waiting for the call

Ed,

You are so right. It kills me to get agents voice mail time after time. Also these offices were you get stuck in voice mail hell is crazy. They do not realize how much business they are loosing.

Just think if they don't answer for you how potential buyers feel when they don't answer. Your right real estate is 24/7.

Hey....if you don't call back within a reasonable amount of time,  SOMEONE else will.

Patricia Aulson/NH<ME<MA

I don't answer my phone at two in the morning, because there have to be boundaries.  Real estate, after all, is not brain surgery where life or death depend on answering the phone at insane hours, and doing that for your client simply trains them that you are not a professional, or for that matter even a person, you are an object to be used.  They would not expect such a response from any other professional they deal with (the brain surgeon excepted, and likely not even then); why teach them to expect it from you? 

That being said, during normal business hours and reasonable outside-of-business hours, I'll reply to messages left on my cell phone when I get them.  I have enough respect for my clients not to answer any but the most critical calls when they, the clients, should be receiving my full attention, but I also have enough respect for my fellow agents to know that they are only calling because they need information in order to better serve their clients, and I would hope for the same consideration from their end (the operative word here being hope; as you indicate, that hope is sometimes forelorn). 

I do try to call well before an anticipated showing of a property, if the call is to be to the agent and not the seller(and, really, even if the call is to the seller to schedule the visit), considering that the agent might with a client and not be able to call me back for a while.

Voice mail in offices during normal business hours is a no-no, though.  There should be someone there to pick up the phone, even if it's an answering service. 

I agree with Tricia. I'll answer my phone during reasonable hours. I can't understand why people seem to think that real estate agents should be available at absurd times. If the banks, title companies and attorney's offices aren't open, it's not like we can give them any more information than what's available at our finger tips. We can't even call to schedule an appointment with a seller if it doesn't fit into the seller's time frame. 

Buyers and sellers should understand that we have families, church, health problems, other appointments, etc, just like the rest of the world. AND, it would rude for me to answer me phone when I'm with another client. My message says "I give each of you my undivided attention". That's the service I promise my clients. If I'm going to be showing properties for several hours, I let the client know that I'll need to check messages and return calls at periodic intervals, while we're looking.  Or if I'm presenting an offer, my focus needs to be on the sellers, so the details are fully understood.

If another agent is calling to schedule an appointment to see one of my listings, if it's vacant, it will say so on the MLS sheet and they can go ahead and show it. Otherwise, an appointment would need to be scheduled with my sellers, who many times are quite elderly and do not respond well to short notice.  That is common in this area, since so many people retire to Florida. 

However, waiting several days to return a call is absurd, unless the agent was deathly ill. Calls should be returned within a reasonable period of time. Unfortunately, we all have different idea of what's considered reasonable.

all the realtors should get together and stick with a time frame where everyone answers their phone and let is pass to voicemail after certain time period.   Somehow, the banks got all the time schedules agreed to have between 1o am to 5 pm every day.  why can't we do the same thing. why should be always be begging at the clients call.   if the real estate professional industry would create common open hours we would all have some extra life.

I agree with being available as much as possible but with boundaries on that. In this business, you can loose a client by not being prompt in answering or in response time. Great post and wonderful reading everyone's comments.

Best to you all!