Being in this business long enough you start to develop habits and routines to maintain your listing. In that time, you also start to develop peeves about how other Realtors handle business and their listings That said, I have two issues that I am trying to get different perspectives to so that when these 2 peeves in particular arise the words,Shady and Lazy don't come to mind

1) What is the logic of putting flyers at your listings with your contact info allo over them? I understand a brandless flyer but why your contact info? Perhaps when other Realtor show your home their client might take one and call you? I've actually had my buyers get mad because they felt the other realtor was trying to solicit them..YAY FOR LOYAL PEOPLE!!!
2) Why call the sellers to set up showings? Now, I know some sellers just want to share the wheel but It seems more and more common practice that agents want sellers to screen calls. WHy would you want to put them through that? Risk a prying Realtor? Hmmm

Just wanting some other perspectives please.

2) WH

The only time I see "Call sellers for showings" in my area are Housepad.com type listings.

Flyers...outside, I think they're fine. Inside, they do seem like a waste, however the sellers may have parties, guests, etc. who attend and are not accompanied by a realtor ... (I know it's a stretch but hey...it could happen.)

Some sellers really want them and may hand them out to people - no reason not to have your contact info on it. The buyer's agents should have provided their clients with their own printouts so they would have no need of the ones the listing agent has put there.

Around here most people put the homeowner's number in the listing and you call them directly to arrange an appointment. If you show a lot of buyers it is very annoying to have to wait for an agent to call back and then he has to call the seller and then call you back. We don't have a lot of agents who ever answer their phone and some take hours to call back.

I have situations where I am showing a house and we see one across the street that looks great and the client wants to see it. Putting another person in the chain of communication means that half the time they don't see that house. Who does that benefit?

Flyers have to have the agents name and brokerage info on them (around here it is the law). Sometimes it is so the buyer's agent has the contact info and the nice flyer to remind him of which home the buyer liked best.

I don't worry about other agents stealing my clients. If that could happen then I am not doing my job correctly.

I hate when I have to call the listing agent for showings. Not just for the agents who don't return calls, but for the agents who yak and yak and yak about the property and try to get you to see other listings of theirs and won't let you get off the phone. LOL

ALL of my listings have the instructions as "Call listing office." Someone is always there manning the desk. We have all the showing instructions for all the listings in a book (for upstairs) or in the file (by the main reception area).

We strongly encourage our sellers to make showings as easy as possible, and with 1 exception all of my listings are like that. If there is a "challenge" with a listing (such as, seller works nights and only allows afternoon /early evening showings, or owner must be present) it is noted in the private remarks so the buyer's agent can know up front that this one may be a challenge.

Of course, many of our homes/listings are vacant much of the time. Summer is a pain cause sometimes homes are rented out to vacationers, or are being used during peak weeks by family and that restricts showings.

I have flyers inside of most of my listings with the survey/plat and sellers disclosure but my contact information/branding is very limited....on the exterior flyer boxes my contact information is much more prominent but still the information is about the property and not me.

Our MLS does not allow sellers contact information to be displayed and probably 95% of the properties are "Call Office" for appointment....it is a PIA but we have been doing it this way for about 5 years so most are used to it.

I consider flyers at the house as a way to supplement the MLS informaton. We only have a certain about of space for comments on the MLS system.

With a flyer I can point out other features of the home and provide bigger pictures than what you'd get on a MLS flyer. Plus if a buyer is seeing a bunch of homes they all can blur together a flyer helps your home to stand out.

That being said I always create 2 flyers. I have 1 version for agent showings with the minimum legal contact information on it. And the other is for outside and open houses with more information about me.

I do the flyers (and upper-priced sellers expect them). It's true, we can get more info on it than in the MLS listing and buyers have a copy so they can remember the home better after seeing 15 or more homes.

Listing agent info is on it b/c it is a form of advertising and is a requirement.

It is common practice here that the B/A calls the seller if the home is occupied. If it's vacant and on an electronic lockbox - just go and show! It makes selling and cooperation go so much faster. South of us, at another MLS, the B/A has to call the L/A. And it could be hours before the L/A calls the B/A back. Then, the L/A calls the seller, then calls the B/A back. What a waste of time! Not efficient at all.

