(NOT A Short Sale Or REO) Three bedroom, two bathroom, single story home for sale in Linda, California with approximately 1916 square feet of living space. Built in 2007. Stucco exterior. Tile roof. Slab foundation. Dual pane windows. Tiled entry way. Living room with gas fire place, ceiling fan, and surround sound. Formal dining room. Kitchen with center island cherry cabinets, stainless steel appliances, gas stove, dish washer, and microwave, granite counter tops, and tile floor. Walk in pantry. Master bedroom with master bathroom, and walk in closet. Laundry room with tile floor. Three car garage. Front yard with automatic sprinklers. Fenced back yard with automatic sprinklers and concrete patio. Property comes with refrigerator, washer, and dryer.

To get additional information on this property, to make an appointment to view this property, to make an offer to purchase this property, or to get status updates for this property, please visit our website www.HowToBuyThisHouse.com.

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Three bedroom, two bathroom, single story home for sale in Olivehurst, California with approximately 1,092 square feet of living space. Built in 1992. Stucco and wood exterior. Slab foundation. Living room has ceiling fan, fireplace, and tile floor. Kitchen has black and white appliances, oak cabinets, laminate counter tops, and tile floors. Dining area. Laundry in garage. Two car garage. Patio in back yard.

To get additional information on this property, to make an appointment to view this property, to make an offer to purchase this property, or to get status updates for this property, please visit our website www.HowToBuyThisHouse.com.

When It's Time To Sell Your Home: Over Paying Is Over Rated. Sell Your Home Or Income Property. $4,995 FLAT FEE. Full Service At A Competitive Price. Visit www.SorensenAndAssociates.com For More Information.

Single story duplex with two bedroom, one bathroom units for sale in Williams, California with approximately 1,922 square feet of living space. Septic system. Well system. Wood exterior. Slab foundation. Shed. Fully fenced.

To get additional information on this property, to make an appointment to view this property, to make an offer to purchase this property, or to get status updates for this property, please visit our website www.HowToBuyThisHouse.com.

When It's Time To Sell Your Home: Over Paying Is Over Rated. Sell Your Home Or Income Property. $4,995 FLAT FEE. Full Service At A Competitive Price. Visit www.SorensenAndAssociates.com For More Information.

Five bedroom, three bathroom, single family home for sale in Linda, California with approximately 3500 square feet of living space. Built in 2006. Tile entryway. Family room. Living room. Kitchen with island. Master bedroom with master bathroom and walk in closet. Four car garage.

To get additional information on this property, to make an appointment to view this property, to make an offer to purchase this property, or to get status updates for this property, please visit our website www.HowToBuyThisHouse.com.

When It's Time To Sell Your Home: Over Paying Is Over Rated. Sell Your Home Or Income Property. $4,995 FLAT FEE. Full Service At A Competitive Price. Visit www.SorensenAndAssociates.com For More Information.

I do not conduct real estate BUSINESS over the phone with other real estate agents. Ever...

When I have my own office, for E and O purposes, I will seriously consider making such a policy mandatory.

A significant part of the real estate business is about record keeping and maintaining a paper trail.

As far as my interaction with other real estate agents in my area goes, this is not at all a problem for me.

Because I will not conduct business with other real estate agents over the phone, there is no trail BUT the paper trail...

Here is a great example of what a benefit this is:

1. Agent X sends me an email to schedule an appointment to see a house I have for sale. (I only schedule showing appointments via email.)

2. Agent X has her showing appointment confirmed and shows my listing the next day.

3. The day after that, I get a call from my seller Mr. A.
 
4. Mr. A informs me that Agent X told him about how hard it was to schedule a showing appointment and about how Agent X had to contact me 10 times before she could get an appointment.

Now, here is the problem, if I schedule showing appointments over the phone, how do I "prove" to my client that I am doing my job?

Because I don't do business over the phone, this is never a problem.

This is what I tell my client:

Mr. A, as we agreed in our listing appointment, I only schedule showing appointments for your property via email.

