I am counting to 10 before writing this blog. Frustration is a nice word for agents who don't use the tools and systems the way they were intended. In Orlando, our Board came up with a great tool to facilitate the showing of properties. It is called ShowingDesk and it is present on every Broker Synopsis in the MLS. That part is great. The part that isn't is how some agents are using this tool.

I had a buyer over the Labor Day weekend. He and I have been working together for a year and he often calls last minute. We were looking at $600-$800,000 properties and selected only the vacant ones to see as it was a Holiday weekend.

I went into showing desk on the listings and some had the instructions there. "Leave a card, Vacant on Multi-Lock, Lock all doors, etc." Others said to call the Realtor. Ok, most of them were not available all weekend. The one that really got me was where they asked me to select a time from a grid as to when I wanted to show it. It immediately sent me an email telling me it was not confirmed until someone from the office contacted me...vacant property...I received a 2nd email asking me for feedback. I can understand that it is automated. I called the agent several times over the 2 days we were in this neighborhood and no answer. The day after he left, I received another email telling me that my showing was approved. It included a personal note from the agent with the status of the property that was written to me.

All of that information could have been loaded onto the Showing Instructions. An electronic record is kept and ONLY Realtors are able to access it. Alarm Codes, Key Locations, Showing Instructions are all safe and secure. If we could just get Agents trained on how to use the tools, we would all have a much smoother experience.