The short version
- Track six numbers each week: conversations, appointments, agreements signed, deals under contract, closings and commission.
- The rate between each pair tells you where deals leak. Each one is the later number divided by the earlier one.
- Compare each rate with your own last quarter. This guide gives no benchmark rates, because we found none from a primary source we'd stand behind.
- Work next quarter's closings back to this week's conversations with the same rates.
- Write the six numbers down every Friday. It takes five minutes.
The six numbers to track each week
KPI lists for real estate often run to 20 or 30 numbers, most of them for investors and property managers. An agent needs six, in the order a deal moves:
| Number | What counts |
|---|---|
| Conversations | A real conversation with a possible buyer or seller about moving, not a dial or a voicemail |
| Appointments | Listing appointments and buyer meetings that took place |
| Agreements signed | Listing agreements and buyer agreements signed |
| Under contract | Deals where an offer was accepted |
| Closings | Deals that closed |
| Commission | The commission from those closings, after your brokerage split |
Decide what counts once, write it down, and don't change it mid-quarter. A rate is only useful if you count it the same way each week.
How to work out each one
Each rate is the later number over the earlier one:
- Appointment rate = appointments / conversations
- Signing rate = agreements signed / appointments
- Contract rate = deals under contract / agreements signed
- Closing rate = closings / deals under contract
- Commission per closing = commission / closings
The one that ties them together is conversations per closing: conversations / closings. It's the number that turns a closings goal into your week.
A quarter of numbers, worked out
A made-up quarter for Priya, a real estate agent, over 12 working weeks:
| Number | This quarter | Rate from the step before |
|---|---|---|
| Conversations | 360 | 30 a week |
| Appointments | 24 | 1 in 15 conversations |
| Agreements signed | 12 | 1 in 2 appointments |
| Under contract | 8 | 2 in 3 agreements |
| Closings | 6 | 3 in 4 deals under contract |
| Commission | $48,000 | $8,000 a closing |
In this example, 360 conversations made 6 closings, so each closing took 60 conversations.
Work next quarter's goal back to this week's conversations
Say Priya wants 8 closings next quarter, with the same rates. Work back one step at a time:
- 8 closings at 60 conversations each is 480 conversations.
- 480 conversations over 12 weeks is 40 a week, up from 30.
- 8 closings at 4 appointments each (24 appointments made 6 closings) is 32 appointments, about 3 a week.
So the goal becomes 40 conversations and about 3 appointments a week. That's a number she can check on Wednesday. The real estate business plan does the same sum for a year, and the real estate commission calculator shows what one sale pays you after the split.
Find the step where deals leak
When closings drop, look at which rate dropped against your own last quarter. Each one points at a different fix:
- Appointment rate down: the list or the opener. Check who you're calling and what you say in the first ten seconds.
- Signing rate down: the appointment itself. Check your listing presentation and how you talk about price.
- Contract rate down: listings priced too high, or buyers who weren't ready. Check the price talk and the buyer meeting.
- Closing rate down: deals falling through. Look at what happened on each one.
- Conversations down: nothing else is wrong. You prospected less. The real estate prospecting guide has a weekly plan.
Fix the step that dropped most first, and leave the rest alone for a month.
Track the numbers in five minutes on Friday
- Keep one row a week with the six numbers, in a notebook or a sheet.
- Count conversations and appointments as they happen, so Friday is adding up, not remembering.
- Every four weeks, work out the five rates and put them next to last quarter's.
The sales KPIs guide covers the same idea for any seller, with the other numbers a sales team tracks.
Why this guide has no benchmark rates
Conversion rates depend on your market, your price range and where your conversations come from. A rate from someone else's market tells you little about yours, and we found no primary source for one we'd stand behind. Your own last quarter is the comparison that tells you something.
See this week's numbers without a spreadsheet
This guide is free. ActivityTracker, the app we make, is paid. It doesn't find you leads or list your properties. It counts the week and works out the rates.
- Set a weekly target, and every viewing and listing call you log adds to it
- Your own conversion rate at every step, worked out from what you already log
- The step with the lowest rate named, with one line on what usually fixes it
- Put the year's number in as a goal, and see what each month still needs
See how property agents use it.