For a Monday right after the arrival of spring, I had horrendous activity yesterday. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, as I welcome the business. Mondays are always busy, but to tell you the truth, yesterday was especially gruesome. The thing is if I never left my home office, I'd always be caught up. But even with a BlackBerry, I don't have time in the field to respond to all of my emails in the manner that I wish.
I put 3 transactions together yesterday -- a home in Lincoln, which is a Wachovia short sale (approved in 2 weeks), a high-water bungalow in Midtown Sacramento and a Carmichael pool home. Each was particularly stressful with their individual set of challenges. What I didn't need thrown into the mix was to receive emails from several buyer's agents to ask why I had not responded to their offers from last week.
I didn't respond because I had never received them. Why the agents didn't follow up to see if I had is beyond me. For some reason, they waited until the offers had expired before sending me an email.
Now, it's possible that I could receive an email on my BlackBerry and, if it looks like spam, I often delete it on the spot -- from both my handset and my email inbox. Switching back and forth from deleting emails in their entirety or deleting from my handset can be tricky if I'm not totally focused on what I am doing. I was worried that I had somehow inadvertently deleted these offers. One was from a Russian agent with a lot of Zs and Ks in the name. What if I thought that was spam? I felt sorry for those Russian guys and wondered if their emails routinely get mistaken for spam by clueless Americans.
Fortunately, one of the agents was able to forward me her original email. I saw that she had sent it at 1:00 in the morning. So, I know I didn't delete it by accident because it would have downloaded to my computer. My IT department at Lyon Real Estate is investigating this matter. None of those emails is in my spam filter. They just never arrived. Sometimes, technology screws up.
I suspect the lesson here is home buyers should make sure that their agent has contacted the listing agent to confirm that the listing agent has received their offer. Don't just hope for the best. I never send offers without confirming receipt. Never. But apparently some agents do.
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Certified HAFA Specialist
My Sacramento Real Estate Listings
Elizabeth Weintraub is an author, home buying columnist for The New York Times-owned About.com, a Land Park resident, and a Land Park real estate agent who specializes in older, classic homes in Land Park, Curtis Park, Midtown and East Sacramento. Weintraub is also a Sacramento Short Sale agent who lists and successfully sells short sales throughout the four-county Sacramento area. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 35 years of real estate experience to work for you. Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate. DRE License # 00697006.
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Hi Elizabeth! Maybe you should set up a separate email address for contracts/paperwork (an unusual address to avoid the spam) and have it forwarded to your regular email?
Very true Elizabeth. Follow up is key and it pays to never assume that the information arrived. There are many things that can go wrong and sometimes very important items just disappear. Unexplainable but it happens. ~ Doug
Stephen's got a good idea there. But still it's the responsibility of the agent who sent the offer to make sure it was received. Sometimes I try for days to confirm receipt and never get a response.
Hi Stephen: I pretty much use my Lyon email solely for offers. Sometimes, emails to my domain name bounce. I think the point is there is no foolproof system for email.
This should go both ways...buyer's agent should ask for acknowledgement that their offer was received and the listing agent should automatically respond upon receipt of offer. Sorry this happened to you and very professional and ethical of you to take the time to research the email trail. Thanks for the post!
This should go both ways...buyer's agent should ask for acknowledgement that their offer was received and the listing agent should automatically respond upon receipt of offer. Sorry this happened to you and very professional and ethical of you to take the time to research the email trail. Thanks for the post!
This should go both ways...buyer's agent should ask for acknowledgement that their offer was received and the listing agent should automatically respond upon receipt of offer. Sorry this happened to you and very professional and ethical of you to take the time to research the email trail. Thanks for the post!
Elizabeth: Anytime I send an offer, or other important email, I call first to let the recipient know I've sent it and that they need to let me know if they don't receive it.
Good advice Elizabeth. I typically ask for the listing agent to inform me once they have received and submitted the offer. Sometimes, I receive an auto reply that it was received because the agent uses that email solely for offers. Other times, I get a response back and sometimes not. i try to give a certain amount of time before I ask a second time for confirmation.
I attach instructions on how to submit an offer whenever I enter a listing into the MLS. Pretty basic ... e-mail the offer, then CALL to confirm receipt. There are agents here, however, who are so busy (over their heads) with REO's that they specifically say "NO PHONE CALLS" in the agent comment section. With these agents, you have no way of knowing if your offer was received or not. Pretty poor way to conduct business.
Elizabeth - I always call to confirm receipt of the offer, immediately after sending it, whether by email or fax. I just don't understand those that don't follow it up with a quick call.
Elizabeth: I can't fathom why they wouldn't have called you. I know it's so much easier to email and then wait for the response but this is a fairly important transaction on the line - monetarily and realtionship-wise. I know I'm not a realtor but if I were and I had a buyer who made on offer to whom I'd have to answer about the result, I'd make darn sure my offer was received. But as Cynthia said above, if the listing agent says "no calls" then at least use the delivery confirmation and read confirmation features of your email (if you have Outlook).
Ain't technology grand - except when it isn't:-) As said before, confirmation is the name of the game. I like Mike Saunder's remark, "I always call to confirm receipt of the offer, immediately after sending it."
For all the technological wonders at our disposal, it seems communication among agents, is as impeded now - if not more, than ever before!
I use Entourage and don't seem to have any tools in Entourage that let me confirm a read receipt. But when I send offers to REO agents, I ask them to confirm receipt either by email, phone or fax. I even got one REO agent in Sacramento to establish a new system whereby he now sends a fax on each offer received, letting the buyer's agent know he got it.
Even more important is confirmation of delivery. You can bet that when my buyer signs a seller-submitted counter offer, I want that listing agent's initials confirming delivery because that's what determines offer acceptance. What if the listing agent never received the signed counter and simply assumed the buyer wasn't interested? Follow up. You've gotta have follow up.
A simple voice mail saying you have sent an offer would work.
I always do that, so they are anxiously waiting.