When a contact stops receiving RealScout alerts, the issue usually comes down to one of four things: conflicting search criteria, email deliverability problems, a contact-initiated unsubscribe, or a Nurtured Contact limit being reached. This article walks through each scenario and how to resolve it.
Start here. Check the Email Activity and Site Activity tabs on the contact record first — they give you a detailed recent history of what was sent and whether it was opened.
Common issues and resolutions
Contact not receiving alerts. A contact may not receive alerts when saved search criteria are conflicting or too narrow and return no results, or when the contact unsubscribed or manually disabled their Listing Alerts.
Verify that the search criteria are broad enough — or specific enough — to return results for this segment of your contacts.
Update parameters like price range or timeframe as needed.
Check your RealScout notifications (bell icon next to your name) to confirm whether the contact manually disabled their alert or unsubscribed.
Contacts without alerts set up. Contacts in the Awaiting Nurture tab have no active alert or nurture configured yet. The weekly digest for "Contacts with no alerts set up" is Listing Alert-specific and does not factor in Market Alerts, Auto Nurture, or Home Value Alerts.
Open the contact's Email Alerts tab and choose one or more next steps: toggle on Auto Nurture, add an alert or template, or send a Welcome Email.
Timing delays for Auto Nurture and next-day templates. The first Auto Nurture welcome email is queued for the next calendar day after Auto Nurture is enabled. Market Alert templates and Home Value Alerts follow the same next-day queue.
To ensure a contact receives listings as soon as they go on market, set the search notification schedule to ASAP.
For high-priority same-day delivery, send alerts manually from the contact's Email Alerts tab.
Email deliverability problems
Increasing your Nurtured Contact limit will not override your email warmup period or any slowdowns caused by spam reports.
Alerts may not be delivered due to email rejection, bounces, or spam reports. Nurtured Contact limits can also restrict email sending without preventing new contacts from being added to Awaiting Nurture.
Bounces. Email addresses paused due to timeouts or bounces can have those errors cleared upon request to Member Support. Clearing requires manual review to confirm the issue is a timeout or standard bounce (such as "inbox full") rather than a hard bounce. Update the email address if the existing address cannot receive marketing emails — common examples include school-owned emails, business inboxes with strict marketing filters, or contacts enrolled in too many mailing lists. If the contact has unsubscribed, advise them to check their email provider's settings for an unsubscribe list or blocked senders and remove RealScout from any suppression lists.
Spam reports. If a spam report is filed, obtain explicit consent from the contact before resuming emails — a direct reply, text message confirmation, or similar documentation is sufficient. Verify the contact's email address in RealScout for accuracy and update it if necessary. Once consent is confirmed, contact Member Support at support@realscout.com to have the spam flag removed. After removal, resend any missed listings manually.
Best practices for email deliverability:
Review email activity regularly to catch and address deliverability issues early.
Prioritize contacts who actively engage with your emails to maintain a strong sender reputation.
Obtain explicit written consent before adding contacts to your email list.
Address spam reports promptly — unresolved reports accumulate and affect overall sending.
Encourage contacts to add RealScout to their email provider's safe sender list to prevent future delivery issues.
Advise contacts to regularly check their spam or junk folder for RealScout emails.
Managing search criteria
Listings excluded from alerts. Some properties do not appear in alerts due to restrictive filters — for example, a low maximum price, or a "status or listing change within the past 24 hours" filter that excludes listings agents have not yet updated in the MLS.
Review the search filter criteria and adjust as needed. Raise the maximum price if relevant properties are being excluded. Remove the 24-hour status change filter to ensure all matching listings are included regardless of when the MLS was updated.
Contacts receiving alerts for the wrong area. Incorrect search boundaries or location filters cause contacts to receive listings outside their target area.
Edit the saved search to match the contact's criteria. Align the search with MLS-defined location boundaries or add the target ZIP code to capture all relevant listings. If setting up a new search, consider using AI Search with Insight mode for more precise parameters, and delete the previous alert to stop further unwanted sends.
Handling Nurtured Contact limits
Automated alerts may pause when the Nurtured Contact limit is reached. Archive contacts you are no longer actively working with to free up capacity, or purchase additional Nurtured Contact packs to raise the limit and restore automated alert delivery.
Your RealScout alerts are highly configurable. When troubleshooting, start with the Email Activity and Site Activity tabs on the contact record — those give you a detailed recent history of what was sent and whether it was opened.
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