This guest post was written by Sam Chapman who markets Austin Real Estate
The Communication Conundrum
I chaired an American Cancer Event called Relay For Life a couple of years ago. Many of the people on my planning committee were high school students. At one meeting I asked the kids what would be the best way for me to get them information. I asked if email would work.
One of the kids looked me dead in the eye and said; “Mr. Chapman, email is so 90s – you need to learn to text!” Well, aside from everyone cracking up, it told me something that I kind of already knew, but that I didn’t really have a good handle on – yet!
So How Does That Apply to Real Estate?
I got a call from a couple of sisters in college about needing to sell the home of their recently deceased father. I realized pretty quickly in the listing process that they would not respond to phone calls or emails.
So when I needed them to see something or to get paperwork, I would send as an email and immediately send a text stating that I had emailed something important and that I needed them to check email. Guess what? It worked!
The transaction closes next week and I got a call from the title company yesterday telling me that they needed information from one of the daughters. I asked the person at the title company to send a text following an email. I was told that they were not allowed to text.
So I sent the daughter a text message stating that the title company needed information ASAP in order to set up the closing. The daughter called the title rep within minutes.
Here’s My Point
We as REALTORS® need to learn different ways to communicate. The younger generation is all about instant everything. Text messaging is just that.
Would I recommend that we text all clients? No way. The more mature crowd may not get a message and the middle-aged crowds may think we were being unprofessional.
However, if a client communicates on the fly via BlackBerry email or texting, it is perfectly OK to do the same. If you’re working with someone in or right out of college, my feeling is that texting is OK if you do it right. In fact, with some it will be a necessity.
