The setup
For those readers who don’t know, I am no longer a Realtor. In November of 2007 I left being a Realtor and went on staff at my local Association, working as the Education Director. I still routinely receive those annoying “Just Listed” and “Please sell my listing” e-mails in my personal e-mail box. I hated them when I was practicing and I hate them more now. Mainly because I HAVE MLS ACCESS! If I have a client that is interested in a certain property, please spend time ensuring that your MLS entry stands out….not sending me more junk mail. I won’t even bore you with my rhetoric about how poorly educated the Realtor community is on CAN SPAM…
The Latest Gift
Two days ago I received an e-mail on my personal account from an agent in a neighboring MLS. An MLS system and local board that I have never been a member of. The e-mail was very simple. It said, “Here is my new listing, please click the link below and let me know if you have any questions.” The price was moderate to high for that area. The listing had been in MLS for several days. I have no idea what possessed me to click on the link, but I did and here are my questions –
1. Why are there NO pictures on this listing. Not one single picture of a “waterfront” property?!?!
2. Why did you send me the Agent side listing with the combination to the lockbox, when I am not a member of your board and I haven’t been practicing for six months?
3. Why does your description simply say “Waterfront, Canoe launch and ready to sell?”
a. If it’s listed, doesn’t that already lead me to believe the it’s ready to sell?
b. Canoe launch? Isn’t kind of something that you can carry on your shoulder and just throw in the water?
c. If that’s the most you can say about the listing, than why would I possible want to go see it?
4. Does your seller know that over 87% of listings sell from MLS and that over 60% of consumers will not even look at a listing that doesn’t have AT LEAST six photos?
5. Why is the directions entry blank
6. Why are there no measurements?
7. Why do I have to call the School Board to find the schools that service the area? Do you not know enough about this area?
8. Does your seller know how tremendously under-qualified you evidentially are, to list their home?
What more is there to say?
Beth Skinner
April 24, 2008 at 8:53 am
!!!YES!!! I have had to create more and more filters on my email account just to gather all the spam I get from Realtors, Title folk and Mortgage Brokers. The generic spam “buy viagra for 10 cents each!” doesn’t bother me as much as the people who purposely sit down and send me their listing/title/mortgage junk to the email address they either stole off my blog or got from my local board (which is another issue altogether).
And then there’s my boss who forwards the SAME spam to me as some sort of educational announcement I guess. Arrrrgggghhhh!!!
One company in the area who sends me agent spam all the time, recently emailed me and asked me to click on a link to verify my “subscription.” Since I never “subscribed” to begin with I didn’t click on it. Of course they still send me emails. Although I no longer see them because they’re set up to head directly to the trash now.
Sigh. I feel a little better now.
Irina Netchaev
April 24, 2008 at 8:54 am
Matt, I can not agree more with you. What a disgrace! It’s amazing how many properties show up on the MLS (forget the emails from agents) without pictures (yes… I know how hard it is to pick from a huge range of digital cameras!) or even a description of the property. I bet the seller of this home would be excited to know that everyone and their mother has access to enter their home. Very, very sad!
As far as the actual emails from agents – yes… they can be annoying. Although, once in awhile I get an email that is so well presented that it makes me look at the property again.
Julie Emery
April 24, 2008 at 9:17 am
The percentage of properties with no or one photo, no measurements and no school info is astonishing. In a tough market it’s actually rising! I understand that agents listing REOs and short sales are often choosing to work for a lower commission to work in volume. But do the banks and the sellers of these properties understand what bad service they’re getting?!
You’d think basic professionalism would require some minimum standards of information provided!
Matthew Rathbun
April 24, 2008 at 10:06 am
Julie – I happen to think that MLS shouldn’t allow listings in MLS without a photo, but what do I know!?!?
At a minimum agents should remember that MLS is usually a database. If I do a search for homes over 2000 square feet and your listing matches all other criteria and maybe over 3000 square feet – but if you leave that field as zero or empty, it won’t come up.
Nick Bostic
April 24, 2008 at 10:33 am
I’m on the email list of an agent for a development that I am seriously interested in. She sent out a PDF flyer (annoyed already) of the last house to sell. I looked it over multiple times before finally emailing her and saying “Maybe I just missed it, but I didn’t see a price, bed/bath count or square footage. Did I overlook something?” The response was “Nope, here is the info you requested.”
