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When inventory slows down, Market Activity Alerts keep buyers and sellers engaged.
Market Activity Alerts are the touchpoint that sits between a Home Value Alert and a Listing Alert. They send a snapshot of RealScout buyer demand activity for a geographic area on the cadence you choose, whether or not new inventory triggers a Listing Alert. The same alert configuration serves a buyer and a seller, and once it is saved as a Template it scales across every contact in that area. This article walks through setup, the buyer use case, a brief seller pointer, schedule guidance, and how to monitor engagement.
When to use a Market Activity Alert
Use it when a contact needs a low-stress, low-impact touchpoint and a daily Listing Alert is either too frequent or has nothing to send. Common cases:
Buyers not getting enough daily search activity because matching inventory is low
Sellers and homeowners who need market demand context alongside or instead of a Home Value Alert
Renters or investors if the market data supports their needs (multifamily, lots and land where MLS data permits)
Sphere contacts whose ownership status you have not yet confirmed
Open the Market Activity Alerts area
From the main RealScout dashboard, go to Email Alerts → Market Activity Alerts.
If you have created Market Activity Alerts before, you will see a growing collection across different locations and contacts. If nothing is listed yet, click Create New Alert to start from scratch.
Choose a location, or draw a custom map shape
If one of your saved Templates already covers the area, select it. If not, enter a location manually or draw a custom map shape when a single city or ZIP is too narrow for the buyer or seller you have in mind.
Custom map shapes let you connect several listing areas into one boundary, for example a greater metro area plus its surrounding communities. Build the area around the neighborhoods, city, or surrounding communities you want to report on. Custom shapes get a default city name unless you rename them.
Understand what the alert is showing
A Market Activity Alert reflects RealScout buyer demand activity only. It does not pull from the MLS in aggregate or from Google. The data is the active pool of leads using RealScout with an agent like you, over the last 90 days.
The snapshot includes:
Number of active buyers in the area on RealScout
Buyer demand heat map (similar to the heat map included in a Home Value Alert)
Active buyers over time
Buyer interactions (clicks, listing views, messages to agents)
Top viewed and most popular listings
Recently sold listings
Recently listed and updated properties
The client can temporarily change the displayed timeframe in the email to 30, 60, or 90 days when they view the alert. Those view-level changes do not modify the original alert.
Apply to a buyer or investor
For a buyer/investor who is not getting enough daily search activity because inventory is slower, the Market Activity Alert may be the missing touchpoint. It does not replace the Listing Alert.
The contact receives:
Listing-specific emails when matching inventory shows up (from the Listing Alert)
A neighborhood-level activity snapshot on a steady cadence (from the Market Activity Alert)
The two alerts do not conflict and they do not duplicate. The buyer hears from you even in off-weeks where nothing matches their specific criteria.
Price range tip: set the minimum and maximum price range about 20 to 30 percent below and above the primary search criteria so the activity over the last 90 days captures listings adjacent to what they are watching.
Apply it to a seller contact
For a seller or homeowner, the same alert configuration tells a different story: it shows that real buyers are actively searching in their neighborhood, even when no new listings are matching. Pair it with a Home Value Alert for known homeowners, or run it standalone for sphere contacts whose ownership status is unknown.
The full seller path, including HVA setup, the public "What's My Home Worth?" entry point, the three-channel share plan, and seller cadence guidance, lives in Seller Nurture Toolkit → Home Value Alerts, Market Activity Alerts, and Your Public Seller Entry Point.
Customize price range and listing criteria
Adjust filters to match the contact:
Minimum and maximum price range based on the buyer's budget or the seller's likely list price
Minimum and maximum beds if the contact is bed-specific
Property type filters: include multifamily, lots and land, and other supported types where the MLS data permits and the contact has interest (investors especially)
Price range restrictions are optional. If you leave them open, the alert reports broadly on the area. If you set them, the alert focuses on the price band that matches the contact's situation.
Set the delivery schedule
Where Listing Alerts go out daily on match days, Market Activity Alerts work on a longer cadence because the underlying data (clicks, popular listings, recent solds) does not change meaningfully day over day. Choose based on the contact and the market.
Cadence | Use when |
Bi-weekly | Active buyers in markets with enough activity that a monthly report would miss meaningful changes. |
Monthly | The default for most contacts and most markets, especially low-inventory areas. Bi-weekly in a slow market feels half-empty and reduces engagement. |
Quarterly | Long-term investors or sphere contacts who do not need a frequent touchpoint. |
Manual | You want full control over when each send goes out. |
Note: Market Activity Alerts do not have a daily cadence option. The data does not refresh meaningfully every day, so daily sending is not supported.
Save to a client, or save as a Template
Save directly to one or more contacts when the alert is specific to a small number of people. Save as a Template when the configuration (area, cadence, filters) is reusable across multiple contacts in the same area. Templates can be assigned manually or automatically through tag-based automation. Setup detail lives in the Related Articles below.
Reuse and manage saved alerts from the dashboard
Return to Email Alerts → Market Activity Alerts to view everything you have created. From there you can:
See every Market Activity Alert across every location and contact
Reuse an existing alert when a new contact or market area matches a previous setup
Click Create New Alert to start fresh
Mass-deactivate alerts that are no longer needed
Monitor engagement and follow up
After the alert is delivered, watch for clicks and engagement. All activity from the Market Activity Alert reports back to your main RealScout dashboard, the same way Listing Alert activity does.
Engagement signals to act on:
Buyers becoming more active on listings they had been quiet on
Sellers whose Scout Score increases after receiving the alert, a sign the homeowner is paying attention
Contacts who click into specific properties in the activity snapshot, an opening for a direct conversation
Use these signals to time outreach. The alert opens the door; the follow-up is where the conversation happens.
Can a contact receive both a Listing Alert and a Market Activity Alert at the same time?
Yes. The two run independently on their own schedules. A contact can receive Listing Alerts on a daily or weekly cadence and a Market Activity Alert bi-weekly or monthly. There is no conflict.
What is the difference between a Market Activity Alert and a Home Value Alert?
A Market Activity Alert shows area-level activity for a geographic area: listings, price changes, buyer demand, recent solds, and buyer trends in RealScout.
A Home Value Alert shows the estimated value of one specific property along with nearby solds/active/updates.
Market Activity Alerts are area/price range-based; Home Value Alerts are property-based and use ATTOM/Zillow's or your agent-created valuation.
A contact can receive both.
Where does the data in a Market Activity Alert come from?
RealScout buyer demand activity only.
The alert does not pull from the MLS in aggregate, from Google, or from any external source.
It reports on what active buyers using RealScout with an agent are clicking, viewing, and engaging with in the area over the last 90 days. Recent listings and solds in the report come from your connected data/MLS feed.