This is one of my pet peeves as a real estate webmaster.
When many people fill out an information request form for a specific property, they don't specify exactly what information they are seeking. To actually arrive at this form they would have had to have already browsed through the webpage that already contains quite a bit of information about the property. I generally do know quite a bit more about the property, but I'm not sure what additional information the person is seeking.
I get an email with a name and a return address that simply states "I'd like more information about MLS®*********"
When I first got emails like that I was happy enough to shoot an email back with pretty much the same information that is contained on the MLS listing in the first place. I was pretty pleased that someone had found the listing on the interwebs. It seemed like a redundant solution to bounce back information that they had already seen, but I saw it as an opportunity to start some sort of dialogue with a potential buyer.
Now I'm a little annoyed when I get them. I have learned to be a lot more guarded about my time as a real estate agent and I am stung by a little twinge of resentment when I feel that someone is making me guess what their motives are. Why wouldn't the person take the time to ask me the specific questions that they would like to have answered? Ater having fielded hundreds of such emails over the last couple of years, I suppose the bloom is off the rose.
I have played with the idea of automatically sending back a response to such emails "I'd like more information about the information you'd like about MLS®*********" and see where that leads. Ball's in your court now.
I know it sounds like a petty pet peeve, but I'm happy to have it off my chest. Stay tuned for my take on insipid hand-dryers in public washrooms.
