Email Elizabethclient communication
Is it the Size and Length That Matters?
A seller whose listing I canceled accused me anonymously on a website of sending snippy emails. She has no idea what she’s talking about. I mean, does she realize how hard it is to type on your cellphone when you’re in the middle of sex? Do you? No? Well, you try it, then. First, in the middle of all this heavy breathing and clawing of your partner’s back, you’ve got to make sure you scroll to “reply” and don’t accidentally hit “forward” instead .
I hate it when I hit forward by mistake and start typing in the forward-to box instead of the text box. Because then you have to cancel the message, and my phone always asks me if I am sure that I want to do that. That makes me stop to think, do I? Do I really want to cancel this message? Or, will I delete it from my phone if I do? Where do deleted messages go on my phone? These are thoughts I’d rather not have but they could save your butt someday.
Unless your butt is naked and in the air in the middle of sex. At that point, I don’t want to ponder canceling my message, but for a seller in the middle of a crisis, I would. My clients are very important to me. Even those clients with whom I have had a listing for only 24 hours before they went off the deep end. Most clients wait at least a couple of weeks before they have a mental breakdown. But for those who lose it early in the process, my heart goes out to them because they have truly special needs. I try to answer every client’s question with care and promptness.
So, while my husband is screaming YES YES YES, I’m typing a reply as to why we can’t take the address out of MLS without deleting the listing. Now, I know you might be thinking why didn’t I just talk to my phone instead of typing? Two reasons. First is my phone cannot spell MLS even though it’s in my dictionary because MLS is a word I frequently use. In fact, the way I say it makes it come out as profanity. It’s bad enough my email is snippy, I don’t want to offend a client with a profane word, especially a loose-cannon client.
Second, there’s another innocent person involved here, my husband. He puts up with enough as it is, poor guy. Not to mention, it takes raw talent to respond to emails in the middle of sex. I don’t believe I deserve that bad press. But my husband is a smart person. His advice is: don’t poke the hornet’s nest. He’s right. There is no need to point out the error of this client’s ways. Somebody else is sure to do it for her along her journey through life. It doesn’t have to be me. I don’t have to be the bad Sacramento real estate agent. I just need to spell things correctly and get on with my life.
While Elizabeth is on vacation, we are revisiting her favorite blogs from previous years.
Sacramento Real Estate is a Service Business
A Sacramento real estate agent often multitasks.
I had a terrible experience buying my home in Land Park. I didn’t realize how horrible it was at the time because I had been juggling too many balls in the air, moving clear across the country from Minnesota, and it’s only in retrospect all these years later that I realize it was too awful to wish on even my worst nemesis. Without going into gory details, I can say the thing I hated the most was the non-existant communication. My agent rarely called me back. She did not respond to emails. This was way before the age of text messages, but I imagine she would not have responded to text messages, either. It was like a vast empty pit into which I dumped questions and never got anything back in return.
Because my husband was already living in Sacramento, my real estate agent might have thought her duty was to him. She might not have realized there were two of us she needed to address. But the fact remains, she ignored me. Let’s just say it cost her. And I vowed from that experience that no client would ever utter those words about me.
I try not to assume anything. I know that my clients do not buy nor sell real estate for a living. They can’t possibly know what I know — I’ve pretty much run out of fingers and toes to count my years of experience in real estate. I try to be very sensitive to the needs of my clients. If they ask me a question, I respond. In fact, I try to answer their questions before they have a question. No question is too simple to ask. For example, when people call to say it is time to do a short sale, I make sure they understand that to do a short sale means they are selling their home. Not everybody understands this premise.
Last week I listed a home and had to point out the commission to the sellers so they understood how much they were paying me. They didn’t ask about it. But they did ask who was paying the buyer’s agent. I explain agency relationships, and not just because the California Civil Code requires it but because it’s important to know.
When clients send me a thank you after an escrow closes, they say how happy they were that I kept them informed throughout the transaction. That I responded immediately to their needs. They are thrilled. It’s the WOW factor. Others read those thank-you letters and my reviews and ask how can I be so responsive to my clients when I am so busy with work? I am a very busy Sacramento real estate agent. I sell from Lincoln to Galt. It’s because my clients are my work. When I am working, they come first. What’s so difficult about that?
