A lead is anyone who gets in touch through your Instora pages. Every one lands on your Leads page and in your email, tagged with where it came from. You never have to copy details out of a form or a spreadsheet.
Where leads come from
| How they reach you | What you get | Shown as |
|---|---|---|
| The contact form on a listing page | Name, email, message | The listing's address |
| The contact form on your agent page | Name, email, message | "From your agent page" |
| Open house sign-in (the QR poster or a tablet at the door) | Name, email, phone, whether they have an agent, whether they're pre-approved, when they hope to buy, a note | "via Open house" |
| Get updates on a listing page (buyers not ready to talk yet) | Email (and name if given) | A Following badge |
| What's my home worth? on your agent page and listings | Their home's address, when they might sell, name, email, phone | A Seller badge |
Calls and texts from the Call and Text buttons go straight to your phone, so they aren't saved as leads, but each tap is counted in your stats. Showings booked through Calendly show up in Calendly and in your stats.
What happens the moment a lead arrives
Within seconds of a buyer pressing send:
- The lead is saved on your Leads page as New.
- You get an email with their details. Hit reply to answer them directly. (You can turn these off in Settings → Notifications; leads are still saved.)
- You get a browser alert, if you've turned alerts on for that computer or phone. See Follow-up and alerts.
- The buyer gets a confirmation email saying their message reached you, with a link back to the home. Their replies come to you, not to Instora.
- Automatic follow-ups are scheduled: a few short emails in your name over the next week, until you follow up yourself. See Automatic follow-ups.
Tip: reply fast. The agent who replies first usually wins the buyer, which is why the alerts and follow-ups exist.
Where they came from (sources and campaigns)
Every lead shows via Instagram, via QR code, via Facebook and so on. Instora knows because the links you share are tagged:
- The Copy link menu on a listing gives you a link for Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X or email. Leads from that link are credited to that channel.
- Your QR codes are tagged as QR code scans.
- Your agent page link can be tagged too, e.g. in your Instagram bio.
- The tag follows the buyer: if they land on your agent page from Instagram and then enquire on a listing, the lead still says Instagram.
Add a campaign label in the Copy link menu (for example "Spring flyer" or "Facebook ad") to tell two posts on the same channel apart. The lead then shows via Instagram · Spring flyer.
Leads with no tag came from a link shared without one, or someone typing the address. Learn more in Sharing and tracking.
Working a lead
Each lead has a status you move along as you go:
| Status | Use it when |
|---|---|
| New | It just arrived. Automatic follow-ups only run while a lead is New |
| Contacted | You've been in touch. Reply in Instora sets this for you |
| Showing set | You've booked a viewing |
| Client | They're working with you |
| Closed | The deal is done |
| Archived | Not worth pursuing. Hidden from your inbox; Restore brings it back as Contacted |
The tabs along the top filter by status, and Inbox shows everything except archived leads. Use the Listing filter to see one home's leads.
Notes
Click Add a note on any lead to keep private notes, such as their budget, what they're looking for, or when to call back. Only you see them, never the buyer, and they're included in your CSV export.
What you'll see on each lead
- Their name, email and phone, and when they got in touch
- Their message, or for sellers, their home's address and timeline
- Open house answers: whether they have an agent, are pre-approved and when they hope to buy
- Badges: Following, Seller, Pre-approved, the source and campaign
- Where they are in their automatic follow-ups ("Automatic follow-up 2 of 3 around Oct 22")
Seller leads
"What's my home worth?" turns homeowners into seller leads. They give their address and when they're thinking of selling, and you get a Seller lead with a "Wants a home value for…" line. They get a confirmation that you'll be in touch with a value, then three follow-ups from you over the week (what happens next, selling tips, and a check-in).
Seller leads belong to you, not to a listing, even when the form was on a listing page.
Exporting to a spreadsheet or CRM
Export CSV on the Leads page downloads the leads you're looking at (respecting the tab and listing filter) with every detail: type, name, email, phone, message, listing, seller's home and timeline, date, source, campaign, whether they have an agent, pre-approved, buying timeline, following, status and notes. Open it in Excel or Google Sheets, or import it into your CRM.
Who can see your leads
Only you. Leads belong to the agent whose listing or page they came from. On a team, owners and admins can see your shared listings, but never your leads.
Common questions
A buyer says they didn't get a confirmation. To stop abuse, one email address gets at most 3 confirmations a day. Their message still reached you. Also ask them to check spam.
I got the same buyer twice. Each message is saved, because a buyer writing again usually has a new question. Automatic follow-ups only run on the newest one.
Can I add a lead by hand? Not yet. Use notes on an existing lead, or keep outside contacts in your CRM.
Related: Follow-up and alerts · Every email Instora sends · Open houses