Is it just me or are these things no-brainers if you want to move a listing?
Danilo Bogdanovic
April 24, 2008 at 12:58 pm
I used to work for a team that sent out email blasts every time someone had a new listing and when there was a price adjustment on any of the listings. The thing I heard most often from other agents was “You’re on that team that spams me with emails about their listings!”
As for the missing information…I guess some people just don’t get it.
John Lauber
April 24, 2008 at 4:08 pm
I’m with you on this one Matt. Now there’s a new “service” that will blast everyone in surrounding states. I’m in PA, they’re in NJ. I guess they want my referral since I’m not licensed there? As if I wasn’t getting enough of these things already, I need to get your Sunday open house announcement from NJ.
Full disclosure, I did use one of these services once. I regretted it, knowing CAN-SPAM, etc., and knowing how I feel about receiving them. Similarly, I’m not sure how the paper fliers are worth anything either. The trash can over the weekend gets filled by agents stopping in the office. I’m not sure how this archaic practice still sells homes (if it does). If my client search finds your home, I’ll show it. If my broker tour has your house on the list, I may be stopping by to see it. I think it’s a seller thing. The listing agent can say, “Look how technology savvy I am as I can email all the agents in the area about your listing.” And then they can forward the email to their seller. The seller thinks “wow”, while the agent that actually sells the house didn’t even see the email because it went to their junk folder, but they did find it on their MLS search for their client.
Like Danilo said. Some people just don’t get it on the details and lack of photos.
Glenn fm Naples
April 24, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Matt – glad you posted the questions. 🙂 I don’t mind getting e-mails announcing a new listing – I could have missed it from the hot sheet.
What I do dislike is just listed email from some real agent or real estate brokerage thousands of miles from their market! Guess with the cost of e-mail lists the agents or brokerage can justify the cost of acquisition of the list by sending to everyone on the list? However, imagine the seller hearing during the listing presentation “I send an e-mail announcement of your home to 50,000 real estate agents. Now, can another real estate agent beat that type of promotion?” LOL
Unfortunately today, the accuracy of the information is not as good as it could be and often times, the very information lacking could affect the DOM.
Melina Tomson
April 25, 2008 at 3:32 pm
I never understand sellers that hire people like this…don’t they realize that they have choices?
I love my delete button.
Eric- New Orleans Condos and Lofts
April 25, 2008 at 5:49 pm
I do not like getting most e-mails of properties from most realtors. However there are some very creative ones that I enjoy looking at. I do read them if its something of interest. To have no photos and decent copy is a disserive to the seller. In a way You should be glad we have some competitors like that since it means more business for us.
Jon Griffith
May 26, 2008 at 2:03 pm
E-mail is dead, in my opinion. The best way for me to get my information is to subscribe to it. If you intend to market through e-mail, you will, as consistently as the recipient tries to stop the mail, be looking for ways to make sure that they get it, and that’s a complete waste of time.
E-mail marketing campaigns, in order to be effective at all, need to be targeted campaigns focused on specific criteria. It also needs to be of value to the recipient. Nobody wants junk in their mail, and most people don’t have time to sift through what seems to be junk to find that diamond in the rough.
If I’m looking for a property for my client, I start with the MLS. If your property isn’t in the MLS, then perhaps you aren’t really a REALTOR, in which case, I’m not so sure I want to do business with you, unless choosing not to do so isn’t in the best interest of my client.
If I want specific information in this day and age, I go to the feed. I don’t rely on e-mail for anything more than specific, targeted communication designed to respond to the recipient’s previous request for information. If I send out any blanket e-mails, I always provide a way for the recipient to opt out.
RSS Feeds solve the problem of receiving crap in the inbox. When I want information about an area, I subscribe to the feed. When I want to know if someone posts a comment on this comment thread, I subscribe to the feed. I don’t mark the “send me an e-mail every time someone posts” checkbox on anything as long as there is a feed to monitor. That way, my feed reader can keep track of what I have and have not read, and I don’t have to fill up my mailbox with absolute useless junk.
I was recently added to some e-flyer database and I began receiving those idiotic flyers and I hadn’t initiated contact with the company to begin with. GRRRRR! No bueno.