It is a lovely Monday morning here in beautiful Bellingham, WA. I’m doing the usual monday morning e-mail and social media catch-up routine- sitting at my desk tweaking my Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts…adding links, comments, and such. Then the phone rings. I don’t pick up (because I’m already talking to somebody), so it goes to voicemail.

“Hi, Rob. This is (insert name of incompetent agent here) calling to see if you were able to get into my condo on Saturday(!)… It’s, uhhhh, Monday morning…just got your message. Well, uhhhh, anyway…let me know if you still need to get in there. Thanks.”

Well, that certainly was nice of you to call me back….two days later. As it happens, we did NOT get into the condo, and my Buyer is now 3000 miles away. I must say, I am rather impressed with your unparalleled commitment to excellence! Your clients must be thoroughly pleased, indeed! Here’s why I didn’t get to show your condo listing to my very interested, very qualified client:

In your listing, under showing instructions, it says “contact listing agent for showings”…no keybox, I guess. Well, that’s nice. I mean, why would somebody who is trying to sell their home want to make it easy for a Buyers Agent like me to show it to potential buyers? It’s anybody’s guess, really. Well, OK, I thought…I’ll play along.

Contact listing agent….hmmm…OK, there’s the phone #. Keep in mind that this is at about 1pm on Saturday afternoon…Not exactly a strange time for people to be out looking at property and possibly needing information from the listing agent or his company… So I dial…Riiiing…..Riiiiing….Riiiing…. “Hello, (automated voicemail, awesome.) you’ve reached $&%$ Realty after-hours… to leave a message press 1, to reach our agent directory, press 2…” OK, I think…I’ll just access you through the agent directory, which probably patches through to your cell phone. Why you opted not to INCLUDE YOUR CELL # IN THE LISTING IN THE YEAR 2010, I have no idea, but whatever… So I punch in the required digits…riiiiing….riiiiiiing….riiiiiiing…and then your voicemail. Great. Oh, well…I’ll just leave a message expressing the urgent desire of my client to view your listed property during his short visit. I can only assume that such a message will get your attention.

…or not. Cut to Monday morning. I showed my client several comparable properties, a few of which he liked very much. Good for him. As his agent, I am thrilled that he was able to find a few options that he could be excited about. Not so good for your clients, however. I’ll bet they would have been super-thrilled to have a qualified and motivated buyer view their home. Unfortunately for them, they hired an agent who works for an office that closes on Saturday afternoons (!!!) and doesn’t include his personal cell phone # in his listings. Wow! Sucks to be them, I guess!

To think…they could have sold that condo right then and there…but instead it will continue to sit…and they will continue to make mortgage and HOA payments and probably end up settling for a reduced selling price. Way to go, champ!

So why don’t you do the rest of us a big ‘ol favor: just give up now and go see if Starbucks is hiring. I hear they have a generous benefits package. Free coffee, at least….and nobody will care about your useless cellphone number ever again…

Thanks for reading! Please leave comments or suggestions below, e-mail me at rob.leroy@exprealty.com, or call me at 206.883.6668 …and yes, you CAN hire me as your real estate agent!

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