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property management

Tenant Calls Handled Before They Become Complaints

AI agents and multilingual specialists in 65+ languages manage maintenance requests, lease inquiries, and tenant communications day and night.

The short version: AI voice is $0.15 a minute and live agents start at $300 a month for 500 minutes. AI takes routine maintenance, listing and rent questions; a person takes no-heat, no-water and anything with police or fire involved. English and Spanish share one queue, and every call is logged with a timestamp.

Multi-storey residential apartment buildings with balconies

how it plays out

A tenant, an owner, and one phone line.

Phone Spanish

"My kitchen sink is leaking and water is on the floor"

Emergency maintenance call after hours

  1. AI triages severity — identifies active water leak as urgent
  2. Dispatches emergency plumber from approved vendor list
  3. Instructs tenant on shutoff valve location to minimize damage
  4. Notifies property manager and logs work order in system
Emergency dispatched Damage Minimized
Tenant Portal Chat Mandarin

"When does my lease expire and can I renew early?"

Lease renewal inquiry from current tenant

  1. AI pulls lease details and expiration date from property system
  2. Confirms early renewal eligibility and any rate changes
  3. Sends digital renewal documents for e-signature
  4. Schedules follow-up reminder if tenant needs time to decide
Renewal initiated Retention
Email English

"I want to apply for the 2-bedroom unit on Maple Ave"

Prospective tenant application inquiry

  1. AI confirms unit availability and monthly rent details
  2. Sends application link with required documents checklist
  3. Explains screening process timeline and move-in costs
  4. Schedules property tour before application if requested
Application started Vacancy Filled
SMS Vietnamese

"The hallway light on the 3rd floor has been out for two days"

Non-urgent maintenance request via text

  1. AI creates maintenance ticket with location and issue details
  2. Assigns to building maintenance staff with standard priority
  3. Sends tenant confirmation with expected resolution window
  4. Follows up automatically when work order is marked complete
Ticket created Tenant Satisfied

the team behind it

Who follows your escalation list at midnight.

Callnovo agentCallnovo agentCallnovo agentCallnovo agentCallnovo agent real members of the global team

Property Management-Trained Specialists

  • Maintenance request triage with emergency vs routine priority classification
  • Lease administration support including renewals, move-ins, and move-outs
  • Tenant communication management across multiple properties and unit types

65+ Languages

  • Native-speaking agents in English, Spanish, Mandarin, and 60+ more
  • Real-time AI translation for rare language pairs
  • Cultural context training for every market we serve

Follow-the-Sun Coverage

  • Operation centres in Canada, Bolivia, Nicaragua, the Philippines and China
  • Smooth handoff between time zones with shared context
  • Holiday and weekend coverage without overtime costs

the part nobody prices in

Two people call your office and only one of them is your customer.

A property manager answers two completely different phones on the same line. Owners are the customer. Tenants are the obligation — and the ones who actually call, at volume, about things that are urgent to them and routine to you.

Most answering services treat both the same way, which is how a manager ends up with a message log full of "tenant called about the dishwasher" and no idea that a landlord tried to reach them twice about a renewal.

The split we recommend follows that reality. AI absorbs the tenant volume that has a right answer — rent dates, portal resets, parking, when the plumber is coming — while a person handles habitability, safety and anything an owner says. That is not an efficiency trade. It is making sure the phone reflects who actually pays you.

where AI should not be

The calls we will not put a bot on.

Anything on the habitability list

No heat, no water, no power, sewage backup, gas smell. These have legal clocks attached in most jurisdictions. A person confirms the details, follows your escalation list, and keeps calling until somebody picks up.

An owner on the line

Owners are the customer. A frustrated owner asking why a unit is still vacant, or why an invoice looks wrong, is a management contract deciding whether to renew. It reaches a person, every time.

Police, fire, or a break-in

Anything with emergency services already involved needs judgment, not a script. A person establishes whether anyone is hurt, what has been secured, and who at your company needs to know tonight rather than Monday.

Evictions and disputes

Notices, non-payment conversations and anything a lawyer might later read a transcript of. We take a message and a careful record; we do not improvise on your behalf.

what comes off the call

A maintenance ticket you can act on without calling back.

Half of property maintenance delay is a vague ticket. We work your intake questions so the vendor you dispatch has enough to bring the right parts on the first visit:

  • Building, unit number, and the tenant name on the lease
  • What is failing, in the tenant's own words, plus when it started
  • Whether it is affecting heat, water, power, or a working stove — the habitability list
  • Appliance make and model where there is a plate to read
  • Whether the tenant has tried the breaker, the reset button or the shutoff valve
  • Photos where the tenant can send them, attached to the ticket
  • Pets, entry permission, and whether the tenant needs to be home
  • Whether this is a repeat of a ticket you already closed — the single most useful field on this list

It goes into Jobber, ServiceTitan or your own system as a job, and every call keeps a timestamped record. If a tenant later claims they reported a leak three weeks ago, you can check rather than argue.

what it costs

Published rates, so you can do the arithmetic first.

