The short version
- Getting seller enquiries from Facebook and Instagram is the easy part. Most agents who try it do get them.
- What decides the result is how fast you phone. In one test, 47% of online property enquiries never got a reply at all.
- The system has five steps: the ad, four qualifying questions, a callback inside a minute, two confirmations, and 90 days of follow-up.
- One formula tells you whether it is working: cost per lead, divided by the share who book and the share who show up.
- It suits agents who keep about R1.5 million a year or more. Below that, cheaper methods give you more for your money.
Two numbers explain why this matters to South African agents right now. In Lightstone’s survey of agents at the end of 2025, nearly two in three said that access to seller leads was their top priority, and only about one in four had hit their sales target for the year1.
Agents need sellers, most are behind target, and nearly half of the enquiries that do arrive go unanswered. The gap between the first number and the last one is where this system works.
Why agents say Facebook leads don’t work
A homeowner who fills in a form about selling has rarely asked just one agent. They are curious, they are scrolling in the evening, and they will speak to whoever phones first. By the next morning they have moved on or spoken to someone else.
In August 2024 the property analyst Mike DelPrete had mystery shoppers send more than 100 online enquiries to over 25 US estate agencies. About 47% were never answered. When a reply did come, the typical wait was 39 minutes, and the average was more than eight hours2. An older study of 384 agencies found almost the same thing: 48% of enquiries unanswered3.
What happened to 100 online property enquiries
Mystery-shopping test of 25+ US estate agencies, 20242
So when an agent says “Facebook leads are rubbish”, what usually happened is this: the advert ran, twenty people enquired, the agent was showing houses, and the calls went out the next afternoon. Three people answered. None remembered filling in the form.
The system at a glance
Five steps, in order. Each one exists because of a specific way the lead gets lost without it.
Step 1: the ad
The advert makes one offer: a free comparative market assessment of the owner’s home, from you personally. Not from “our team”, and not a generic “thinking of selling?” banner.
What goes in it
- A short video, 30 to 45 seconds, filmed on a phone outside a home in the area. It opens with a local fact: “Eleven homes sold in Faerie Glen in the last three months, and the gap between the cheapest and the dearest was R1.4 million.”
- Your face and your name. Sellers choose a person. The video is also what makes the phone call feel familiar thirty seconds later.
- One group of neighbouring suburbs. About 30,000 to 50,000 adults is enough for the adverts to settle. Smaller suburbs run together with their neighbours.
- The wording the law requires: “Registered with the PPRA”, your name and your firm7.
What a lead costs
Nobody has published South African figures for what a seller enquiry costs on Facebook, and we will not quote ours until our own campaigns have run long enough to report honestly. The cost also moves with the suburb, the season and the quality of the video. What matters more than the cost of an enquiry is what you do with it, which is the next three steps.
Step 2: qualify before anyone books
If anyone who taps the advert can book a slot, your diary fills with tenants, students and people who wanted to know what the neighbours paid. Four questions on the form fix that.
| Question | Why it is asked | What happens with the answer |
|---|---|---|
| Do you own the property? | Tenants and relatives cannot sign a mandate. | Non-owners get a polite thank-you and no booking. |
| Where is it? | You only want homes in your area. | Addresses outside it are passed on or declined. |
| When are you thinking of selling? | It sets how you follow up. | “Within 3 months” is called first. “Just curious” goes into follow-up. |
| Is it already under a sole mandate? | It avoids a clash with another agent’s mandate, and a possible double commission for the seller. | If yes, no booking until it has ended. |
Fewer people complete a form with questions on it. That is the idea. Twenty owners who answered four questions are worth more than sixty people who tapped a button.
Step 3: the 60-second callback
The moment the form is submitted, two things happen. A WhatsApp goes out in your name: “Hi Thandi, it’s Monique Botha. You asked about a market assessment for your home in Faerie Glen. I’m calling you now from this number.” Then the phone rings.