But, if the seller wants all calls screened through me, I am happy to do it.

I like the way our office handles showings. It's very efficient. Agent calls the office, secretary or whoever answers the phone sets up appointment and confirms, good to go all in just a couple of minutes. We have someone at the desk every day from 9 - 6pm.

In my area we never call the sellers to set up showings unless it is a limited service listing (I hate having to depend on actual sellers. They are worse then listing agents at returning calls). Typically we call the listing office, but more companies including myself and my former company are contracting with showing companies such as centralized showings. I very much dislike calling listing agents to set up a showing as I usually will have to wait an hour or forever to get a call back. Plus for security can a listing agent really verify the person calling is an actual agent while they are driving and talking on a cell phone? I like the showing companies as most allow you to set up showings through a website and I can do that at 5 in the morning if I want without calling anyone.

Nobody around here does the showing services - I think we're too cheap. LOL.

We require an office name and a fax number/email for the show notice. And the person HAS to have an electronic lockbox key - or they have to come to the office and pick up a key if they are from out of the area and don't have one of our lockbox keys...and they have to leave us a business card.

Only agents, appraisers, and home inspectors have lockbox keys. So it's unlikely that an unauthorized person will gain entry into the house by calling the listing agent.

Very few of our homes are on combo boxes, with the exception of foreclosures and the odd listing here or there.

It's interesting how showings are set up in different areas. Like where Deepsea is that agents call the seller directly. The vast majority of homes here are on some form of combo lockboxes. I don't even have an electronic lock box key and I don't own any electronic lock boxes. I would have to lease those if I wanted to use them, which costs more then a showing company. There are some agents that use the electronic lock boxes, but when I set up showings on those I'm given a one day code to type in. The electronic lock boxes and keys is what I'm to cheap for. I believe that the board office in the city of Ft. Collins Colorado disallows the use of electronic lockboxes even. I might be wrong on that though. Everytime I've showed homes there they are all on combos.

Our board has provided us all with electronic lockboxes. The two neighboring boards use the same kind so we can get authorized to open their lockboxes with our keys too.

In our board, each office is given lockboxes in proportion to their listings. But now the problem is that we have so many properties on the market, that the board has run out of lockboxes and now if we need any more we need to buy them.

The electronic lockbox keypad costs me about $180/year.

Peeve 1- The branding is for the listing agent, to impress the client (seller). Sure the buyer is gonna grab one. If they LOVE the house, and buy it, they are gonna keep that flyer. Years down the road when they want to sell, most don't remember their agent, they whip out the flyer and say "sell my home".

Peeve 2- There are many reasons why you need to contact the seller directly to schedule. Most of the time it involves kids, pets, or elderly people in the home. I actually like the permission to talk to actual owner. No matter how much coaching they get, the seller alway talks and gives away their motivation level to sell the house.

Or the seller panics and, in spite of the listing agent advice, says "I'll let it go for $200,000" in hopes of getting a speedy sale...not realizing the bar has just been lowered to start negotiations.

Then when the offer of $185000 comes in they are mad cause their ASKING price was $225,000...Nope, you made your new asking price $200,000. lol

The only thing that people in this business really have for sale is information; and we no longer control that most important resource.

Over the past 10 or 15 years we have lost control of that one item that we, and we alone used to possess. Now, technology has made it available to everyone. We gather it, organize it, input it, and then give it away . . . . voluntarily.

In the interest of making our jobs easier and more efficient, we have slowly demonstrated that we are superfluous; because with all of the resources we've provided, we're not necessary.

Putting Flyers at the property and having Sellers do their own scheduling of appointments just further demonstrates that being a FSBO is something to be investigated . . . . it isn't that difficult with the tools we've created . . . . so simple a Caveman could do it.

Why not give them a note pad and have them write their own ad copy too.

I've been a FSBO a few times myself; it could catch on. And besides, FSBOs aren't held to the same standard, nor are they required to be Licensed or Insured, or regulated and audited and supervised, and disciplined, nor educated on a continuing basis . . . . all of which costs a bit of change and is done solely for the purpose of protecting the Public Interest.