Most vendors in this category quote by form. These are our published packages — not a quote, since language mix, hours and volume all move the number. The per-minute figures are simply the monthly price divided by the included minutes.

OptionPublished pricePer minuteWhat it's for
Dedicated agent from $5.80 per hour, per agent One team that knows your buildings, your vendors and your escalation rules
AI voice $0.15 per minute Routine maintenance requests, rent questions, showing enquiries
Web chat $0.05 per session Prospective tenants asking about listings at 11pm
Live shared team from $300 / month includes 500 min → ≈ $0.60/min After-hours cover so emergencies reach a person, not a machine
Live shared team from $650 / month includes 1,500 min → ≈ $0.43/min Portfolios where the phone rings all day across several buildings

Anything involving a person is a starting price. Two things move it: which languages you need, and how senior an agent the work actually requires — a bilingual agent handling refund authority is not the same hire as one taking bookings. AI voice and web chat are flat, because there is no hiring in them. And every model above is open to every business on this page: which one fits is a question about the shape of your volume, not about your industry.

Minimum engagement is half a seat — not a five-seat block. We also bill per resolved issue, from $1, where you pay nothing if it is not resolved; that model fits businesses where a customer problem actually gets solved on the call, not businesses where the call is intake.

who takes which call

Route by the cost of getting it wrong.

Most vendors sell you either an AI receptionist or a live answering service and leave the allocation to you. Since we run both, here is the split we would actually recommend — including the calls we think should never touch automation.

The callRoute toCost of getting it wrong
Non-urgent maintenance request AI A slower fix
"Is the two-bedroom still available?" AI A lost applicant
Rent due dates, portal resets, parking rules AI An annoyed tenant
No heat, no water, flooding, gas smell Human A habitability claim, and a tenant who calls the city instead of you
Lockout, break-in, anything involving police or fire Human A situation no script covers
Eviction, dispute, or an owner who is unhappy Human A legal exposure or a lost management contract

setup

Five days to put the right person on it.

Five days is our normal window to staff a live account — that is five days to find and place an agent who fits your business, not five days of software setup. AI voice can go live sooner because there is no hiring step.

your existing software

It goes into your system, with a record of who said what.

We work inside the CRM, practice system or case tool you already run, rather than handing you a second inbox to check. Every contact leaves a timestamped record — who called, what was asked, what was said back, what was promised — because in your line of work the question six months later is not "did someone call" but "what exactly did we tell them". Tell us what you run and we will say straight whether we connect to it today.

when we're the wrong choice

Three cases where you should hire someone else.

  • You need someone licensed to give leasing advice. We answer, qualify and book. We do not quote lease terms, negotiate concessions or say anything that could be read as a leasing decision. If you want licensed leasing agents on the phone, that is a different hire.
  • You want the same person every time, in your office. A shared team means a named group who know your buildings, not one individual at a desk down the hall. A dedicated agent from $5.80 an hour gets closer, but if what you want is an employee, hire an employee.
  • You manage under about twenty units. Honestly, your mobile and a decent voicemail greeting will do. The maths starts working when the volume is enough that missed calls turn into vacancy days or habitability complaints.

questions

What buyers ask before they sign.

How much does it cost?

AI voice is $0.15 per minute and web chat is $0.05 per session. Live agents start at $300 per month including 500 minutes — about $0.60 per minute — or from $5.80 per hour for a dedicated agent working only your account. The minimum engagement is half a seat, not a five-seat block.

How fast can you start answering our phones?

Five days is our normal window to staff a live account — that is five days to find and place an agent who fits your business, not five days of software setup. AI voice can go live sooner because there is no hiring step.

Do you answer in Spanish?

Yes, on the same number, with agents in our Bolivia and Nicaragua operation centres — native Spanish, not machine translation. English and Spanish share one queue, and we cover 60+ more languages if you need them.

Can I mix AI and live agents on one number?

That is the normal setup. You decide which call types go to AI and which reach a person, and you can change the split as your volume changes. Nothing about that decision is locked in at signup.

Can you follow our emergency escalation rules?

Yes — you tell us what counts as an emergency in your buildings, who gets called first, and what happens if they do not answer. We work your list, not a generic one, and every call is logged with a timestamp so there is a record if a tenant later disputes it.

Can you handle tenants who do not speak English?

Spanish shares the same queue with native speakers in our Bolivia and Nicaragua centres, and we cover 60+ more languages. For a portfolio with a mixed tenant base this usually matters more than anything else on this page.

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