Even if there is something wrong with my email (appointment requests are in my junk folder), Agent X should be able to fax to me all 10 copies of the emails she sent requesting an appointment.

If I made a mistake somehow, then I am truly sorry and will do my best to correct the problem.

If Agent X can't produce these 10 emails, then I recommend you do what I do.

I pay no attention to what real estate agents SAY.

When it comes to how I conduct my business with other agents, there is only one paper trail leading in...and one paper trail leading out...

How long is your paper trail???

Thank you very much for your time,

Edward

Check Out The Other Posts In This Series:

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part I Introduction

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part II What Kind Of Angry Agent Are You???

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part III To The Virgins, To Make Much Of Time

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part IV What Does A Buyer's Agent REALLY Need To Know???

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part V Out Of Chaos...Order

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part VI  If It's Not In Writing It's NOT Real Estate...

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part VII Don't Believe Anything I SAY

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part VIII What Exactly Are You Hiding???

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part IX  How Long Is Your Paper Trail???

Some agents have commented on the fact that I only have five buyer sides completed over the past two years.

Five was more than enough.

The first few transactions I worked on were was a buyer's agent, and I swore I would not do that again...

Working with listing agents, was by far, my greatest frustration.

I had problems getting showing instructions and making listing appointments as much as any other agent.

I personally did not care if another agent called me back so that we could have a nice chit-chat...I was just trying to get some work done.

I would ask myself, "Why am I waiting for a listing agent to call me back with information they could have distributed automatically? This is not that hard..."

Even after I got my client into a property, there was the offer process to deal with, which was usually much worse.

My offers often seemed to go into a black hole-never to be seen again.

Even if an agent would give me an offer status over the phone, that information was unreliable because it was unverifiable.

That is yet another reason I don't do business over the phone with other agents.

My website, InstructionsForAgents.com has a long way to go, but is distinctly better than conducting business over the phone.

Everyone, other agents, potential buyers, my seller client, and my broker can see, more or less, exactly what I have going on for each property I have listed.

There are no offers from my agent/friends to squeak in at the last minute in the dead of night.

It would be very hard for me to make offers from other agents "mysteriously disappear".

It is a completely level playing field for any agent of any buyer who wants to put in an offer.

It's completely level because:

1. All of the information is in one place.

2. Everyone has access to the same information.

So, why don't other listing agents make their businesses as transparent as possible like I do?

My question to my fellow listing agents:

What exactly are you hiding???

Thank you very much for your time,

Edward

Check Out The Other Posts In This Series:

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part I Introduction

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part II What Kind Of Angry Agent Are You???

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part III To The Virgins, To Make Much Of Time

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part IV What Does A Buyer's Agent REALLY Need To Know???

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part V Out Of Chaos...Order

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part VI  If It's Not In Writing It's NOT Real Estate...

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part VII Don't Believe Anything I SAY

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part VIII What Exactly Are You Hiding???

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part IX  How Long Is Your Paper Trail???

Let's take a moment to dissect a hypothetical phone call between a buyer's and seller's agents:

Seller's Agent: Hey! Here we are on the phone together...How can I help you today?

Buyer's Agent: I am just calling about your listing on 123 Main Street.

Seller's Agent: Great! What would you like to know?

Buyer's Agent: My buyers were interested in the condition of the roof.

Seller's Agent: I can assure you that the roof on this property is made of 24 carat gold...

Buyer's Agent: Great! Do you have any offers?

Seller's Agent: Yes, 16 offers. All cash. That property is as good as sold...

Can someone please explain to me what this buyer's agent just accomplished by picking up the phone and making this phone call?

All that the buyer's agent has discovered is that the roof is made of gold and the property has 16 cash offers on it.

This information may be true. It may be false. It may be somewhere in between...

The information provided cannot be relied upon because there is no written information available that substantiates these claims.

Even if there is written information substantiating these claims, the assertions of the seller's agent can't be relied upon until the supporting documents are received and reviewed by the buyer's agent.