If there is no answer, the call is tried again after ten minutes and once more that evening, followed by a message offering two times to choose from.
Here is what that is worth. The cost of one appointment that actually takes place is the cost of a lead, divided by the share of leads that book and the share of bookings that happen:
cost per lead ÷ (booking rate × show rate) = cost per appointment held
| Part of the sum | What it measures | What moves it |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per lead | Advertising spend divided by enquiries. | The video, the offer and the suburbs you chose. |
| Booking rate | Of every ten enquiries, how many agree to an appointment. | How fast you phone, more than anything else. |
| Show rate | Of every ten bookings, how many take place. | Whether you confirm in writing and remind the owner. |
The sum is unforgiving because the two rates multiply. If you halve the share of enquiries that book, every appointment costs twice as much, with the same adverts and the same budget. That is how two agents in neighbouring suburbs can spend the same amount and reach opposite conclusions about Facebook.
| Phoned inside a minute | Phoned the next day | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the owner is | Still on their phone, still thinking about it. | At work. Often does not recognise the number. |
| What they remember | Your face from the video, seconds ago. | Sometimes not even filling in the form. |
| Who else has called | Nobody yet. | Possibly another agent, or nobody ever does. |
| Likely outcome | A conversation, and often a booking. | Voicemail. |
Step 4: confirm twice
A booking is not an appointment until the owner opens the door. Three messages turn most bookings into meetings:
- At booking: “Confirmed: Thursday 14 May, 17:00, at 12 Selati Street. I’ll bring this year’s sales for your street. It takes about 45 minutes.”
- The day before: “Looking forward to tomorrow at 5.” Sent with a short pack: recent sales nearby and how you market a home.
- On the morning: “On my way, see you at 5.”
Step 5: follow up for 90 days
Many owners who enquire are months away from selling. They are waiting for a school year to end, a bond to be approved or a divorce to be finalised. If you only speak to people who are ready this week, you pay for all of those leads and use a fraction of them.
Each owner who is not ready is asked one question: “May I send you the sales in your street once a month until you are?” With that permission they get one useful message a month, and a call in the month they named.
This is also the step that separates a campaign from a pipeline. The listings in month four and five mostly come from people who enquired in month one.
The maths in rand
We are not going to give you a forecast of leads, appointments and listings, because we do not have South African results to base one on yet. What we can give you is the other half of the sum, which is certain: what a listing is worth to you, and the five numbers to track so that you know your own cost within a few weeks.
Start with what a listing is worth. Real commission in South Africa sits closer to 5% than the 7.5% headline4, and you keep a share of it that depends on your brand.
| Sale price | You keep 50% | You keep 70% | You keep 82% |
|---|---|---|---|
| R1.5m | R37,500 | R52,500 | R61,500 |
| R2.5m | R62,500 | R87,500 | R102,500 |
| R4m | R100,000 | R140,000 | R164,000 |
What you keep from one sale
At 5% commission and a 70% share, before VAT and income tax4
The five numbers to track
Write these down every week from the first day. After a month you will know your own cost per appointment, and after three you will know your cost per listing.
- Advertising spend.
- Seller enquiries that passed the four questions.
- Appointments booked.
- Appointments held.
- Listings signed.
Not every listing sells, so the last step is yours to add: of the listings you sign, how many transfer. Your own history tells you that better than any benchmark.
Who this suits, and who it doesn’t
Running seller ads properly costs R25,000 to R30,000 a month once you count both the advertising and the work. That is R300,000 to R360,000 a year. For it to stay under a fifth of your income, you need to be keeping about R1.5 million a year after your agency’s share5.
Below that line the same money goes further on methods that cost time instead: farming one suburb with street-sales letters, show days that invite the neighbours, a Google profile with steady reviews, and calling the people who already know you.
Not sure where you sit? The Listing Playbook works it out in under 30 seconds.
The rules you have to follow
- “Registered with the PPRA” must appear on all your marketing material, which includes adverts and forms7.
