drive routing rules.

Can I send leads from my own website into PropSpace?

Yes, through the Leads API. Zapier is available on request if you would rather not write code.

What if my lead source is not supported?

If it can send a web request, it can create a lead. Only the lead type and the contact are required.

Do leads created through the API get rotated?

Yes. A lead arriving without agent details goes into rotation like any other.

Does PropSpace merge duplicate leads automatically?

No, deliberately. You merge them manually so you keep control of what gets combined.

What happens to leads nobody follows up?

Lead Escalation emails your managers after a set number of days without an update. Separately, leads can be moved to the Lead Pool for another agent to claim.

Current as at September 2026.