It started off like any other Sunday. I got off shift at the ambulance company at 7am and headed home. After a quick shower, changing into some regular clothes, and jumping back into the small grey roller skate as I call it, off to the supermarket I went. After running around doing the weeks grocery shopping [did I mention I hate this part of life?] I was at the self service check out when a lady walks up to me. I looked up and said Hello to her, then went on with scanning my groceries. The lady stood there a moment and then out of the blue says to me:
"Why do you guys never return calls?"
Nothing more, just this simple question. Needless to say I was a bit taken aback. "You guys?" I thought. After a few minutes conversation I ascertained that it was not someone from my real estate office but an agent she'd tried to call on numerous occasions, and ultimately decided to put her home shopping on hold. In the few minutes we spoke, I discovered she was not ready to buy today, she had some very specific wants, and she was very frustrated because ‘no one wants to help me.' We talked a few minutes, I gave her my card, and asked her to call me when she was ready to start looking again.
Sound familiar to any of you?
Well the story above is an illustration, put together from a number of my experiences in the last year. But as Real Estate agents I'm sure we all have had similar experiences in the past. And there are some very important lessons to be learned here.
I can be as bad as anyone in following up. Life gets busy, a ‘hot' prospect gets all our attention, or the 10th deal to fall through this year makes us have an ‘I don't care' attitude. People expect that you won't call them back. They expect you won't want to help them because they aren't buying immediately. By calling them once a week, sending an email, leaving a message at home, you can convert these people into buyers by simply providing GREAT customer service. And exceeding THEIR expectations makes you stand out from the crowd.
With the real estate market in my part of the country, people can take 6 months to find a home, look at 30+ properties, and take forever to finally write an offer. But perseverance will pay off in the end. And may garner you a few referrals down the line.
A few tools that you can use to help with keeping up with people:
http://www.openoffice.org/ - a free Microsoft Office clone program.
http://www.constantcontact.com/ - A service that allows you to send out newsletters easily.
http://www.list.org/ - Mail Man Mailing list script for your website. It's Free!
Keep up with your clients, look for ways to manage your clients easier, and you may earn a few extra deals each year.
This is just my view as a new agent from the trenches.
Good Luck and enjoy your day!
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