Worse that that, the buyer's agent has no proof that the seller's agent EVER told her that the roof is made of gold and the property has 16 cash offers on it, verbally, over a phone.

Why would a buyer's agent ever put their buyer, someone who is about to make what is most likely the biggest investment of their lives, in a position of relying, in any way, even for 5 minutes, on the unverifiable and legally unenforceable statements of a seller's agent made over a phone?

My advice to buyer's agents.

Put down that phone...!

Stop playing checkers and start playing chess...

But hey, don't believe anything I SAY.

Thank you very much for your time,

Edward

Check Out The Other Posts In This Series:

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part I Introduction

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part II What Kind Of Angry Agent Are You???

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part III To The Virgins, To Make Much Of Time

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part IV What Does A Buyer's Agent REALLY Need To Know???

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part V Out Of Chaos...Order

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part VI  If It's Not In Writing It's NOT Real Estate...

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part VII Don't Believe Anything I SAY

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part VIII What Exactly Are You Hiding???

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part IX  How Long Is Your Paper Trail???

Agents all over the state of California will spend countless hours on the phone today with other real estate agents and not a single piece of real estate "business", in any legal sense of that term, will be conducted over the phone today.

No business will be conducted because it is a legal impossibility.

In California, all relevant information regarding a real estate transaction 99.9% of the time has to be in writing.

So, if these phone calls can serve no business purpose, they can't be business calls.

Which only means one thing.

All of these calls are social calls.

Some agents have commented that they use a phone call to "size up" the other agent.

Personally, I don't need a phone call to size up another agent.

I will do my sizing up when that agent sends me something relevant to the business in which I am engaged-in writing.

Other agents have commented honestly that they spend time on the phone with other agents "relationship building" read socializing.

I can see where socializing with other agents could actually be a really good idea, and I might even join in someday.

I will just have to remind myself-If it's not in writing, it's NOT real estate.

Thank you very much for your time,

Edward

Check Out The Other Posts In This Series:

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part I Introduction

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part II What Kind Of Angry Agent Are You???

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part III To The Virgins, To Make Much Of Time

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part IV What Does A Buyer's Agent REALLY Need To Know???

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part V Out Of Chaos...Order

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part VI  If It's Not In Writing It's NOT Real Estate...

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part VII Don't Believe Anything I SAY

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part VIII What Exactly Are You Hiding???

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part IX  How Long Is Your Paper Trail???

I have seen this question come up a few times lately on ActiveRain.com...

How annoyed Agent X is because Agent Y won't return a phone call.

In order to analyze this situation a little deeper, I am going to start with a hypothetical situation.

Situation A:

1. You are a buyer's Agent X.
2. You have a buyer who wants to see a house listed by Agent Y.
3. You call Agent Y and and leave a message with him or her asking for instructions to show the property.
4. You have been waiting two days with no response from Agent Y.
5. You are angry...

Question:

Why EXACTLY are you angry?

Answer A: You are annoyed. This situation is inefficient and illogical.

Answer B. You are indignant. It is simply not fair...in some moral or ethical sense...that Agent Y will not return your call.

Answer C: You are offended. You asked for a call back. Agent Y is defying your will by refusing to return your phone call.

Answer D: You are hurt. Agent Y does not take you seriously and/or is not being friendly or supportive.

Do any of the answer choices above most closely fit with WHY you are angry?

Is is some combination of the answer choices above? Say...(A 10%, B 30%, C 40%, D 10%)

There is no need to comment with your score if you don't want to.

All I am asking is that you take a quiet moment, be completely honest with yourself, and decide what your answer is.

Moving on...

Situation B:

1. You are a buyer's Agent X.
2. You have a buyer who wants to see a house listed by Agent Y.
3. You call Agent Y and and leave a message with him or her asking for instructions to show the property.
4. You have been waiting two days with no response from Agent Y.
5. You are angry...
6. You check the MLS again and determine that the showing instructions were available to you the entire time.

This question has to do with how you as Agent X feel about Agent Y (not about how you as Agent X feels about yourself having missed the showing information in the first place).

