"I've NEVER heard a buyer or seller say their agent contacted them TOO MUCH!"
This contest caught my attention because, contrary to the quote that inspired it, I have heard several people complain that their agent pesters them too much with weekly or more frequent check-ins that have little value to them. Maybe that is more prevalent in my market because our average DOM can often be 180 days. It isn’t unusual to go a couple of weeks without any activity. Hearing or reading the same “no activity” report does get boring.
I am a listing agent who also works with buyers and I work with a small team. This contest asks us to describe in detail how we maintain communication with our clients. My apology in advance if this is a very boring blog. I imagine most of us do much of what I am going to outline here.
How I communicate with my sellers and buyers
With my listing clients I begin before the listing appointment by pre-qualifying the client (determining their motivation to sell and expectations for timing and price), and then delivering documentation of my marketing plan and other services plus the current market activity for their area and property type.
During the listing presentation I set expectations for mutual communications. My clients need to be responsible and responsive for us to be successful. They know if there is any activity I will report it at least weekly, usually providing some feedback immediately following every showing or open house and also a weekly summary of marketing activity. If there is no activity I ask them if they'd like me to skip that report.
My buyers are interviewed and pre-qualified both for their motivation and their financial ability to perform. The latter may include producing a current statement of cash on hand for cash buyers or for proof of down payment ability. It always includes a pre-approval letter, preferably from a local lender, for buyers intending to finance their purchase.
With both sellers and buyers when we enter escrow communication is ramped up. My system targets completion of each task or document in advance of its deadline. My team has had good results on our side of the escrow process in part because we have an “escrow presentation” (I give our clients a detailed explanation of the process and importance of various steps along with common problems that arise). Experienced buyers and sellers don’t need this but we will still do a simplified review in case they are not familiar with current regulations in our state.
We communicate as needed throughout the escrow process with our clients, the agents on the other side, various service providers, the lender if one is involved, and of course we are in constant communication with the escrow officer. All of this needs to be done in concert to maximize our contribution to the smoothest escrow process possible.
Most of these communications are copied to all parties and to our document management system. A few personal or private communications are filtered out but otherwise we maintain records of everything including automated transcriptions of all our text messages and summaries of verbal communications.
Communication is vital to our success and needs to be tailored to serve the various needs of our clients.
TIMELY and CLEAR communication is essential with all parties from our first contact all the way through a successful closing.
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