The Ultimate Follow Up Boss Onboarding Guide for Real Estate Teams

Follow Up Boss is a purpose-built real estate CRM owned by Zillow Group. For teams making the move from a generic CRM — or from spreadsheets — onboarding well the first time saves months of cleanup work later. This guide covers the exact sequence that gets teams live quickly and set up for long-term leverage.

What is the right order to set up Follow Up Boss for a team?

The sequence matters. Setting up action plans before lead sources are integrated means plans fire on incomplete data. Training agents before the system is configured means they learn wrong habits. Here is the correct order:

1. Day 1: Account settings, user roles, permissions, and team structure
2. Days 2–3: Lead source integrations and custom field mapping
3. Days 4–5: Stage definitions, tags taxonomy, and smart list architecture
4. Days 5–7: Action plan builds (start with 3 core plans, not 20)
5. Day 7: Contact import and data cleanup
6. Days 8–10: Agent training (role-specific, not everyone at once)
7. Day 10–14: Go-live, monitor for one week, then refine
8. Week 3+: Add AI scoring, advanced smart lists, reporting

How do you set up user roles and permissions in Follow Up Boss?

FUB has three primary role types: Owner, Admin, and Agent. The Owner has full access. Admins can manage team settings, action plans, and lead routing. Agents typically have access only to their own assigned contacts (you control this via visibility settings).

Team structure decisions to make before creating users:

• Visibility: Can agents see each other's contacts? Most teams say no — set contacts to "Agent only" visibility to prevent poaching.
• Texting numbers: Each agent needs their own FUB number for two-way SMS. Provision these per user during setup, not later.
• Email connection: Each agent should connect their individual Gmail or Outlook so emails log to FUB automatically. This is done per user in their profile settings.
• Mobile app: FUB has iOS and Android apps. Require every agent to install and enable push notifications before go-live — mobile is where most real-world CRM use happens.

How do you connect lead sources to Follow Up Boss?

FUB's native integrations cover Zillow, Realtor.com, BoomTown, Sierra Interactive, Real Geeks, Ylopo, and many others. For sources without a native integration, use FUB's email parser or a Zapier connection.

Step-by-step for each lead source:

1. In FUB Admin → Settings → Lead Sources, add each source by name
2. Configure the integration method: direct API, Zapier webhook, or email parser
3. Map incoming fields to FUB custom fields (price range, bedrooms, zip, timing — all critical for smart list filtering later)
4. Set the default action plan that fires when a lead arrives from this source
5. Set the default agent assignment rule (round-robin, specific agent, or pond)
6. Send a test lead and verify it lands correctly with all fields populated

The field mapping step (step 3) is where most teams rush and create problems. Take the time to verify every field lands — it determines whether your smart lists work, your action plan personalization works, and your reporting is accurate.

How many action plans should a team build during onboarding?

Three core plans are enough to go live. Teams that try to build fifteen action plans before launch never actually launch. Start with:

• New internet lead plan — fast response cadence for the first 14 days (see the workflow article in this blog for a full skeleton)
• Long-term nurture plan — monthly touch sequence for unresponsive leads, running for 24 months
• Past client / sphere plan — quarterly check-in plus annual market update, personal and low-pressure

Add specialized plans (open house, referral, buyer consultation, listing side) after you've been live for 30 days and have real-world feedback on what the three core plans are missing.

What custom fields should every Follow Up Boss team create?

FUB allows unlimited custom fields. The fields that matter most for real estate team operations:

If you add Follow Up Ace, seven additional fields populate automatically on every contact: Ace Score, Ace Tier, Ace Status, Ace Response Time, Ace Velocity Score, Ace Days Since Inbound, and Ace Preferred Channel. (Verified: chat-app/shared/aceIntelligenceFieldsConfig.js.) These arrive pre-built and updated nightly — no manual entry required.

How should you import an existing contact database into Follow Up Boss?

FUB accepts CSV imports. Before importing:

1. Clean the CSV: remove duplicates, standardize phone formats (+1XXXXXXXXXX), verify email addresses
2. Add a "Source" column with consistent values that match your FUB lead source names
3. Add a "Stage" column — map contacts to: New, Active, Nurture, or Past Client
4. Add any custom field columns that you've already created in FUB (e.g., Price Range Min, Timeline)
5. Import in batches by stage, not all at once — this lets you assign action plans accurately per segment
6. After import, spot-check 10–20 contacts to verify field mapping landed correctly

Do not enroll all imported contacts into action plans on day one. Only enroll Active and Nurture contacts. Your past clients should go into a separate plan with a softer touch than your internet lead plan.

What does agent training on Follow Up Boss look like?

One 90-minute group training session is not enough. Effective FUB training for a real estate team:

• Session 1 (45 min): The inbox and daily workflow — how to start each morning, read smart lists, and log activities
• Session 2 (45 min): Calling and texting — how to place calls from FUB, log outcomes, and use call notes
• Session 3 (30 min): Mobile app — notifications, contact updates, task management on the go
• Ongoing: Weekly 15-minute team huddle for the first month reviewing what's working in the system

Role-play the morning workflow — open FUB, check the "New Today" smart list, work through "No Contact in 3 Days," then check tasks. Agents who build this habit in the first two weeks sustain it long-term.

When should you add AI scoring to Follow Up Boss?

Add AI scoring after your team has been live for at least two weeks and the core workflow is stable. Adding AI scoring too early — before action plans are running and lead sources are integrated — means the scoring layer has incomplete data to work with.

Follow Up Ace's Ace Trove is the most direct path to AI scoring on top of FUB. The free plan adds seven Ace Score fields to every contact, updated nightly, with no configuration required beyond connecting your FUB account. For teams with larger databases, the Ace Trove plans scale from $49/month (Starter, up to 5,000 contacts) to $899/month (Enterprise, up to 500,000 contacts). (Verified: chat-app/config/accountAiBillingConfig.js:64-70.)

For teams exploring the full AI-native CRM stack, the Agentic page covers how 215 CRM tools connect to AI assistants via MCP — useful for team leads who want to query and manage FUB through natural language.

What are the most common Follow Up Boss onboarding mistakes?

• Skipping field mapping from lead sources — action plan personalization breaks without it
• Creating too many action plans before launch — start with three, earn the right to build more
• Not enabling two-way SMS per agent — FUB's texting requires per-user number provisioning
• Importing all contacts and enrolling them all in action plans at once — creates spam-level send volume and confuses agents
• Training the whole team at once in a single long session — role-specific, shorter sessions produce better retention
• Not building a "New Today" smart list as the team's daily starting point — the inbox alone is too noisy
• Waiting too long to go live — teams that spend three weeks in setup often revert to old habits; go live by day 14 and iterate from there

For a deeper look at the compliance layer you should add alongside FUB — particularly for Fair Housing safe messaging — see the Compliance page. For detailed guides on specific FUB workflows, visit the Guides section.