I recently had a deal that I was working, representing a buyer, and in the process of setting up inspections I sent an email with all the times and days for each appointment to the listing agent. When the market was slow, I used to be able to schedule all the inspections for the same day and close to the same time to get everything over at once, but these days with everyone being so busy, that is often times not the case. That being said, the listing agent replied that she received the message and she would contact the sellers and let me know what they had to say. I received no reply until the morning of the first round of inspections and then it was simply a text stating I was good to go for inspections but per the seller we had to leave the premises by a certain time or we would simply have to reschedule the inspections. I informed the inspectors when they arrived that the seller needed us out by a certain time and everyone was able to finish up with no issues and we were all gone with time to spare.
No harm no foul in this case, but to receive a message at 7am, 2 hours prior to the first inspection that we had to be gone by a certain time could have come off as a little hostel. Especially considering that there had been 48 hours notice that the inspections would occur at this time. That being said, I am not one to over react and I was sure would could be gone in the correct amount of time.
Upon arrival at the house, we found the seller's partner still at the house and she was under the impression she had to be there to let us in and had to remain there during inspections. Her concern and need for time restraints was based on needing to retrieve a child from school and needing to leave in enough to do so.
I am sure that somewhere this topic has been discussed more than once, but a text and an email can only convey a message and not the tone of the message in question. The text came off as a little rude when simply stating that they wanted us off the property in a certain time range, but in all truth teh seller's partner was just worried she would not be able to pick up a child on time due to her believing she had to be present to let us onto the property.
When faced with these situations it's best to remain level headed and not overreact to what you see as a rude text or email and take into consideration that 9 times out of 10, there's usually just a simple misunderstanding. Don't get me wrong, that 10th time, someone may be a real jerk, but that's usually not the case.
So when you are faced with delivering a message that could possibly be taken out of context, you may want to pick up the phone and use it to call rather than sending a text. Deals have been broken by far less than a perceived slight and your tone means a lot especially if you are delivering bad news.
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