I am sure many of you noticed a recent post. It pointed out how we were all missing the boat and small time after we considered the offer made suspiciously.

Of course, then our suspicions were confirmed regarding the person making the inquiry with his response.

I think that we can all agree that there are always opporunities out there. There are cool new ways to provide our services in ways that can generate profit. I think we can also all agree that we are always interested in considering serious, professional and well thought out opportunites.

How often are you finding that you get solicited for some "opportunity" that just sets off all the warning bells in the back of your head? If I don't get the serious, professional and well thought out pitch for an opportunity, I will usually just dismiss it. So much of it is gut instinct tho when it comes to things in a forum like this where someone just sort of plops an offer down with no explanation whatsoever.

Outside this forum, I find that I get maybe 4 solicitations a week for some "opportunity" that has to do with my brokers license in some way. If you eliminate unsolicited emails from that list, it probably drops way down to 2 a month. I have even had 2 phone call solicitations of this type in the last couple of months.

I can only assume that much of this attention comes from being completely un-anonymous on this site and having my own site out there with all my contact info on it.

I dunno, maybe I am just compaining here with no real point.

I suppose one of the things that bugs me is how transparent these things are. They are assuming - or maybe just counting on the hope - that I am a total moron.

Has anyone ever gotten a bona fide solicitation from someone?

I think I can say I got one, but it just was not something I was interested in - and the guy making the offer did not have his ducks lined up enough for my tastes.

Any thoughts?

R

I get offers fairly frequently. I usually find the sales pitch to be completely disorganized (amongst other things) However, I always enjoy hearing what the individual has to say because there's a chance that they have some nugget that I can incorporate into my company, without the help of the salesman of course.

i get offers frequently too. The important thing is to stay focused. If you take offers that even sound good, you are diverting from your original goal based on a whim, that is rarely a good idea

My junk e-mail has increased quite a bit since joining this board. To the point where members names are used to bait me to open the mail. Just today I received a new one from "Alvin", I know it's not from the Alvin we all know, but just an example of what these trolls are trying to do.

Funny you bring this up.

A situation today brought me to the realization of just how many of these solicitations I receive on a daily basis.

I received an e mail from an old high school mate of mine I hadn't spoke to is several months. He was promoting his company which gives out free computer courses. It was his name on the e-mail and he even informally greeted me as someone who was familiar with me. I responded to his e-mail with, "Where did you go to high school?"

He indicated the correct school and I replied that I was just making sure due to the amount of e-mail I receive soliciting my business.

His response, "Haha, you hurt my feelings, I thought you forgot me…" He appeared to be joking somewhat. However, I would imagine that he was taken aback.

Imagine e-mailing an old friend of yours and getting a response back of, "who the hell are you and what do you want!"

I get between 100 & 150 junk email pieces daily. I'm amazed that I actually find the ones that are meaningful amidst the sea of garbage.

Yeah... the general junk email is completely nuts. I will glance at my junk mail folder and daily see at least 150 emails a day ending up there.

I was focusing on the ones that seem to know I am a real estate broker and are making an approach that relates to that fact.

Someone earlier mentioned focus. I could not agree more. If life has one thing in great supply, it's distractions. Keep your eye on the prize and don't be distracted by the shiney thing.

R

Some posts in the REO forum called something to my attention.. A new company started for BPO work that had emailed many of us there, and ended up joining the discussion. They had gotten much of our personal info from this board, but had cross-referenced it with state licensing boards to verify we hold active licenses and also got most mailing addresses that way. This is hardly an anonomous forum. I don't use my name or website on here, butI've received emails and calls from others on here who know how to do a bit of research. I turn around and check them out before replying, and somehow they don't seem to like that... the point is, there are so many ways to get info on people that we just have to expect these things. but all-in-all, the 25-30 spam emails I get a day arenothing to my hunny's 500-600 (and he isn't in the public any- just has an account that is several years old).