How much commission could you be leaving behind?
Two levers, both under your control: how fast leads hear back and how often past clients hear from you. Numbers update as you type, the assumptions are yours to change, and you get a 30-day plan for whichever lever is bigger.
We have filled in a sample agent so you can see how it works. Replace each number with yours.
Buy and sell sides combined, from every source.
Your typical take-home commission per side, after splits and fees.
Portals, your website, sign calls, open houses: people who inquired and were new to you. Leave out past clients and their referrals; they go under past clients below.
Deals that came from those new leads, divided by the leads, over a year. Do not count deals from past clients or referrals here; that would overstate it.
People you have closed with whom you can still contact.
Assumptions you can change
These are planning assumptions, not measured facts. They are starting guesses — replace them with your own numbers and the result updates.
A relative lift: 20 means a 3% rate becomes 3.6%. The reply-speed profile above sets a starting guess; test your own.
Repeat business plus referrals, as a share of your database.
A goal to test, not a benchmark.
Plans rarely deliver in full. Lower this to be conservative.
Realistic extra commission per year
$16,830
That is about 2 more deals, or 11% on top of your current $153,000
If everything worked in full: $33,660. The headline uses 50% of that, per your assumption.
$18,360
From replying to leads faster
2.2 extra deals a year at full effect
$15,300
From nurturing past clients
1.8 extra deals a year at full effect
Do your numbers add up?
Your inputs account for about 13.8 of the 18 deals you closed: 10.8 from new leads (360 leads at 3%) and 3 from past clients (60 people at 5%).
The remaining 4.2 would come from other sources, such as your own sphere or referrals from other agents. They are not part of either lever here.
Your Monday-morning kit
Two things to use this week, written from your numbers. The plan starts with reply speed, the bigger lever on your inputs.
Optional. It only fills in the text below, stays in this browser tab, and is never added to the link you share.
First reply to a new lead
Save it as a snippet so you can send it in under a minute. Only text people who have asked to be contacted, and keep the opt-out line. Fill in the [brackets].
TEXT Hi [first name], it is [Your name] with [brokerage]. Thanks for reaching out about [property or area]. Do you have a few minutes for a quick call today or tomorrow? If texting is easier, tell me what you are looking for. Reply STOP to opt out. EMAIL Subject: Your question about [property or area] Hi [first name], Thanks for reaching out. I am [Your name] with [brokerage]. [One sentence that answers the question they actually asked.] What is the best time for a quick call today or tomorrow? [Your name] [phone]
Your 30-day plan
Ordered by the bigger lever on your numbers. Paste it into your notes or calendar.
30-DAY LEAD-SPEED AND PAST-CLIENT PLAN: [Your name] On your numbers the bigger lever is replying to new leads faster: about $18,360 a year if it worked in full, against $15,300 for the other. Treat both as what-ifs, not forecasts. Week 1: reply speed - Time yourself. Send a test inquiry through your own website form or portal profile from another phone, and note how long you take to reply. Try a weekday evening and a Saturday. - Save your first-reply text and email as snippets in your phone and your CRM. - Decide and write down who replies when you are with a client: you, a partner, an assistant or an automatic first reply. - Aim for a first reply within minutes during the hours you work. At about 6.9 new leads a week, that is roughly 7 first replies a week. Week 2: past clients - Clean your list: remove duplicates and dead numbers, and add each client's closing date. - Pick a rhythm: one personal text or call to every past client each quarter. With 60 people, that is about 5 a week. - Send the first batch this week and note who replies. - Once a month, send everyone a short market update for their area. Week 3: run both - Reply to every new lead with the saved first reply, and keep the weekly past-client batch going. - Repeat your reply-time test from another phone and compare it with week 1. Week 4: review - Count new leads you replied to within 5 minutes, and how many of them answered. - Count past clients who replied, and any who mentioned buying, selling or someone they know. - Put your real numbers back into the calculator and replace the assumptions you guessed.
How to read this: it is a what-if, not a measurement of money you are losing today. The two biggest unknowns are how much faster replies lift your conversion and how far nurture lifts your referral rate, so test them on a small group before counting on them. Reviews also help inbound leads, but that link is too uncertain to put a dollar figure on here.
Want the past-client lever in more depth? Open the Client Retention Calculator with these numbers
Biggest lever for you: reply speed
Start by measuring your real time-to-first-contact, then automate the first reply. We are happy to walk through how, on a free call.
Save or share this result
The link holds only the numbers you entered, nothing about you.
Optional: have our team review these numbers with you
How this is calculated
Two separate what-ifs, added together: the extra deals you would close if new leads converted a little better because you replied faster, and the extra deals you would get if more past clients sent you business because you stayed in touch. Both are priced at your average commission, and the headline then keeps only the share you tell it you could realistically capture.
