The lost art of picking up the phone

Marcie,

You are SO right. I have had agents email me a contract (with no phone call) only to find it in the SPAM folder later.  :)  The phone is our friend!!!

I try to present all offers in person to the seller with their agent present.  Of course that doesn't work with short sales and reo properties.  This is ok with sellers 99% of the time.  Ithink it does a disservice to the buyer to email or fax the offer.  If the seller cannot meet or does not want to meet, then I sit down in person and go over the offer with the listing agent.

Hi Marcie~  It is so important that we make sure the listing agent KNOWS we have written an offer and where it is ASAP  and that means by making SURE they acknowledge it and we leave nothing to chance.  Our buyers are counting on it!

Thank you! For that. When the deals on the line call and make sure things a go. I enjoy texting but if money riding on it, please make sure everything's a go. Thank goodness that has not happened to me.

I was thinking the post was about phone etiquette. (i spell that right)

I like to call as soon as we are scheduled to write the offer just to give the seller and seller's agent something to anticipate.

Agreed!!! Yes, I love email, too, but it will never take the place of a good old-fashioned phone call! Very well-written article and SO to the point.

At a prior agency I worked with, I was based out of my home--only went into the office to turn in contracts/listings/pick up checks.

Imagine my amazement to find in my mailbox, midst various flyers, an offer on one of my listings.  It had been there maybe five days--no call or email heads upping me to expect/nor questioning had I received or querying me as to how it sat with the sellers.  The home had sold a good week earlier.  The offer was one of those "investor specials", well below market value.  But just the same, it seemed an awfully strange, chancey way to "do business."

This person, obviously did not get your apropos memo, (our job is to pick up the phone and get our offer noticed!)

Marcie ~ so true, to true,  I like to follou up phone clls with a little note to let them know that I appreciated the conversation.

Marcie sometimes the convenience of email gets in the way of personal relationships and service.  One should not assume that people check their emails throughout the day or even everyday.  This should be a wake up call and I'm re-blogging this.

Couldn't agree more!  Great perspective and good story, Marcie.

Marcy, yeah, this one totally blew my mind.  The Phone was a great invention. 

I think this part of your post needs to be repeated:

If you can't create a personal connection, you really shouldn't be in real estate. 

Hi Marcie-

Even if I have an e-mail and fax and instructions t use them, I wold never skip the phone call.  It's by job to ascertain that offer is submitted and to represent myself correctly as the friendliest, most professional agent - that's what's in my Buyer's best interest!

Thanks for posting and to Jim Frimmer for re-blogging!

--Sara in San Antonio

Hi Marcie, wow, that is a great story of what not to do. Yikes! I mean, I get my email right on my Blackberry, but heaven forbid that the email got stuck in my spam folder (it happens). And you are right, the agent really lost, missed the boat on that one.

Did someone break the news to the lucky person? :D