Independent Lofty automation guide · Reviewed July 2026
Lofty already includes an AI powered CRM, Smart Plans, and native AI agents. Start there. A custom AI employee earns its place only when an important job still crosses Lofty, other approved systems, and your company’s own rules.
Use Smart Plans for clear triggers and repeatable steps. Use Lofty’s Sales Agent or Homeowner Agent when the native agent already owns the job and your account has access. Consider custom automation only when a valuable workflow still needs outside context, a company-specific decision path, or a connection the official Lofty API supports. Keep Lofty as the source of truth and keep people in control of trust.
Use what you already pay for
Lofty describes its Smart CRM as a real estate CRM designed to identify and develop sales opportunities. The platform combines lead records, pipeline, communication, tasks, websites, marketing, transactions, and automation. That matters because the best first answer is often already inside the system where the relationship lives.
Smart Plans handle repeatable lead nurturing. Lofty’s current Smart Plan Builder guide describes triggers based on lead creation, assignment, pipeline, tags, segments, contact permission, website activity, communication events, transaction dates, and other criteria. Plans can add timing conditions and branch into different paths. When the rule is clear and the work belongs inside Lofty, this is the first tool to test.
Lofty also offers native AI agents. Sales Agent works across website chat, SMS, and email. Lofty says its goal is to qualify leads, complete their profiles, and hand warm leads to the assigned agent. Account owners can control enrollment by source, lead type, pipeline, agent, office, and lead pond. Agents can mute Sales Agent for an individual lead.
Homeowner Agent is built for seller and homeowner relationships. Lofty says it monitors eligible properties, sends homeowner reports and campaigns, tracks engagement, and stops automated campaigns when a lead reaches its sales-ready handoff status. The current help article says it is available to accounts that previously purchased Home Reports. Confirm availability for any other account before planning around it.
The decision test
| Job | Best first answer | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A CRM event starts known steps | Smart Plan | The trigger, timing, branch, and action are predictable and live in Lofty. |
| New and eligible leads need ongoing qualification | Sales Agent | Lofty already supports chat, text, email, profile completion, and agent handoff. |
| Homeowners need reports and seller nurturing | Homeowner Agent, if available | The native product already monitors eligible properties, campaigns, engagement, and handoff. |
| The job needs approved context from other systems | Consider custom automation | The worker may need calendar, documents, transaction facts, call context, or another approved source. |
| The team wants its own agent inside Lofty | Check Agent Studio access first | Lofty’s official help center describes custom agents, testing, publishing, and team sharing, but says the feature is in beta. |
| The process is still unclear | Map it before automating | Automation makes a clear process faster. It also makes a confused process faster at being confused. |
If Lofty already completes the job, use it. Rebuilding a native feature creates another system to test, pay for, and repair. Custom work earns its place only when the gap is specific, repeated, measurable, and supported by a verified connection.
Good custom fits
Review approved Lofty activity and surface the people who need a human today: a warm handoff, an unanswered question, a promised callback, a showing without an outcome, a contract concern, or a past client with a real reason to reconnect.
Read an approved call summary or conversation, identify the question and promise, prepare the next task or draft, and attach a short note to the right person. A human approves material communication.
Gather source, property interest, timeline, financing status, prior communication, appointment history, and missing details. Give the agent one useful brief instead of making them rebuild the story across six screens.
When an opportunity becomes active, prepare approved contact, property, offer, document, and calendar context for the transaction process. Bring verified dates and status back to Lofty through an approved path and human review.
Find incomplete profiles, duplicate clues, stale assignments, conflicting stages, missing consent, failed contact details, and conversations with no recorded outcome. Prepare a review queue instead of changing important records blindly.
Each job needs a definition of done. “Follow up better” is not enough. A useful definition sounds like this: every new inquiry has an owner, source, consent status, response status, next action, and visible exception within the agreed time.
Verified access only
Lofty publishes an Open API and a Developer Platform. Current official documentation describes API access to CRM records such as leads, tasks, listings, transactions, communications, and supported AI features. That does not mean every account, endpoint, field, or action should be available to every custom employee.
For personal scripts and a single customer’s automation, Lofty supports user-managed API keys. Its March 2026 key management guide says users create the keys themselves, may set expiration dates, and must use two-factor authentication to reveal or revoke a key. Lofty allows up to ten active keys. A key that expires or is revoked cannot be reactivated.
