I built OffTrigger in 12 days - real estate agents respond to leads in 30 seconds instead of 47 minutes [Node.js/React/IMAP]

Hey r/SideProject! 👋

Just shipped my first SaaS after 12 straight days of building. Launched on Product Hunt this morning too.

The Problem I Discovered

Spent 2 weeks buying coffee for real estate agents in my city. Asked one simple question:

"What's your biggest frustration with leads?"

Every. Single. One:

"I lose deals to agents who respond faster"

Pulled the data:

• Average agent response: 47 minutes
• 78% of leads move on in <1 hour
• Agents lose $40–60K annually to this

That's a $50K problem for every agent.

What I Built

OffTrigger monitors email 24/7, detects leads from Zillow / Redfin / Rightmove / 99acres (35+ platforms globally), and auto-responds in 30 seconds via WhatsApp, SMS, or Email.

Key Features:

• ✅ Works with ANY email provider (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, custom via IMAP)
• ✅ 2-minute setup (no OAuth restrictions!)
• ✅ Multi-channel: Email, WhatsApp, SMS
• ✅ Smart lead scoring (🔥 hot / ⚡ warm / ❄️ cold)
• ✅ Global: US, UK, India, UAE, Australia

The Tech Stack (the fun part for you all 🤓)

Backend:

• Node.js + Express
• Supabase (PostgreSQL)
• IMAP (node-imap package — works with ANY email!)
• Twilio API (WhatsApp + SMS)
• Triple email redundancy: Brevo + Resend + Gmail SMTP

Frontend:

• React 18
• Tailwind CSS
• Lucide React icons
• Dark theme (because of course)

Hosting:

• Render (backend) — FREE tier ✅
• Vercel (frontend) — FREE tier ✅
• Supabase — FREE tier ✅
• Total infrastructure: $0/month 🎉

The Journey (12 Days)

Day 0: Customer validation (20 coffee meetings)

Days 1–4: Backend nightmare

• Built 35 different email parsers
• Each platform = completely different format
• Zillow: HTML tables
• Redfin: Plain text
• Rightmove: Mixed format
• 3 days of pure regex hell 😅

Days 5–8: Frontend

• React + Tailwind
• Lead scoring algorithm
• Real-time dashboard
• Responsive design

Days 9–11: Integrations

• Twilio (WhatsApp/SMS)
• Dodo payments
• Render + Vercel deployment
• End-to-end testing

Day 12: Launched this morning! 🚀

The Big Pivot

Day 8 disaster: Discovered Gmail OAuth has a 100-user LIFETIME cap for gmail.readonly scope.

At 3/100 users, I panicked.

Rewrote entire email system to use IMAP in 4 hours.

Result:

• Works with ANY email provider now (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, custom)
• No user limits whatsoever
• More reliable
• Actually a better product

Sometimes technical constraints force you to build something better.

Beta Results (3 days, 15 agents)

• Average response: 23 seconds ⚡
• 100+ leads captured
• 0 missed overnight leads
• $1.2M potential commission saved

One agent:
"Closed a $450K deal because OffTrigger responded at 2 AM while my competitors were sleeping."

Try It

Website: offtrigger.com
Product Hunt: https://www.producthunt.com/products/offtrigger?utm_source=other&utm_medium=social

Free trial: 14 days, no credit card

Looking for Feedback

1. Is 30 seconds fast enough or should I optimize to <10 seconds?
2. What other industries desperately need instant lead response?
3. UI/UX improvements you'd suggest?
4. Too niche or broad enough market?

Happy to answer any tech questions. Built this solo so made every mistake possible 😂

Thanks for reading! 🙏