Requesting Information by Email!

Several years ago I had a similar situation...but instead of insisting on a phone number for the first few weeks we communicated only via email.  I found out later in our relationship that she was going through a difficult breakup and needed to keep things to herself.  The good news is she did use me as her buyers agent!

It's so difficult to separate the people who have no real interest from those who are trying to protect themselves from on-going sales pitches.   

Good luck!

Well said Miriam, unfortunately we come across all kinds of different situations and most be prepared to evaluate the validity of the leads before investing a lot of our time.

Manny Reynaldo,PA,CIPS,TRC  Prudential Florida WCI Realty

Mreynaldo@2BocaHomes.com 

I don't have a problem with consumers wanting information via email first.  It helps establish a relationship.  However if they want to set an appointment to view a home an accurate phone number is a must.  I will call and speak with them first and ask pertinent questions. 

Real life example:   A curious consumer asked several questions via email approximately 4 years ago.  Every so often she would come back to my website, ask another question.  I always replied and would end the email "I hope to meet you someday."   That "someday" was last year.  I sold them a home, and we are getting ready to close on the  home they originally owned today at 3:00 p.m.   That is 2 transactions from a curious consumer who wasn't ready at the time, but kept coming back because the relationship was there.  She's also someone that I want to keep in contact with because after these 4 years I consider her a friend now and don't want that friendship to end. 

Meriam, couldn't agree more. For those that don't have the courtesy of living their phone numbers and names, I do not spend time to research their questions. I'm sure this is one of the many reasons why we hear that "Realtors don't reply." Perhaps, if one were to actually investigate, it might be obvious why there has been no reply if a phone number or name was never given.

Happens all the time...gotta just let it roll off your back. Totally agree with you.

Miriam.  Having just read for the first time your smack down with Moving Careers about the KW kool-aid (good job, btw) I think I can safely say my business model is similar to yours in that I run it like a business, paying attention to expenses, close ratios, value of time, etc.  Though as far as I'm concerned the purpose of any sign call, property call, open house walk-in or email lead is to simply get an appointment, I think most of your sellers would be less than pleased to hear that you qualify leads before attempting to sell/market/dispense info about their house.  I know, I know (trust me, I'm on YOUR side), if they're not going to give you a real email address or phone number chances are they are not a real buyer, I agree ... but who's to say that wasn't the person who would have ended up buying the house?  Don't we have a fiduciary responsibility to safeguard the client's interest (exposing info about the home to as many as possible) over our own ("wasting" our time)?

Listen,  if someone anonymously contacted me and asked me about the future zoning of a piece of land near one of my listings, I would definitely, without doubt, need to know who I was going to invest that amount of time for ... but anything short of that, I think I'd be hard-pressed to not respond to most mundane requests.  Yes it takes a few minutes of my time, but you know how I do it (and I have to do it fairly frequently with my listing inventory)?  I imagine that the request is coming from someone thinking about buying or selling a home and they are testing to see how professional I am - in the response and the promptness of the response.  

I enjoy your blog.