For vendor integrations, Lofty recommends OAuth. The Developer Platform requires vendor qualification, application registration, permission selection, and review. OAuth lets the Lofty user authorize access without sharing a password. The application only receives the scopes Lofty and the customer approve. Lofty’s developer documentation also publishes rate limits and returns an error when a token lacks the required permission.
This is a cleaner access story than browser copying, but it still needs discipline. Use the smallest permission set that completes one job. Store secrets on a secure server. Plan for expiration and revocation. Respect rate limits. Log every material read and write. Never assume that a visible CRM field has a supported write endpoint.
Lofty’s Agent Studio help article describes building, testing, publishing, and sharing custom AI agents inside Lofty. It also says Agent Studio is in beta and may not be available to every account. Team-level permissions matter because agents created by a team member are shared with the team. Confirm access and data boundaries before using it for sensitive work.
Official access sources: Lofty Developer API, API Key Management, Developer Platform guide, and Agent Studio guide.
Lead follow up example
Know who is sending, where the lead came from, which channel is approved, and whether a restriction or opt-out is recorded. Lofty also provides an AI Identity Disclosure setting for Sales Agent. Configure it around company policy and current local requirements.
Read the current conversation, property interest, timeline, appointment, and agent notes. Do not answer from an old template when the situation has changed.
Create the task, question, scheduling option, property follow up, or draft that matches the lead’s actual situation.
Contracts, negotiation, money, fair housing, complaints, emotional situations, legal questions, and anything unclear go to the agent.
Put the approved note, task, pipeline update, handoff, or communication result in Lofty so the next person sees the same story.
An opt-out, Do Not Contact status, wrong number, bad email, closed relationship, or agent hold must stop the relevant automated outreach.
Build order
Write the trigger, approved inputs, routine steps, result, owner, consent rules, handoff, and definition of done.
See whether a native trigger, condition, branch, and action complete the job. Use the native workflow when it does.
Confirm whether Sales Agent, Homeowner Agent, or an available Lofty agent already owns the job in the current account.
Confirm the endpoint, scope, credential type, account permission, rate limit, and exact records that can be read or changed.
Give the employee only what the first job needs. Set expiration and recovery rules before the credential is used.
Use duplicates, missing consent, opt-outs, reassignment, bad contact information, failed API calls, unclear requests, and sensitive conversations.
Start with logs, approval, alerts, a stop control, and a recovery path. Expand only after the data stays clean and the handoff works.
The fastest way to lose faith in automation is one wrong message to the wrong person or one CRM update nobody can explain. The boring work of permissions, consent, test cases, and stop rules is what makes the useful part possible.
Who wrote this
I’m Adam Stinespring. I run a real estate business and use AI employees for database work, daily priorities, transaction tracking, listing preparation, and communication drafts. I know the temptation to chase a shiny tool. I also know a CRM only helps when the story inside it is current and trustworthy.
This page is independent and is not affiliated with Lofty. Lofty, Smart CRM, Smart Plans, Sales Agent, Homeowner Agent, and Agent Studio are referenced only to explain the current automation choices. Platform facts come from the official Lofty sources linked on this page and should be confirmed against the customer’s account before implementation.
Common questions
Yes. Lofty offers an AI powered Smart CRM, Smart Plans, Sales Agent, Homeowner Agent, and other AI features. Availability varies by account, package, add-on, and beta access.
When the job is to engage eligible leads through Lofty chat, text, and email, complete lead information, nurture the conversation, and hand warm leads to the assigned agent. Configure enrollment, identity, consent, and handoff first.
Yes, when the official API supports the job and the customer authorizes the needed access. Lofty supports user-managed API keys and an OAuth Developer Platform. Permissions, endpoints, and rate limits still apply.
No. Lofty should remain the source of truth for the CRM records it owns. Custom automation should complete one defined job around it.
Only inside an approved, tested workflow that respects consent, opt-outs, Do Not Contact status, sender identity, company policy, and applicable law. Sensitive or unusual situations go to a person.
One job first
If a Smart Plan or native Lofty agent already solves it, I’ll tell you. If custom work makes sense, the Map defines the job, access, consent, approval, tests, and expected result before anything is built.
Book the $250 AI Employee MapIf we cannot find a clear job worth building, I’ll refund the Map.