Realtors...why don't they answer their phones???

Realtors...why don't they answer their phones???

Real Estate Investor · Rossville, GA · Member since 2014 · 218 posts · 96 votes

I recently purchased a home a little further away than I normally do. I used a realtor familiar with the area. I was pleased and decided I would use her to list the home as well. I told her it would be ready in 3 weeks...be ready to list it. I followed up in 2 weeks, left her a message stating the home would be ready next week and asked her to take a look and let me know if I should make any changes. Never heard back from her. So, I call realtor #2. He is the top selling agent in the area. Called and texted for 3 days telling him it was ready to list,we needed to sign the listing agreement, and get it on the MLS. He finally emailed the listing agreement which I docusigned but 3 days passed and still not on MLS. So, I take pics and put on Craigslist and Facebook yard sales. Had tons of replies from qualified buyers which I forwarded to the realtor since I had already signed the listing agreement. We got a contract that night. Am I being unrealistic in my expectations? I've bought and sold several homes with the 2nd realtor in the past 6 months. I don't expect to be top priority but I do expect them to answer or at least give a prompt response. It's not just these 2 either. I don't know that I've ever called a realtor and gotten an answer on first call. Some never call back. I went through the realtor class but don't remember them teaching us not to answer the phone. Any thoughts?

1Reply
345 views

Most Popular Reply

Residential Real Estate Broker · Miami, FL · Member since 2014 · 214 posts · 106 votes
8y
Originally posted by @Mark Fries:
I have been trying to contact the listing agent for a 20 acre track in Yulee, Florida..

After multiple phone calls and emails I received an email response that was approximately one sentence long

"its available"....

I have now decided to try to contact the owner of the property directly and cut the realtor out... I know that's not very professional but after the service I got I don't really care!

One of the reasons I got my license in Miami was after 2 years of renting and dealing with lazy agents, I thought 'If they can make it, I can make it'. Fast forward 5 years and I opened my own company and sell $5ML a year. 

When I first got started, the #1 thing clients told me was "I used you because you answered the phone or called me back right away". People laugh, especially in other cities, when I tell them the 'secret' to my success was responding to people and being friendly. Maybe because I'm not from Miami (Born in Philly) or maybe because I worked in Hospitality for so long, but being nice and responsive just seemed like a basic tenet of being a human. 

Oh well for them, many agents since went out of business and blamed it on the economy, too many realtors, language barrier, etc. (I never learned to speak Spanish either) 

To this day I still deal with agents on a daily basis who DON'T answer their phones AND have full voicemail boxes! Its maddening but I remember that one of the reasons I'm successful Is their lack of professionalism, so its a double edge sword that I now embrace. 

See this reply in the discussion

59 Replies

Jump to latestLatest
  • Specialist · Ann Arbor, MI · Member since 2017 · 74 posts · 22 votes
    8y

    I always answer my phone. If I can't i text back as soon as possible.

    I disagree with @Joe Splitrock slightly, while the younger generation is very phone-phobic, I have had "seasoned Realtors" not call me back for days when I am trying to set a showing. 

    But you are absolutely right that good deals move too fast for RE agents to not answer their phones.

  • Joe SplitrockPro Member
    Moderator
    Rental Property Investor · Sioux Falls, SD · Member since 2015 · 9k+ posts · 18k+ votes
    8y
    Originally posted by @Christopher M.:

    I always answer my phone. If I can't i text back as soon as possible.

    I disagree with @Joe Splitrock slightly, while the younger generation is very phone-phobic, I have had "seasoned Realtors" not call me back for days when I am trying to set a showing. 

    But you are absolutely right that good deals move too fast for RE agents to not answer their phones.

    Sorry if I didn't make it clear, people of all ages will not call you back. I agree that can be anyone. I am just making the observation that younger people are even less likely to use the phone, more likely to text. 

  • Real Estate Broker · Windsor, CT · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 268 votes
    8y

    @Michael Hicks sometime the agents are being super lazy or the property may not necessarily be in their niche price range. Either way you need to keep sorting through the agents to find a very responsive agent. Or the other option is become an agent or just do a FSBO on all the properties you fix and flip. I hate to say never use an agent but in this case I would be taking off my agent hat and saying try doing it your self. Clearly what you did worked, now the down side is you have to pay the agent for the work you did to find the buyer.

    There are other contracts that you can sign next time with the agent that say they only get paid if they bring you a ready and willing buyer. 

  • Rental Property Investor · San Francisco, CA · Member since 2015 · 236 posts · 156 votes
    8y

    It's crazy that this is even a topic! If Realtors want business, why don't they answer their phones? I've had this problem with Realtors in California, Hawaii, Nevada, etc. I've heard most don't answer regarding a particular listing because that listing might be under contract. But what about your other listings? What about your future listings? If they don't want to take the time to return calls, emails, etc., then I would just take my business elsewhere!

