What 700+ Real Estate Pros Say About Marketing in 2026

Heading into 2026, businesses across real estate are planning for growth — but with caution. To understand how the industry is navigating tighter demand, rising competition, and longer sales cycles, CallRail surveyed more than 700 real estate professionals across home building, development, brokerage, and property management.

The results point to a clear shift: while marketing investment is holding strong, the biggest opportunity (and risk) now sits in responsiveness and follow-up. Here’s what the data shows and why it matters for builders heading into 2026.

Builders are spending more on marketing this year

Despite ongoing affordability concerns and a competitive housing market, most real estate businesses expect marketing budgets to grow or remain steady in 2026. Marketing remains one of the few levers teams feel they can actively control in uncertain conditions.

But higher budgets haven’t reduced pressure on performance. With fewer buyers actively in-market and longer decision timelines, each inquiry matters more than ever. For builders, the cost of losing a single high-intent lead is higher (and harder to recover from) than ever before

Budget growth doesn’t equal buyer confidence

The survey data shows that many teams feel increasingly confident about where their leads are coming from. As marketing tools have become more accessible, the barrier to confident attribution has lowered, giving builders clearer visibility into which channels are driving inquiries.

At the same time, increased competition and declining sales remain top concerns. Marketing is doing its job generating interest, but that interest is harder to convert. Buyers are comparing more options, taking more time, and expecting a higher level of engagement before committing.

Strong visibility alone is no longer enough to win.

Responsiveness now rivals price as a decision factor

One of the clearest signals from the research is how dramatically buyer expectations have shifted. Responsiveness is now tied with price as the top factor influencing whether a customer chooses one business over another, cited by 67% of respondents.

Yet most teams struggle to meet that expectation. Only 41% respond immediately to after-hours inquiries, while the majority wait until the next morning or later. For home builders, this gap is especially risky. New home buyers often research and reach out in the evenings or on weekends, precisely when many teams are least equipped to respond quickly.

In competitive local markets, slow follow-up doesn’t just delay a conversation; it sends buyers elsewhere.

Operational gaps are quietly undoing good marketing

As marketing performance improves, operational weaknesses become harder to ignore. Sales training and lead follow-up rank among the top internal challenges facing real estate teams heading into 2026. Many still rely on manual processes — missed-call lists, voicemail checks, or inconsistent handoffs — to manage inbound interest.

These gaps don’t show up in dashboards, but they directly affect outcomes. A missed call, delayed response, or unclear lead-capture process can make even the most effective marketing investment go to waste.

In 2026, the most expensive leads won’t be the ones you generate; they’ll be the ones you fail to respond to.

What winning builders are doing differently in 2026

The teams gaining an edge are rethinking responsiveness as a system and building scalable processes that leverage today’s technology and automation. They’re setting clear standards for follow-up, supporting lean teams where automation adds the most value, and connecting marketing performance to real conversations with buyers.

Rather than chasing more demand, they’re focused on protecting and converting the demand they already earn, especially during evenings, weekends, and other high-intent moments.

Exploring the full picture

A new industry report from CallRail, The 2026 Marketing Outlook for Real Estate, dives deeper into these trends, unpacking how real estate teams are allocating budgets, adopting AI, and closing the gap between marketing performance and conversion. For builders planning for 2026, it offers a data-backed look at where opportunities are emerging and where execution matters most.

Download the full 2026 Marketing Outlook for Real Estate report for free.

About CallRail
CallRail is a lead engagement platform that helps real estate teams understand which marketing drives inbound calls and inquiries, and capture those leads 24/7 with an AI voice assistant. To learn more and try CallRail free for 14 days, visit callrail.com.