- Say “market assessment”, not “valuation”. Only a registered valuer provides a valuation, and the regulator has warned agents about this8.
- The form needs a privacy notice that names you as the person receiving the details, and a separate tick box if you want to keep marketing to that owner afterwards9.
- Leads who filled in your form asked to be contacted, so phoning them is not cold calling. Phoning strangers from a bought list is a different matter9.
- Pay a flat fee for marketing help, never a share of commission. Sharing commission with someone who holds no Fidelity Fund Certificate creates a problem for both of you.
This is a summary, not legal advice. Check anything you are unsure of with your principal.
Why it only works for one agent per suburb
Two agents running the same offer to the same streets bid against each other for the same owners. Both pay more per lead, and the owner who enquires hears from two agents in the same minute, which removes the advantage the system exists to create.
That is why Sentalon takes one agent per group of suburbs and turns the next one away. It is also why, if you run this yourself, you should check who else is already advertising for sellers in your area before you spend.
Want this run for you?
Sentalon films the adverts, runs them in your area, calls every lead back inside sixty seconds and books the market assessments into your diary.
Get more listings →Questions agents ask
Do Facebook ads work for estate agents in South Africa?
They produce seller enquiries. Whether those become listings depends almost entirely on what happens in the first few minutes after the enquiry. Agents who phone back at once and confirm the appointment twice get meetings. Agents who phone the next day mostly get voicemail.
How much should an estate agent spend on Facebook ads?
Enough to reach your suburbs steadily for at least three months, because a mandate won in month two only pays out months later. Sentalon works with advertising budgets from about R10,000 a month. A few thousand rand is useful for testing whether your offer gets any response in your own farm area, but it will not tell you your cost per listing.
What does a seller lead cost on Facebook in South Africa?
No South African figures have been published, and we will not quote ours until our own campaigns have run long enough to report them honestly. The cost varies with the suburb, the season and the advert. The number that matters more is your cost per appointment that actually takes place, which you can work out yourself with the formula in this article.
Is it legal for estate agents to advertise for sellers on Facebook?
Yes. The advert and the form must carry the words “Registered with the PPRA” with your name and firm, the form needs a privacy notice that names you, and you need a separate opt-in if you want to keep marketing to that person. Offer a market assessment, not a valuation.
How long before the ads produce a listing?
Enquiries can start within days of the adverts going live, but the money follows slowly. Homes take about 11 weeks to sell nationally and around 14 in Gauteng, and transfer adds a few months, so a mandate signed in month two can pay out in month seven. A four-week test tells you very little.
Can I run the ads myself?
Yes, and this article gives you the whole method. Expect four to six hours a week on the adverts, plus being available to phone every lead back within minutes during the day and in the evening. Most agents who stop do so because of the callbacks, not the adverts.
Sources
- Lightstone, end-2025 estate agent survey, published 26 January 2026.
- Mike DelPrete, “Secret shopping: 47% of online property inquiries are ignored”, August 2024. United States; more than 100 enquiries to over 25 brokerages.
- WAV Group and Weichert, Agent Responsiveness Study, January 2014. United States; 384 brokers in 11 states.
- Jan le Roux, Rebosa, quoted in the Mail & Guardian, 24 November 2017: actual commissions are “closer to 4% to 6%”. The table is our arithmetic at 5% before VAT and income tax.
- Sentalon arithmetic: R25,000 to R30,000 a month is R300,000 to R360,000 a year; divided by 20% gives R1.5m.
- FNB Property Barometer, 2025: average time on the market about 11 weeks nationally and 13.6 to 14.1 weeks in Gauteng.
- Property Practitioners Regulations 2022, regulation 37.
- PPRA communique on valuations, September 2023, as reported by PayProp and CCH.
- Protection of Personal Information Act 2013, sections 18 and 69, and the Information Regulator’s guidance note on direct marketing, December 2024.