Answer A: You don't really worry about it. The information was there. You now have it and can move on.

Answer B. You are still annoyed at Agent Y. Agent Y should have called you with the information anyway even if it was already provided.

There is no need to comment with your score if you don't want to.

All I am asking is that you take a quiet moment, be completely honest with yourself, and decide what your answer is.

Thank you very much for your time,

Edward

Check Out The Other Posts In This Series:

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part I Introduction

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part II What Kind Of Angry Agent Are You???

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part III To The Virgins, To Make Much Of Time

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part IV What Does A Buyer's Agent REALLY Need To Know???

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part V Out Of Chaos...Order

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part VI  If It's Not In Writing It's NOT Real Estate...

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part VII Don't Believe Anything I SAY

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part VIII What Exactly Are You Hiding???

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part IX  How Long Is Your Paper Trail???

If I don't answer the phone, how do I provide buyer's agents the information they need about my listings?

I realized pretty quickly that agents were calling in asking the exact same questions over and over to which I was providing the same answers over and over.

The questions fell into the following 4 categories:

ITEM 1. How To Show The Property (Days and Times Available/Lock Boxes And Location/Occupancy Status/Special Instructions: Pets.../How To Make An Appointment, Etc.)

ITEM 2. How To Write An Offer On The Property (Where To Send The Offer/What That Offer Must Include/What Happens To Offers After Delivery, Etc.)

ITEM 3. The Status Of A Property (How Many Offers/Status of Offers/Short Sale Negotiation Status, Etc.)

ITEM 4. Information About The Property (Size, Color of Carpet, Disclosures and Reports Available, Etc.)

When an agent called in with a new question I had not been asked before, I just added it to the list.

After doing this for about two months, I took all of most common questions and categorized them by type.

I then looked through the applicable rules, (California State Law, NAR Ethical Guidelines, Local MLS Guidelines, Etc.) to see what information could be or, conversely, had to be released for each listing.

After that, I talked to some much more knowledgeable agents and brokers as to if they thought the information I was giving out that would not to a disadvantage to my seller clients in some way.

Based on my research, I made a list of all of the information I needed for each property I had listed.

I tried some different methods of delivery: (Bulk Email Lists, Integrated Voice Response Systems, or Email Auto Responders).

All proved unsuccessful.

They were either:

1. Too expensive.
2. Unnecessarily difficult to maintain.
3. Were not "buyer agent friendly" enough for different reasons.

I settled on using a website: www.InstructionsForAgents.com.

It's cheap.

It's easy to update.

It's easy to use.

It works 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

It provides far more information that I can provide in a phone call.

If I only had one listing a year, I would still use a website like this instead of relying on a telephone.

If I answered every call from every agent that called in, I would still use a website like this instead of relying on a telephone.

Why?

No matter how diligent I might be about answering calls from other agents:

I could be on the phone with a client.

I could be in the shower.

I could be at a soccer game.

I could be out of cell phone range.

I could be in a meeting or training for hours on any given day.

There is no logical need, in the year 2010, for any buyer's agent to EVER have to wait for me to return a phone call to get the routine information they need about a property I have listed.

The reliance on return phone calls for this purpose makes no sense to me at all.

So...I invite everyone to take a look at www.InstructionsForAgents.com.

Let me know what you think is missing, or what can be improved.

It's a work in progress.

(And I still haven't gotten to everything about why I think this is the best solution available considering all of the alternatives. I will get to that later.)

The more feedback I get, the better it can be.

Thank you very much for your time,

Edward

Check Out The Other Posts In This Series:

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part I Introduction

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part II What Kind Of Angry Agent Are You???

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part III To The Virgins, To Make Much Of Time

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part IV What Does A Buyer's Agent REALLY Need To Know???

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part V Out Of Chaos...Order

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part VI  If It's Not In Writing It's NOT Real Estate...

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part VII Don't Believe Anything I SAY

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part VIII What Exactly Are You Hiding???

Why I Never Answer The Phone When Another Agent Calls-Part IX  How Long Is Your Paper Trail???