Should I stop advertising on portals?

Not all at once. Portals are still useful for property visibility. The goal is for them to stop being your only source of enquiries, not to disappear.

Does an agency website need every property on it?

It helps, but it is not enough. What is usually missing is a page for sellers, with a simple way to request a valuation. That is where new listings come from.

How long does it take to get your own enquiries?

It depends on where you start. Your Google profile and reaching out to past clients can show results within weeks. The website and Google search usually take longer.

How do I know where enquiries come from?

Ask every person how they found you and note it in a spreadsheet. On the website, set up Google Analytics to track phone clicks, WhatsApp clicks and form submissions.

← All insights

Real estate·5 min read

Updated 15 November 2026 · Andreia Cirne

Real estate agency marketing: getting your own enquiries and relying less on portals

Portals bring enquiries, but they are not yours. How to build a source of enquiries your agency owns, with your website, Google and what you already have.

Portals are not the problem. The problem is when they are the only door. When almost every enquiry arrives through a portal, you are not the one deciding what you pay, how you appear or which agencies sit next to you.

Getting your own enquiries means building a second door that belongs to you: your website, your Google profile, your contact list and referrals.

Why this happens

Portals do one thing well: they put a property in front of a lot of people, fast. So starting there makes sense. What tends to happen next is that everything else stands still. The website exists, but it is the same property listing as the portal. The Google profile has a handful of old reviews. The contacts of past buyers and sellers are scattered across each agent's phone. The result: people searching for your name find you, but people searching for "house valuation in Faro" find the portal or a competitor.

What makes your own enquiry different

It is not just about skipping the portal fee. It is about how the person arrives:

They come straight to you, with no one showing them other agencies alongside.
They usually come from someone who already chose you, or was referred.
They stay with you: you can get back in touch in two years, when they want to sell.

Where to start

Five steps, in this order:

Find out where your enquiries come from today. For one month, count them: portal, website, Google, phone, referral, social media. Without this, every decision is a guess.
Treat your Google profile as a real shop window. Correct opening hours, real photos of the team and the office, and the habit of asking for a review whenever a deal closes. It is often the first place someone sees you.
Give your website a reason to exist beyond the listings. Sellers look for something else: what their home is worth, how long it takes, what they need to sort out. A clear page for sellers, with a simple way to request a valuation, is often worth more than another listing.
Keep your contacts in one place. A well organised spreadsheet is enough to start. What matters is that they do not live only on the phone of whoever took the call.
Stay in touch with people who already trusted you. Past buyers will sell one day, and they know people who want to buy. An occasional message with something useful is enough to stay on their mind.

What is not worth doing yet

Three common temptations that usually cost more than they return:

Dropping the portals overnight. Build the alternative first, then decide how much to scale back.
Posting on social media every day without knowing whether a single enquiry comes from there.
Building a new website just because the current one looks dated. If you do not know what it needs to do, the new one will fail in the same way.

How to tell it is working

Compare where enquiries come from, month by month. The signal that matters is not more followers or more visits. It is the share of enquiries arriving through channels you own going up, and those enquiries turning into listings.

An example

+300%direct enquiries

Mapro Real Estate, a premium agency in the Algarve, had a well known brand, but most enquiries came through portals. The website worked like a brochure. The change was deciding that direct contact would become the main channel, with the website built around how people actually decide. Direct enquiries went up 300% and conversion 545%. I managed this project as Digital Project Manager at Dengun, with a multidisciplinary team.

See the Mapro case

Common questions

Should I stop advertising on portals?: Not all at once. Portals are still useful for property visibility. The goal is for them to stop being your only source of enquiries, not to disappear.
Does an agency website need every property on it?: It helps, but it is not enough. What is usually missing is a page for sellers, with a simple way to request a valuation. That is where new listings come from.
How long does it take to get your own enquiries?: It depends on where you start. Your Google profile and reaching out to past clients can show results within weeks. The website and Google search usually take longer.
How do I know where enquiries come from?: Ask every person how they found you and note it in a spreadsheet. On the website, set up Google Analytics to track phone clicks, WhatsApp clicks and form submissions.

Who writes this

Andreia Cirne

I'm a marketing consultant and certified trainer (CCP) based in Faro. I spent almost six years at a digital agency managing marketing and website projects, and saw a lot of money spent on things nobody knew were working. Today I work directly with service businesses: I help decide what to do first and teach teams to do it without depending on anyone. Not even me.

Read about my path

If you want to see where your enquiries come from today and what to change first, that is exactly what the diagnostic looks at.

Talk to me