Enquiries and Messaging System
How to receive, view, and respond to buyer and tenant enquiries on Domovita.
How Enquiries Work
For Estate Agents
When someone is interested in one of your properties:
- They see your agent name on the listing, but your email and phone are hidden
- They fill in an enquiry form with their name, email, phone (optional), and message
- They must tick a GDPR consent checkbox before submitting
- On submission, your contact details are revealed to that buyer
- You receive an email notification with the buyer details and their message
Your Contact Details
As a verified estate agent:
- Your name is always visible on your listings
- Your phone number and email are revealed to buyers only after they submit an enquiry form
- This gated approach captures buyer details (name, email, phone, message) for every enquiry
- All enquiries are logged in the system for record-keeping
Accessing Your Messages
- Click the envelope icon in top navigation
- Or click your avatar → "Messages"
- Or navigate to:
/messages
Message Inbox
Inbox Layout
- Left Panel: List of conversation threads
- Right Panel: Selected conversation messages
- Thread Info: Property thumbnail, buyer name, timestamp
Thread List Features
- Unread Badge: Bold text + blue dot for new messages
- Property Preview: Small thumbnail of property being enquired about
- Last Message: Preview of most recent message
- Timestamp: When last message was sent
Reading Messages
- Click a conversation thread in the list
- Conversation opens with chat-bubble style messages
- Messages are colour-coded:
- Grey bubbles: Messages from buyer
- Blue bubbles: Your replies
- Property details card shown at top (image, price, address)
- Quick link to view full property listing
Replying to Enquiries
- Type your message in the text box at bottom
- Click "Send" or press Enter
- Message appears instantly in the thread
- Buyer receives email notification automatically
- Conversation stays organised in the same thread
Message Features
- Link detection: URLs become clickable links
- Character limit: 2000 characters per message
Email Notifications
What Triggers Emails
- New enquiry received
- Reply to your message
- Follow-up from buyer
Email Content Includes
- Sender name
- Property details (title, price, image)
- Full message text
- Link to reply directly on Domovita
- Appears on messages envelope icon in navigation
- Shows number of unread conversations
- Updates in real-time (no page refresh needed)
- Clears when you open and read messages
- Messages auto-mark as read when you open thread
- Click flag icon to manually mark as unread (for follow-up)
- Click "Delete" button
- Confirm deletion
- Thread removed from your inbox
- Buyer's copy unaffected (they still see their messages)
- Note: Cannot delete individual messages, only entire threads
- Honeypot: Hidden field catches bots
- Speed Trap: Forms submitted too quickly are flagged
- Duplicate Detection: Same message within 5 minutes blocked
- Rate Limiting: Max 10 messages per hour per user
- Lead scores. Each enquiry gets a score out of 100 and a badge: Hot Lead (70+), Warm Lead (40-69) or Cold Lead (0-39). You can filter the list to just hot, warm or cold leads.
- Status workflow. Move each enquiry through New → Read → Replied → Converted → Closed with one click. Keeping statuses honest powers everything else on this page.
- Urgency colours. Cards change shade as an enquiry ages without a reply - highlighted when fresh (under an hour), warning colours as it approaches and passes the 8-hour service level, red once it has waited days.
- Response-time tracking. Replied enquiries show how fast you responded (e.g. "Replied in 2h"), and your dashboard shows your 7-day average against the 8-hour SLA.
- Log phone calls. The phone-enquiry logger records calls that came in directly (caller, property, notes) so your pipeline and lead-source reporting include them.
- Reply your way. Reply on Domovita (lands in the buyer's site inbox), by email, or call - whichever suits the enquiry.
- Aim to respond within 1 hour during business hours
- Set auto-responder if on holiday/out of office
- Quick responses improve conversion rates
- Be professional and courteous
- Answer all questions thoroughly
- Provide viewing availability times
- Include contact number in first reply
- Spell-check before sending
- If no response after 48 hours, send gentle follow-up
- Ask if they need additional information
- Suggest booking a viewing
- Don't be pushy - respect their timeline
- All messages are encrypted in transit (HTTPS)
- Only you and the buyer can see the conversation
- Messages are automatically deleted after 13 months to keep inboxes tidy
- Users can request deletion via GDPR rights
- Never share buyer contact details without permission
- Check spam/junk folder
- Verify email address in Account Settings
- Contact support if emails still not arriving
- Refresh the page (F5)
- Click into the thread and scroll through messages
- Clear browser cache if issue persists
- Check message is under 2000 characters
- Ensure you're logged in (session may have expired)
- Try refreshing the page
- Contact support with error details
Message Badges and Counters
Unread Counter Badge
Mark as Read/Unread
Thread Management
Deleting Threads
Reporting Abuse
If you receive spam or abusive messages, contact support to report the issue.
Spam Protection
Domovita has built-in protections against spam:
The Branch Enquiries Dashboard
Alongside the message inbox, your branch has a dedicated Enquiries dashboard (Branch Management → "View all enquiries", or the Enquiries tab in your agent navigation). Every enquiry on your branch's listings appears here with tools the inbox doesn't have:
Saved Replies
Open Saved Replies from your account menu to create up to 20 reusable reply templates (a label plus up to 2,000 characters). When replying to an enquiry, pick one from the "Select a saved reply" dropdown instead of typing the same viewing-times paragraph for the hundredth time. The list shows how often each template has been used.
Automatic Follow-Ups
If an enquiry goes unanswered, Domovita politely nudges the enquirer on your behalf - automatically at roughly 48 hours, 5 days and 14 days (3 nudges maximum). Follow-ups stop as soon as you mark the enquiry Replied, Converted or Closed - another reason to keep statuses up to date. Logged phone calls never trigger follow-ups.
Best Practices
Response Time
Message Quality
Follow-Up
Privacy and Data Protection
Common Questions
"Do deleted messages delete for both parties?"
No - deleting a thread only removes it from YOUR inbox. The other person still has their copy.
"Can I attach files to messages?"
Not currently. Share links to documents via cloud storage (Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.).
"How do I stop getting enquiries on a sold property?"
Change the property status to "Sold" - this disables the enquiry form.