What does a property management answering service cost?

A property management answering service is billed per call, per minute or as a monthly package, depending on the provider; AI plans are usually a monthly fee with included minutes. Yes AI’s Professional plan adds after hours and weekend cover for $599 per month plus a $999 setup fee, ex GST, with 1,500 minutes.

The rest of this page sets out how each pricing model works, what Yes AI publishes, and how to size a plan from your own phone records instead of a rule of thumb per door.

What are the three pricing models?

There are three kinds of service to compare. Each one bills on a different unit, so the cheapest headline rate is not always the cheapest month.

Ask every provider for its billing basis in writing, including what happens on a storm night when call numbers jump. A per-call service bills each of those calls. An AI plan draws them from the monthly allowance.

What does Yes AI charge?

Yes AI publishes three plans on its pricing page. All prices are in Australian dollars, exclude GST, and run month to month with 30 days notice to cancel.

A minute is connected talk time handled by the AI agent. Calls nobody answers do not count, and when the agent transfers a tenant to your on-call property manager, only the AI part of the call counts. Minutes beyond the allowance are billed at the plan’s per-minute rate.

Which plan fits a property management team?

Starter answers during business hours only. It suits a small agency that wants overflow cover while property managers are out at inspections, but it will not answer a tenant who rings about a burst pipe at 2am. Professional adds after hours and weekend coverage. If every hour of the night must be answered, that is the 24 hour coverage on a Custom plan, which also suits larger rent rolls with several offices, separate strata and residential lines, or a need for full call recordings. Ask for the exact hours each plan answers in the written quote.

How do you size a plan without guessing per door?

Door counts vary too much between agencies to price from. A rent roll of mostly new apartments produces a different call pattern from one of older houses with gardens and gas heaters. Your phone system already holds the numbers you need.

1. Export 2 weeks of inbound call records from your phone system or carrier portal: date, time and duration for every call.
2. Split the calls into business hours and after hours, using the hours your office actually answers.
3. Mark the calls the AI agent would take. Usually that means every after hours call plus daytime calls that rang out or went to voicemail.
4. Multiply that call count by an expected average length. Use the average duration from your own records for those call types.
5. Convert the 2-week figure to a month by multiplying by 2.17, then compare it with the 500 or 1,500 included minutes.

A worked example

These numbers are illustrative, not a benchmark. An agency’s call export shows 120 after hours calls and 150 daytime calls that rang out over 2 weeks. That is 270 calls. At an average of 2.5 minutes each, the AI agent would handle 675 minutes a fortnight, or about 1,460 minutes a month. That sits just under the Professional allowance, so the agency would watch the first month’s usage report before deciding whether it needs a Custom quote.

What should you count against the cost?

The plan fee is easy to see. The costs it replaces are spread across your team, so count them in hours and events rather than dollars.

• Applicant calls that ring out. Count unanswered calls during open-for-inspection peaks and in the evening. Each one is an applicant who may book another property first.
• Repeat calls about the same job. Tenants ring back to ask when the plumber is coming. A written summary and an SMS update to the tenant can cut those calls.
• The after hours roster. Whoever carries the on-call phone now pays for it in allowances, time in lieu or lost sleep. Write down how many nights a month that is.
• Call-outs for jobs that could have waited. An after hours call-out usually costs the landlord more than the same job in business hours. Consistent triage rules, applied the same way on every call, can reduce the number approved at night.
• Morning catch-up. Time spent listening to voicemails and re-typing them into your property management software.

What is not included in the plan price?

• Tradesperson invoices. These go to the landlord through your trust account as they do now.
• Your property management software and CRM subscriptions.
• Charges your phone carrier may apply to forwarded calls. Check your carrier plan.
• Integration work beyond the standard setup. Yes AI names Xero, HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho, ServiceM8, Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace as integrations. Other systems connect through their API where they have one, or by email, and that scope is confirmed in the written quote.

The setup fee covers configuring the agent, connecting your phone system and CRM, greetings and call flows, testing and staff training. Timing depends on scope and is stated in the quote.

Questions to ask any provider before you sign

1. Who decides whether a repair is urgent, and can I see the rules in writing?
2. Will you use my approved tradespeople and stay inside each landlord’s spending limit?
3. How do call notes reach my property management software, and by what time each morning?
4. What happens when the on-call person does not answer a transfer?
5. Are calls recorded, how are callers told, and where is the data stored?
6. What is the minimum term, and how much notice do I give to leave?

The after hours maintenance line page shows how urgent calls are handled, and the comparison with a property management call centre covers where a person still does better. For the wider picture, read how to automate property management with AI. To get a quote sized from your own call records, use the demo and enquiry form.