LOI Response Rates: What to Expect
Updated June 17, 2026
LOI response rates typically land between 1% and 5% of offers sent, depending on how accurate the pricing is, how clean the targeting is, and how persistent the follow-up is. At a few hundred offers a week that low-single-digit rate still produces consistent negotiations. The biggest lever isn't the first send — it's following up on every reply and re-touching non-responders.
Every investor who tries LOI blasting asks the same first question: what response rate is normal? It's the wrong question to obsess over in isolation, because a 2% rate on 1,000 offers beats a 6% rate on 50. But it's the right place to start, because knowing the benchmark tells you whether your offers are broken or your volume is just low.
Response rate is a downstream number — it reflects how accurate your pricing is, how well-targeted your list is, and how relentlessly you follow up. Move those upstream levers and the rate follows. Here's what to expect and the seven things that actually shift it.
What a normal LOI response rate looks like
Across listed-property LOI campaigns, meaningful agent engagement — a reply that opens a conversation, not just a polite no — usually lands somewhere between 1% and 5% of offers sent. Where you fall in that band is mostly a function of price realism: offers comped sensibly against the listing engage near the top of the range, while blanket lowballs sent without context sit at the bottom.
The number that matters more than reply rate is the path from reply to signed contract. A campaign that generates a 3% reply rate but converts a third of those replies into live negotiations is healthier than one with a 5% reply rate that loses every conversation to slow follow-up. Track the full funnel, not just the top.
| Stage | Typical rate | Count at 1,000 sent | Main lever |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delivered | 95-99% | ~970 | Clean list, valid contacts |
| Opened / read | 40-60% | ~500 | Subject line, sender reputation |
| Replied | 1-5% | 10-50 | Price realism, targeting |
| Live negotiation | 30-50% of replies | 5-20 | Fast, persistent follow-up |
| Under contract | 5-15% of negotiations | 1-3 | Terms, certainty of close |
LOI funnel benchmarks at 1,000 offers sent per week
The seven levers that lift the rate
One: price realism. The single biggest driver — an offer comped against the actual listing engages far more than a flat percentage applied blind. Two: targeting. Aged listings, price-reduced properties, and expired-then-relisted inventory reply at higher rates than fresh listings where the agent still expects full price. Three: the LOI itself. Price up top, plain terms, proof you close — structure decides whether a delivered offer gets read.
Four: sender reputation, so the offer reaches the inbox instead of spam. Five: speed — replying to an interested agent within minutes rather than hours keeps you ahead of the next buyer. Six: follow-up persistence, because most agents who eventually engage do so on a second or third touch, not the first. Seven: re-touching non-responders, since a listing that goes stale in three weeks makes an agent far warmer to the offer they ignored at launch.
Why follow-up moves the number more than copy
Operators spend enormous energy A/B testing LOI wording and almost none on follow-up cadence — which is backwards. The rewrite might move the reply rate from 2.0% to 2.4%. A disciplined follow-up sequence that re-touches every non-responder twice often does more than that, because it catches the agent at the moment their situation changed: a price reduction, a stale listing, a deal that fell through.
This is the case for automating the follow-up rather than relying on a human to remember it. BILT CRM works every reply and re-touches non-responders on a schedule, so the response rate you actually realize reflects persistent follow-up rather than whatever you had time to chase manually. The first send opens the door; the follow-up is what gets you through it.
Frequently asked
What is a good LOI response rate?
Anything in the 1-5% range is normal for listed-property LOI blasting; the high end reflects realistic, comped pricing and good targeting. Don't judge a campaign on reply rate alone, though — a 2% reply rate that converts well into live negotiations beats a 5% rate that loses conversations to slow follow-up.
Why is my LOI response rate so low?
Almost always one of three things: prices that ignore the actual listing (blanket lowballs), a list with bad targeting or stale contacts, or offers that never get read because of poor structure or spam-foldering. Fix price realism first — it's the biggest single lever on the reply rate.
Does following up actually raise the response rate?
Yes, more than rewriting the offer does. Most agents who engage do so on a second or third touch, and re-touching non-responders catches listings that have since gone stale or had a price cut. Persistent follow-up is the highest-leverage thing you can automate.
How many LOIs do I need to send to see a reliable rate?
Sample size matters — a reply rate measured on 50 offers is noise. Send at least a few hundred before drawing conclusions, and a thousand-plus before comparing pricing or targeting variants. Below that volume, normal variance will make a fine campaign look broken or a broken one look fine.
The takeaway
Expect LOI response rates between 1% and 5%, with realistic comped pricing and clean targeting pushing toward the top. But the rate you actually realize is decided downstream by follow-up: most agents engage on a later touch, and re-contacting non-responders catches listings that have gone stale. Automate the follow-up and the funnel — not just the first send — and the response rate takes care of itself.