    And that's how the cookie crumbles!.....

  • Real Estate Agent · Lake Oswego, OR · Member since 2018 · 1 post · 0 votes
    8y
    That would never happen at my real estate office in Portland, Oregon! But there are some not so smart Brokers out there! Sorry... it’s brokers like the one mentioned that gives the entire industry a bad name! It affects us all, even good brokers that take their career / job seriously!
  • Real Estate Investor · Chicago, IL · Member since 2017 · 172 posts · 47 votes
    8y
    Originally posted by @Bruce Runn:

    @Kumar Tummalapalli

    A couple clarifying answers. I know the areas I invest in extremely well. This property happens to be 1 house off the Mississippi river in an extremely popular neighborhood near downtown and by the University of Minnesota. List price was $500.0 so it moves off the radar for a lot of investors who don't even look at more expensive places. I only buy places I can renovate for condition which this one didn't need or renovate for expansion and I go into every property that may meet my requirements. (you can't ever know if something is a deal unless you go in). People that disqualify based on what a realtor puts on the MLS miss a lot of deals and this is why I say I love lazy realtors.

    I added 2 bedrooms/1 bath to each unit so they went from 2/1 to 4/2 units.  The rent hadn't been raised in 15 years so it reflected really bad returns but I realize that right away so each unit was under rented by $400.  This is exactly the type of deal  I look at but that lots of people dismiss immediately since it doesn't flash as a deal immediately.  I went in within 3 hours of it being listed, ran into the owners, and gave them a verbal full price offer on the spot with my agent which they accepted.  He got the PA over to the listing agent almost immediately to be signed.  

    I've looked at MLS listings that don't look like a deal at all until I go through them so better to waste a little time than miss a killer deal. We bought another duplex last year that was an illegal triplex but legal duplex and the agent just left the bed/bath count and square footage of the illegal unit off the listing-LOL. We put in a PA that day and just combined the illegal portion into another unit which added $1,200/month in rent. Post renovation with new tenant and new rent, it appraised for $150,000 more than we bought/renovated it for.

    @bruce Runn  - Thanks much for expanding. Its much more clear now .

    1. when you said each unit was under rented by 400 - is this from your intimate market knowledge or by talking to property managers in that area

    2. On the illegal  3 unit - did you just convert it back in to 2 units , by making the 2nd unit bigger ?

  • Real Estate Investor · Chicago, IL · Member since 2017 · 172 posts · 47 votes
    8y
    Originally posted by @Bruce Runn:

    @Kumar Tummalapalli

    A couple clarifying answers. I know the areas I invest in extremely well. This property happens to be 1 house off the Mississippi river in an extremely popular neighborhood near downtown and by the University of Minnesota. List price was $500.0 so it moves off the radar for a lot of investors who don't even look at more expensive places. I only buy places I can renovate for condition which this one didn't need or renovate for expansion and I go into every property that may meet my requirements. (you can't ever know if something is a deal unless you go in). People that disqualify based on what a realtor puts on the MLS miss a lot of deals and this is why I say I love lazy realtors.

    I added 2 bedrooms/1 bath to each unit so they went from 2/1 to 4/2 units.  The rent hadn't been raised in 15 years so it reflected really bad returns but I realize that right away so each unit was under rented by $400.  This is exactly the type of deal  I look at but that lots of people dismiss immediately since it doesn't flash as a deal immediately.  I went in within 3 hours of it being listed, ran into the owners, and gave them a verbal full price offer on the spot with my agent which they accepted.  He got the PA over to the listing agent almost immediately to be signed.  

    I've looked at MLS listings that don't look like a deal at all until I go through them so better to waste a little time than miss a killer deal. We bought another duplex last year that was an illegal triplex but legal duplex and the agent just left the bed/bath count and square footage of the illegal unit off the listing-LOL. We put in a PA that day and just combined the illegal portion into another unit which added $1,200/month in rent. Post renovation with new tenant and new rent, it appraised for $150,000 more than we bought/renovated it for.

    By the forgot to mention the most important take away for me - " Learn how to take advantage of these lazy realtors" . Sometimes I tend to get pissed off by lack of quality in contractors , agents not doing their jobs and so on - But its important to look at these things as "opportunities" , if everything was smooth , everybody would be a great investor

  • Real Estate Agent · Honolulu, HI · Member since 2015 · 450 posts · 196 votes
    8y

    I definitely answer my phone or get back to clients shortly after if I'm busy at the moment.  Responsiveness is something I build my business around.  I have noticed that most realtors I've dealt with on the other side of the transaction are not so responsive, and are in the business mainly because they've been doing it long enough to build the client base, despite the lack of quality.

Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.