Follow Up Boss Integration for Rain Automation: Connect Your Real Estate CRM to Any Workflow

Integration category: CRM

Rain Automation connects Follow Up Boss to the rest of your stack in both directions. Follow Up Boss webhooks start Rain workflows on new leads, stage changes, tags, calls, texts, tasks, and deals, and Rain writes back through the Follow Up Boss API to create contacts and events, log notes and calls, attach files, create tasks, and apply Action Plans. For AgentOS clients, that means IDX and valuation leads land in Follow Up Boss fully formed and stage changes drive the marketing automatically. This is not a one click connector you install yourself: Rain registers the system, handles credentials, and builds and monitors the workflows for your account.

How to connect Follow Up Boss

Step 1. Pick the authentication method

Follow Up Boss supports two ways in, and the choice decides what the connection is allowed to do.

  1. API key with Basic auth. Every Follow Up Boss user has a key under Admin > API. The key goes in as the username with a blank password, over HTTPS only.
  2. OAuth with Bearer tokens. Used by registered Follow Up Boss partner apps, which exchange an authorization code for access and refresh tokens.

Permission level matters more than the method. An owner key can do everything, including manage webhooks. An admin (broker) key reaches almost everything but cannot touch webhooks. An agent or lender key only sees the contacts that person is assigned to or collaborating on. Event driven builds therefore need an owner level key or an OAuth grant from the owner.

Step 2. Create the key and hand it over securely

In Follow Up Boss, open Admin > API, create a key, and label it so it is obvious later which system it belongs to. Send it to Rain through the secure credential intake, never in an email thread or a text message. Rain stores it as an encrypted credential in the automation layer, so the value is referenced by the workflow rather than pasted into it.

Step 3. Register the system so requests are identifiable

Follow Up Boss requires any system that touches the API on a customer's behalf to be registered. Registration returns a system name and system key, which Rain sends on every request:

X-System: RainAutomation
X-System-Key: your-registered-system-key

That same system key verifies inbound webhooks. Follow Up Boss signs each delivery with a FUB-Signature header: base64 encode the raw JSON payload, hash it with SHA256 using the system key, and compare. Rain rejects any delivery whose signature does not match, so a leaked webhook URL alone cannot inject fake contacts.

Step 4. Subscribe to the events your workflows need

Rain registers webhooks through the Follow Up Boss API for only the events in scope. The commonly used ones are peopleCreated, peopleUpdated, peopleStageUpdated, peopleTagsCreated, eventsCreated, notesCreated, tasksCreated, appointmentsCreated, callsCreated, textMessagesCreated, and dealsCreated / dealsUpdated.

Two details shape the build:

  1. Webhook payloads carry resourceIds and a uri, not the full record, so the workflow makes a follow up GET /v1/people?id=... to read the contact. Custom fields need fields=allFields on that read or they come back empty.
  2. Bulk actions in Follow Up Boss (a stage change across a Smart List, a tag sweep, an agent reassignment) fan out into many person updates and can arrive split across multiple deliveries. Rain queues and de-duplicates on eventId so a tag sweep does not fire the same follow up twice.

Step 5. Map the fields in both directions

Decide per field which system is the source of truth: stage, source, assigned agent, tags, and custom fields are the usual list. For AgentOS clients, this is where Follow Up Boss contacts line up with AgentOS lead records, pipeline stages, and campaign membership. Setting direction per field is what keeps a write from Rain from bouncing back as a peopleUpdated event and starting a loop.

Step 6. Test with a real lead, then switch it on

Send a test lead to the events endpoint, watch it land in Follow Up Boss with the right source and assigned agent, and confirm the Action Plan or Automation you expected actually fired. Check the X-RateLimit-Remaining and X-RateLimit-Context headers on the responses while testing, because Follow Up Boss enforces a sliding ten second window per context and returns a Retry-After on a 429. Rain backs off and retries on that header rather than hammering the endpoint.

Further reading

Example workflows

IDX or AgentOS lead into Follow Up Boss in seconds

A lead fills out a property, showing request, or contact form on your AgentOS or IDX site. Rain posts it to the Follow Up Boss events endpoint with the property address, price, search criteria, and the marketing source intact, so Follow Up Boss routing, Action Plans, and Smart Lists fire on a fully formed lead instead of a bare name and email.

Use case: Speed to lead

Stage change starts the matching campaign and stops the wrong one

On peopleStageUpdated, Rain reads the contact, enrolls it in the AgentOS campaign that matches the new stage, and pauses the campaigns that no longer apply. A lead that turns into an active buyer stops getting nurture email the same hour it changes stage, not at the end of the month when somebody notices.

Use case: Lifecycle marketing

Home valuation request becomes a seller lead with the CMA attached

A valuation request on your site generates the AgentOS CMA, then Rain creates or updates the person in Follow Up Boss, writes a note with the estimated range and the property details, uploads the CMA through the person attachments endpoint, and applies your seller Action Plan. The agent opens one contact record and has the whole story.

Use case: Seller lead capture

Portal lead deduplicated before it creates a second contact record

Before writing anything, Rain calls the duplicate check endpoint with the inbound email and phone. A match becomes a new event on the existing person, preserving the original assigned agent and history, instead of a second record that splits the conversation. Duplicate contacts from portal leads are the quiet reason follow up gets dropped, and this is the step most connectors skip.

Use case: Database hygiene

MLS status change reaches every contact watching that property

When the MLS sync sees a price drop, a pending, or a back on market on a property tied to Follow Up Boss contacts by tag or custom field, Rain writes a note on each matching person and creates a task for the assigned agent with the suggested message. Inventory changes drive the outreach, rather than a calendar reminder to check in.

Use case: Inventory driven outreach

Unanswered call or inbound text becomes a task, not a memory

A callsCreated event with no answer, or an inbound text that has had no reply after your chosen window, creates a Follow Up Boss task on the assigned agent and sends a nudge to the channel the team actually watches. The accountability lives in the CRM where the next action already belongs.

Use case: Follow up accountability

Pricing

The Follow Up Boss subscription stays between you and Follow Up Boss. It is billed per seat by them, and connecting it to Rain does not change what you pay there or add a seat.

Three things are worth knowing before you scope a build:

  1. Webhooks need an owner level seat. Only the account owner can create, update, or delete webhooks in Follow Up Boss. An admin or broker seat cannot, so event driven builds have to be authorized by the owner.
  2. Rate limits are per context, not per account. Follow Up Boss enforces a sliding ten second window and reports the limit, the remaining requests, and the context on every response. Large historical backfills get queued and throttled rather than run at full speed, which is a scheduling consideration, not an extra charge.
  3. The connection is scoped as part of your Rain engagement. Rain builds, hosts, and monitors the workflows rather than handing you a connector to maintain. See pricing for the current plans, or get in touch with the events and field mappings you have in mind and we will scope it against your actual Follow Up Boss setup.

Scope a Follow Up Boss build with Rain