- Leads a year. new inbound leads a month, times 12.
- Lifted conversion. your conversion rate on those leads, times one plus the lift you assume from replying instantly, never above 100%.
- Extra deals from speed. leads a year, times the difference between the lifted conversion and your conversion.
- Extra deals from nurture. past clients, times the gap between the share who would send a deal with regular nurture and the share who do today (never below zero).
- Value. each extra deal is worth your average commission. Speed and nurture are valued separately so you can compare the two levers.
- Realistic figure. the two added together (the full upside), times the share of it you assume you capture.
- Cross-check. leads a year times conversion, plus past clients times today's referral rate, is compared with last year's closings so you can see whether your inputs are consistent.
Worked example: the sample agent
The starting numbers on this page produce the figures below, so you can check the arithmetic by hand before entering your own.
| 30 new leads a month × 12 | 360 leads a year |
|---|---|
| 3% conversion, lifted 20% to 3.6% | 2.16 extra deals |
| × $8,500 commission | $18,360 from speed |
| 60 past clients × (8% − 5%) | 1.8 extra deals |
| × $8,500 commission | $15,300 from nurture |
| Both levers, if everything worked in full | $33,660 a year |
| × 50% you capture | $16,830 a year |
How much the guesses matter
The lift, the referral rates and your capture share are all guesses. This table moves each one and shows the realistic yearly figure at both ends, using your current numbers.
| If this is different | Lower | Your number | Higher |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lift from replying instantly | 10%$12,240 | 20%$16,830 | 30%$21,420 |
| Share of new leads that close | 2%$13,770 | 3%$16,830 | 4%$19,890 |
| Past clients who send a deal, with nurture | 6%$11,730 | 8%$16,830 | 10%$21,930 |
| Past clients who send a deal, today | 3%$21,930 | 5%$16,830 | 7%$11,730 |
| Share of the upside you capture | 30%$10,098 | 50%$16,830 | 70%$23,562 |
Each row changes one input and holds the rest. The result in every cell is the realistic extra commission a year.
Where the numbers come from
The numbers you type (closings, commission, leads, conversion, database size) are yours. Everything marked as an assumption is our starting guess: the reply-speed profiles set the lift to 0%, 10%, 20%, 35% in that order, and the referral rates start at 5% today and 8% with nurture. None of them is a measurement. They are ordered so that someone who already replies within minutes has little to gain, but the sizes are not from a study.
Two published sources are shown beside your result for context only. No figure from either feeds the calculation. NAR's 2026 Member Profile reports where the typical member's business came from in 2025, and the Harvard Business Review article on online sales leads (abstract on BYU ScholarsArchive) reports that most companies reply to web inquiries too slowly. Its figures about how much faster replies change outcomes come from a paywalled article we could not open, so we do not quote them.
| You usually reply | Starting lift from replying instantly |
|---|---|
| Within about 5 minutes | 0% |
| Within an hour | 10% |
| A few hours | 20% |
| Next day or later | 35% |
Questions people ask
What should I enter for 'share of new leads that close'?
Count only the deals that came from new inbound leads, and divide by the number of those leads over the same year. If you closed 18 deals and 5 came from past clients, count 13 deals as the numerator, not 18. Dividing all your closings by your leads counts referral and repeat deals as lead conversions and overstates the speed lever.
Why don't the totals have to match my closings?
They need not match exactly, because some deals come from sources that neither lever covers, such as your own sphere or other agents' referrals. The "Do your numbers add up?" panel shows how much of last year your inputs explain, and warns you when they explain more than you closed.
Does replying faster really raise closings?
The published research we found measures how quickly companies answer web inquiries and concludes most are too slow. It does not give a closing-rate lift for real estate, so the lift here is your own assumption. The best evidence is your own: time your first reply for a month, split your leads into fast and slow replies, and compare how many answered.
What does NAR say about past clients?
In NAR's 2026 Member Profile, the typical member got 28% of their business in 2025 from repeat clients and another 22% from referrals by past clients, about half in total. It describes the share of business, not the share of a database, and nothing about how those clients were kept in touch with, so we show it for context and do not use it to set a default.
Why is the headline smaller than the two levers added up?
Because plans rarely deliver in full. The headline applies the share you assume you would realistically capture. Set it to 100 to see the full upside, or lower it to be more conservative.
Is this a forecast of my income?
No. It is a what-if built from your numbers and guesses. It ignores market conditions, your capacity to serve more clients and how long habits take to change. Use it to decide which lever to test first, and replace the guesses with your own results.
Methodology last reviewed 3 October 2026 · OMII AI
See how this applies to your industry
Want a second pair of eyes on your numbers?
Book a free call, or ring Emma, our AI receptionist, to hear how instant replies sound.