It simply amazes me how many real estate agents can be so caviler and inefficient in the way they conduct themselves.
A listing realtor has a sworn duty and responsibility to work in the seller’s best interest.
How do many of these realtors justify this obligation when they do not even return inquires of interest concerning the very properties they are supposedly working in the best interest of a seller to sell. If they do not communicate the sales process either stalls or dies on the vine.
Return communication is the second step in this process. The first step is advertising, either through signage or print/Internet. Most firms have someone assigned to perform these duties and they do usually get the word out that a particular property is available for sale. It is in the second step of communication where realtors constantly fall down.
Case in point. I recently responded to a full-page advertisement in the New England Real Estate Journal. This full-page advertisement was placed by one of the offices of the largest real estate chain in the country. This full-page ad contained only one agents name, picture and contact information and it had two parcels of land that I was interested in. I called this Realtor and left two unanswered messages over the course of four days. About the seventh day she finally answered the phone and I attempted to gain some information about the properties. She was not at her desk and her memory concerning the facts was shaky at best so she asked me to send her an email and said she would send the pertinent information back to me upon receipt. I did so the next day and honestly I then forgot about her and these properties. A week later I received mail from her about some totally unrelated real estate. I was put on her automatics mailer but had still not been sent the information I was promised.
I made the effort of four contacts seeking information about some unfortunate sellers land that I could now care less about. I feel sorry for the property owner for trusting this realtor. I made more of an effort (4 to 0) to get information concerning this property than the realtor did. For this property it is just too difficult to do business this way. Someone wasted $1,200 for a full-page advertisement and the seller is still the party that suffers from poor agent representation.
As a group realtors suffer from a bad reputation. One of their largest sins is their not returning property inquiry phone calls. It is extremely frustrating when potential buyers put more effort into seeking information than the listing realtors does in providing the information. This lack of communication is not in the seller’s best interest.
James Joseph