I believe you are somewhat right, that alot of the calls are junk call, but what about the truly motivated buyers with cash. These people don’t wait. I know here in Dallas that there are so many Owner Financing ads that these people are just going through the paper trying to find a house they can get into. I had one phone with a person from out of state a while back, moving to dallas with 15k to put down on a 60-70k house. Unfortunately as it turned out, mine was to small, but I know they bought a house that weekend. Because I got another the very next week and it was too late. If you don’t answer your phone or have a live person that does, then sometimes your not the one saying next, they are.
For me as I build my business I can see dtoo many questions that need to be asked from potential buyers and I too like Steve, have people constantly keeping up with me to see if I have any new houses, just because I took a little time. I do however in the future plan on it not being my time I waste answering the phone.
If you have better things to do than make every effort to strike a deal with a potential buyer who is holding your livelyhood in their pocket, then your real estate business is only a fun thing for you to do.
No major business runs on answering machines and hoop jumping. Real estate is not a furbee that everyone is lined up for. You must cultivate to the extreme or you do not do many deals. To make $1million in the business you must get over 75-100 buyers to say yes and buy what you have. Yes, you will have to do a lot of processing. That’s why my earlier article states that this business is about processing information as quickly as possible.
I have a friend who thinks strategies like these are time saving devices where the person who has the money has to come to you. Well, my friend makes money but will never be wealthy because he is happy where he is. I am certainly not saying that about you. But obviously you have other projects going on or simply do not want to use your money to pay and train someone.
Posted by Bill K. (AZ) on May 26, 1999 at 17:52:24:
Brad,
Personally, I don’t want to waste time either. But, knowing that everyone has different priorities, I simply wanted to point out a potential benefit in receiving, and responding to, a large number of calls from buyers.
If you re-read my post, you’ll see that 75% of it is dedicated to reducing the number of calls in order to save yourself some time.
I just didn’t want to ignore the other side of the coin. And, as is demonstrated in the other posts, some people don’t want to return lots of calls, and others are glad to return them.
It is kind of funny that you say “No major business runs on answering machines and hoop jumping.” It seems like everytime I call GEICO, Nationsbank, my local courthouse, the Florida Realtors hotline, Time Warner Cable, Microsoft, etc., etc. I get a touch tone machine that makes me jump through hoops. Yes as a consumer it is annoying to deal with this, but everyone does it. And for the same reasons. It saves time and money.
I always put all the answers to the questions that 99% of the people ask onto the voice mail, so I don’t have to answer them. The serious people leave messages because they know the price, size, address, and pertinent info. I also put in my ads to “leave a message for Rob at 555-3344.”
Also, it has been my experience that talking with voice mail is much better than leaving a message with a secretary or an answering service. I can leave a nice detailed message and I know that the person will get it. If I leave a message with a secretary, it seems like half the time they forget about the message or misplace it or call in sick the next day.
And for 81 times you’ve got to say, “it’s a three bedroom, bath and a half with blah blah blah?” Riiiight. I give it two days.
That’s just plain silly. It’s patently ridiculous to spend days talking to people who would never fit into your investment plans in the first place. No amount of talking will convert them into suitable candidates. Since only a handful do work out, unless you have a efficient way to weed through them, you’re wasting time that could be better spent elsewhere.
That’s just naive.
Or you instead hire help to take the calls? Again, naive. It would be the rare hire who could do much more than just take their info. And then you’re left with something even worse, you’ve got to return calls. And since virtually ALL of them WILL have answering machines, you’ll waste even more time playing telephone tag.
The Real World dictates that you work smart and develop efficient systems to bring you the greatest chance of success with the least amount of effort. Spending hours on the phone to people who wouldn’t be suitable in a hundred wouldn’t be considered “efficient.”
Joe
PS. I’m already way beyond 100 buyers. Turn out it takes more than that, lots more.
Re: Yes I will or pay someone - Posted by J.P. Vaughan
Posted by J.P. Vaughan on May 24, 1999 at 23:14:39:
Please read the various articles authored by Joe Kaiser
on our How-To Articles page as evidence that he is not
is this for “fun” and that he knows “Real estate
is not a furbee that everyone is lined up for.”
I going to say this once JSmith: one more snide remark,
insult or “shot” from you, and all your posts will be
removed forever. You have stirred up enough garbage
around here, and my patience has evaporated.
Some of you know me and know that besides doing my own deals that I am also a realtor. And before that I was a stock broker for 7 years. I know all about the telephone and how it works. I have used voice mail and answering services for screening for a number of years now. That having been said, I agree with Joe and some of the others, alot of the people who call can’t buy.
The reason for my post was to generate some new ideas that I haven’t tried. It worked! Joe, Jackie and all the others each offered something to make my system work better. In case you are wondering, I really did get 81 calls, actually the number is over 100 now.
I guess I am what you might call a lurker. I rarely post or answer posts because of the recent tone or attitude by some of the visitors here. This time I got just what I wanted with only 1 questionable reply.
Again, Thanks to all who responed, even you JSmith.