How to clean a real-estate lead spreadsheet and track follow-up
Clean real-estate leads by separating person, inquiry, property, source, and follow-up events; normalizing contact fields; and resolving duplicate candidates without deleting legitimate repeated inquiries. Retain source and consent evidence, standardize stages, and measure first response from eligible inquiry time.
Where errors enter the process
The same buyer can inquire through several portals about several properties, share a household email, or change phone number. Deduplicating to one row per email erases interest history and attribution.
A method you can follow
- Separate entities: Identify person, household, inquiry, property, source, consent, and follow-up events.
- Resolve identity carefully: Use reviewed contact evidence and retain a person-to-inquiry crosswalk.
- make consistent stages: Map new, contacted, viewing, offer, nurture, closed, and invalid with timestamp history.
- Measure service: Calculate response and progression from original eligible inquiry times and visible denominators.
From the field · Independent real-estate agent
Combine three property-portal exports into one follow-up list
A buyer asks about two properties through different portals, one couple shares an email, and portal timestamps use different zones. Consent and source fields vary across exports.
Columns used in the example
inquiry_id · property_id · lead_name · email · phone · source · inquiry_time · consent_status · stage · follow_up_time
Follow it with your own file
- Map sources and convert timestamps while retaining source zone.
- Create candidate person identities but preserve every inquiry and property link.
- Standardize stage events and retain first-touch and latest-touch source fields.
- Generate an eligible follow-up queue ordered by response risk and consent.
Check: Inquiry and property-interest counts must reconcile to sources, person merges require review, response times must use original inquiry timestamps, and outreach lists must honor consent and applicable rules.
Evidence worth tracing
- Repeated leads are deleted even when they concern different properties.
- Lead source is overwritten by the latest inquiry.
- Response time is measured from a batch import instead of the original inquiry.
A repeated person can represent new intent
Identity resolution supports a coherent relationship, but inquiry records preserve what the buyer wanted and when. Keeping both prevents CRM cleanup from erasing demand and attribution evidence.
Where this usually goes wrong
Follow applicable privacy, marketing, housing, and anti-discrimination requirements. Data patterns should not automate eligibility, targeting, or treatment based on protected characteristics.
Sign-off questions
- Person and inquiry grains separate
- Identity matches reviewed
- Source history retained
- Time zones aligned
- Consent checked before outreach
Choose the approach that matches the evidence and repetition
| Approach | When it works | What to verify |
|---|---|---|
| Email dedupe | Simple verified single-person contacts | Households and repeat inquiries |
| One-row lead tracker | Small active pipeline | History and source overwrite |
| Person/inquiry event model | Multi-portal follow-up | Identity and consent review |
Doing these steps in Prepyr
Prepyr accepts CSV files only. Export the worksheet or table you need as a UTF-8 CSV first; workbook formulas, formatting, macros, charts, and other sheets will not be included. Describe the result you need: Clean and combine real-estate lead spreadsheets for reliable follow-up. Check the columns selected, preview any proposed changes, and compare the output with the source before applying or exporting it.
Prepyr steps used here: Text analysis · Charts · Reports · Sensitive Column protection
The essential checks
- Identify person, household, inquiry, property, source, consent, and follow-up events.
- Use reviewed contact evidence and retain a person-to-inquiry crosswalk.
- Map new, contacted, viewing, offer, nurture, closed, and invalid with timestamp history.
- Calculate response and progression from original eligible inquiry times and visible denominators.
A reliable follow-up list and funnel history that combines portal data without losing property interest, source, timing, consent, or household nuance.
Questions readers usually ask next
Should repeat property inquiries be removed as duplicates?
No. Resolve the person identity if supported, but preserve every legitimate inquiry, property, source, and timestamp.
Which timestamp should response time use?
Use the original eligible inquiry time in a consistent time zone, not the later batch-import time.