Conversation this morning:

*phone rings*

me: Hello, this is ******. May I help you?

caller: Yes, is this ****** realty? I'm looking for ******.

me: That's me. How can I help you?

caller: Well, I was calling about your property at 123 Main St. I saw it on the Homepath website and wanted to get more info on it.

me: I'm sorry, sir, but that home has an offer submitted to Fannie Mae management that is being signed off on. The seller is not reviewing any more offers.

caller (whining): But it says "Just Listed" on the Homepath website!!

me: I know, but I don't control that site and my client is not reviewing any more offers on that property.

caller: Ok. *sigh* Well, do you have any more like that in that neighborhood?

me: Not at this time in that neighborhood. I've got one that's about to...

caller: Well, it doesn't HAVE to be in that neighborhood! You sure seem to be ill-informed about the Homepath program.

me: Excuse me?

caller: You seem to be ILL-IN-FORMED about the Homepath program.

me: I'm very familiar with Homepath as I...

caller: Well, you don't know about all of these other properties that are on the Homepath site.

me: *pause* They aren't all my listings. Fannie Mae uses several agents in the area to sell their homes.

caller: Oh. *click*

Agh!!! It's too early in the week for this.

It was the *pause* that sent the call downhill. You should have said "What house are you interested in ?".

We tell them that our license allows us to sell any property in the state of FL and that if they tell us what they are looking for and what they want to spend, if it exists we will find it for them. (Actually one of the 6 agents that we refer buyers too will find it for them).

It reminds me of times where my wife (after showing a buyer 80+ properties in 4 or 5 days) gets flowers from the buyer.

Kiss of death that they were just tire kickers and felt guilty about wasting her time.

It took me a second to figure out what they were insinuating. Those buyers thought I listed every property on the Homepath website. Fine with me, though, that they go somewhere else. Less headache.

Just my perception of the call: They are out looking for a property via the Homepath site. Every other agent blew them off (look at my home or goodbye). There are 2 sides to a transaction.

I say this because, I make more money selling houses to people looking for a deal than I do actually listing properties. I have a guy from a competing company that would send me "headache" calls, he at least sold his listings. He ended up getting a buyer agent and formed a team, thats cool also.

I want people to think that I list every house on the MLS. They call me for info, call me with questions, stump me I praise them and call them back. I may roll my eyes on the phone for a stupid question, BUT I will answer that question and make it sound like it was the first time that question was anwered.

Just my opinion.

Guess you just had to be on the call, then. This wasn't a guy who started out being friendly. He was a complete jerk the whole time. I understand answering phone calls and trying to convert leads. However, what irritates me is that the guy constantly interrupted me, didn't let me answer the questions he asked, and then said I didn't know what I was doing. He was also acting under the misguided belief that I operated the Homepath website and had been in every home that was on there. Would I have been happy to answer his questions? Of course. However, he was looking for a realtor punching bag, and I wasn't interested in obliging. I've played that game before and am not interested in doing so again.

A holes abound....was likely a setup by a competitor....don't lose any sleep over it

And there is always that also. Some people are just A$$es!

Sometimes you convert leads by converting them completely out of your hair . . . be rude back so they will go away.

LOL - NTB is over it by now for sure - while that wasn't a pleasant call, it sounded to me like they intended to sit there and call the listing broker about any property that interested them. Nothing wrong about that, and they were just ignorant on how the site and real estate is handled.

Dayton hit the nail on the head, and why a few drinks are needed at the end of the day by many

I used to answer the phone with a 'What can I do for you?' attitude. I found everyone wanted me to do something for nothing. Now I set up hoops for the caller to jump through and give them a 'What can you do for me?' attitude. Hoops are simple prequall questions, but they are very direct. Are you a buyer or an agent? Are you working with an agent? Which bank or credit union have you been preapproved with? Rarely do they make it through the hoops and I have established the bar they must meet to get anymore of my time.

I took from NTBs transcript something else. I thought about phantom callers designed to check up on you or catch you doing something. I think about this myself, especially when there is a question about renting and the person is difficult to understand.

I have a friend that to entertain himself - calls me and pretends to be a buyer - differnt accent - high voice - low voice - water running in the backround - windows down while on the freeway - just to see if he can get me going before he tells me its him. I have a lot more patience now with people who are idiots because I never want it to be him and let him think he got me - gotta love friends like that.

That's what I've always wondered about. It seems like FNMA wants their listing agents to be absolutely perfect in everything. If somebody thinks you've been short with them, FNMA will believe their complaint without regard to the listing agent. Here's another call on this property on the same day (thank God this one is finally getting executed).

I got another call on that same property while headed to the doctor on Monday. I told the buyer that we were waiting on the seller (FNMA) to sign off on an offer. Well, this guy had done the previous buyer one better. He had called FNMA to see if there were any offers. Since the property was being handled through an AMC, the AMC submits their recommendation to FNMA on which offer to take. I had had 15 offers on this property, but they were all sitting with the AMC and not FNMA. I found out later that the AMC had had a problem sending the held offer to FNMA even though it showed up in my system as being delivered. So, FNMA told this guy that there were no offers, and you can imagine what happened when I told him there were 15 offers. He asked why I was being discriminatory, if I had submitted any of the other offers, why I was lying to him, and on and on. I swear these calls are like little sneak attacks. The guy didn't ask to see the home, submit an offer, or have any other questions. However, he calls FNMA back and tells them I refused to show him the home which was completely not true. And, he says I refused to show him because he was a minority. Like I'm supposed to figure that out by a phone conversation. Well, when I get out of the doctor's office (about 90 minutes), I get a call from my AM. He apologizes for FNMA not having the held offer yet, but I have to go show this guy the home. So, I show it to him yesterday. I find out he has no down payment, no reserves (home needs about $25K worth of work), and has not talked to a lender yet. To top matters off, I get back into my office after wasting time with that nut, and FNMA has approved the other contract that was resent on Monday.

So, what do I get for being honest with a buyer? A bogus complaint, wrist slap, waste of time, and a lot of aggravation. When other agents wonder why REO brokers don't want to answer their phones at times, this is why. This business can get nuts.

We know that our clients "shop" our services periodically through all methods: web leads, phone calls, showings, office visits. One "shopper" was nice enough to call from their office so the phone number was easily recognizable.

I find this to be one of the more difficult parts of the gig to deal with. Time is precious and I have to weed out the time wasters and I'm afraid that might not come across so service oriented to the person trying to evaluate us.

I think it is a pretty sure bet that this is a problem that will continue to grow for a while, and into regular real estate as well.

As frustrating as it is - can we say, suck it up, one more time.

I hear you NTB - and then we get to deal with the AM & Mills, that think we're their punching bags - 1,2,3,4,5.....;)