System of Organizing Buyers and Sellers--Bob Buyer AR 12-1-12 321YDG1

System of Organizing Buyers and Sellers:

There are just three in my brokerage right now--me, myself, and I so I have to have systems in place.  One of those systems that other REALTORS might want to incorporate has to do with organizing my buyers and sellers.  This would not be an issue if I only had one buyer or one seller at a time but at any given time I am working with about 200 buyers and have 15 to 25 listings at a time.  I'm almost 60 years old so I need reminders of who all these people are; especially when I don't talk or email or text with them every day and some of them have been researching for months and years just waiting to find that dream house or for sellers to see when it looks like the best time to list their house.

The System of Organizing Buyers and Sellers I use is to create an email folder for every buyer or seller with the following information in the email folder name:

1) Buyer or Seller name

2) Source of where the buyer or seller came from so I know how many transactions came from AR (ActiveRain), from former clients' referrals (CR), from former clients (FC), from church (C), from my IDX, Exp from working Expired's and FSBO from working FSBO's, etc.

3) Date of first contact

4) Minimum number of bedrooms, bathrooms, garages (X if not required or number of minimum garage spaces), whether basement is required Y or N for Yes or No), maximum price or price range, area of town or city or cities desired (LA1 for instance is NW Lawrence Kansas, DG1 is NW rural Douglas County--these are the codes used in our MLS), plus any other features, condition, square footage minimum, year built, etc. requirements the buyer has OR the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, garages, whether there is a basement, address, anticipated listing price for sellers.

They show up like this in my email program.

Buyers:

• A Buyer IDX 9-18-12 321XLAFireplace175k
• B Buyer FC 12-4-12 422YDGAtLease5Acres260k
• C Buyer C 11-27-12 311XLA4_150k

This seems a little complicated at first but it is actually very easy after doing two or three of these.

A buyer example would be:  Bob Buyer AR 12-1-12 321YDG1_1800_1990_fenced220k (which means Bob Buyer came as a lead from ActiveRain on December 1st, 2012 and wants at least 3 bedrooms, at least 2 bathrooms, at least a 1 car garage, requires a basement, house to be in rural NW Douglas County, 1800 is minimum sqft, and 1990 means he wants a 1990 or newer house with a fenced yard and a purchase price under $220k).

A seller example would be:  Sally Seller FC 12-2-12 432Y_2744_1976 (which means Sally Seller is a Former Client who contacted me on December 2nd, 2012 and has a 4 bedroom, 3 bathrrom, 2 car garage, with a basement, with 2744 sqft, built in 1976, and the address is 300 RockFence Pl).

If they are both a buyer and a seller then I place both their buyer search criteria and their house for sale info in the folder name.  For their buyer folder name the buyer info goes first and for their seller folder name their house for sale info goes first.

Not only does this help when Bob Buyer and Sally Seller call me to recall the particulars but these mail folder names are fully searchable so if I get a new listing is 321Y I can quickly search through the hundreds of my buyers to see if I already have a buyer for this seller.  This last happened in October 2012 when I got a call to list 1306 Oak Hill in Lawrence and searched my buyers' mailbox folder names and found my buyers who ended up buying the house with a full price offer just as the house appeared on the MLS.

Now there is no sense in re-inventing the wheel and having to re-type this information over and over so here are how this Bob Buyer AR 12-1-12 321YDG1_1800_1990_fenced220k and Sally Seller FC 12-2-12 432Y_2744_1976 are copied and pasted and are used over and over.

First, I copy the mailbox folder name (such as Sally Seller FC 12-2-12 432Y_2744_1976) and create a contact in my AddressBook on my Mac and paste it in as the contact name and add the email address, phone number, etc.

Second, I sync that contact with my iPhone so when the buyer or seller calls I am reminded where the lead client came from, when I received the lead, what they are looking for and/or what they are selling.  When my iPad syncs automatically the contact appears on it as well.

Third, I paste the Sally Seller FC 12-2-12 432Y_2744_1976 into the Google search field when I open my browser but I don't hit enter.  My browser opens to my MLS and I go to add a new client and set up the new client by again pasting and set up Lawrence Kansas email alerts for that buyer client of properties matching their search criteria (shown in the Google search field of my browser below) or to alert the seller of the competition to their house for sale.  My buyers and sellers love being able to see these email alerts without having to remember to go search for themselves.  Buyers love to mark their favorites or possibilities and to reject properties and not have to view them ever again as shown below so call Rob Lang, At Home Kansas, 785-393-2274 to have him set up your email alerts in the Lawrence Kansas homes for sale area.

Fourth, I paste the Sally Seller FC 12-2-12 432Y_2744_1976 as the folder name where I will keep all the documents for that seller or paste Bob Buyer AR 12-1-12 321YDG1_1800_1990_fenced220k where I will keep all the documents for that buyer.

In the process, this also helps me generate new buyers and sellers because when I post this blog, I will get more buyers asking me to set up email alerts and more sellers asking me to list their house.

So, no, Bob Buyer AR 12-1-12 321YDG1_1800_1990_fenced220k is not a foreign language.  It is just makes me better at my job and is my easy to copy and use System of Organizing Buyers and Sellers.