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 Text Messaging

Created by:
Dick Betts, Real Estate Educator ,  Bentonville,  AR

Date: January 17, 2008, Number of Replies: 10


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Do you text? If not, you need to! Many of your clients are either already texting or will be soon. It is always a great idea to ask your clients what their favorite way to communicate with you;– email or phone call are the standard but don’t leave this great option off the list. “Mr. Client, if you don’t answer your phone do you prefer me to leave a voicemail or send you a text message?” I think you will be surprised at the number that will respond with “Text please”.
 
Had a great story in one of my seminars; I will pass along his handy idea. An agent was working with a buyer who preferred most of their communication to be done by text. He got the idea to copy and paste the “text conversation” into a Microsoft Word Document allowing him to document the flow of information. Then, when the contract closed he could print the entire text message conversation and put it in the closed file along with his other documentation. It was simple to do so he starting doing it for all clients. At a recent closing a buyer questioned why he had not been told something; the agent was able to pull out the printed Word document and highlight the conversation which included the buyer acknowledging the information in question. 
 

So how do you do it? While in the Text Chat, pull your stick out and drag it up thru your text message highlighting it, push the Menu button and select Edit, then Copy. Next, open a MS Word document (using Documents to Go), hit your Menu button and select paste. Save it using the client’s name. Any time you sync to your computer any new changes will be made and you are always updated and ready to print.

 

Dick Betts
National Speaker and Trainer
NAR Certified e-PRO Trainer
Dick@DickBetts.com
www.DickBetts.com
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Bill Wilson Licensed Real Estate Agent,  Lago Vista,  TX

Date: January 18, 2008

Do you text? If not, you need to! Many of your clients are either already texting or will be soon.

Dick – That was very informative. This a great idea that I will implement today.

Thanks

 

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Lisa Herbert Licensed Real Estate Agent,  pittsburgh,  PA

Date: January 18, 2008

Do you text? If not, you need to! Many of your clients are either already texting or will be soon. It is always a great idea to ask your clients what their favorite way to communicate with you;–

I own a treo 650 and recently had a client that preferred text messaging.  Strange thing is sometimes I recieved his texts other times I never got them at all. I like the idea of saving them for future reference, but my phone refused to hot sync without error when i was running documents to go. I removed it and have had no furthur problems with hot sync since.  Could an alternative to saving text messages to memos instead of documents to go, since my phone for some reason has a dislike for documents to go?



Lisa A. Herbert
Stonebridge Real Estate Co.
7218 Church Avenue
Pittsburgh.PA 15202
Cell phone 412-999-2943
email: lisa@stonebridgere.com

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john@remaxpv.com

Date: January 18, 2008

 
An alternative is to use your "memo" application on your Treo. Just copy and then open up your memo and start a new memo for this person. You can paste in here as well. One alternate is to use the "contacts" application. Contacts can be synced wirelessly to your desktop. Paste the conversation in the notes section for this contact. Another alternate is to email this conversation to yourself and create a folder with the transaction name and stick it in there. Again this is a wireless solution rather than having to cradle your Treo and sync.
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Mike Muranetz Licensed Real Estate Agent,  Edmonton, AB

Date: May 25, 2008

I love texting. I always laugh when I must contact another Realtor to set up showings or get feedback, I call, no answer then I leave voice mail. I then send a text (have quick text's already preloaded) to their cell phone and quickly get a reply back. Also, because I work with lots of relocations, to keep my long distance calls to a minimum, I send texts to those long distance clients. It's very effective!

Mike

 

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John Ricks Licensed Real Estate Agent,  Gulf Shores,  AL

Date: May 26, 2008

I had a new experience this year.

I represented a buyer in a transaction in which I never verbally communicated with the listing agent.!  I called her and e-mailed her early in the process and asked her to call me and she would always text back.  I finally gave up and either text'd or e-mailed from contract all the way to close. 

John Ricks
RE/MAX of Gulf Shores
John@JohnRicks.com
251-978-7118

 

 

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Garrie O'neill Vendor,  Walpole,  MA

Date: May 26, 2008

I represented a buyer in a transaction in which I never verbally communicated with the listing agent.!

This is not unusual in New England. About 250 real estate offices in Massachusetts and Connecticut use Mobile Manager from my company OneCall, instead of in-house voicemail. This gives them the ability to send a message from inside their own account to the listing agent's voicemail account even if they are with another company! The receiving agent gets a text message on their cell that there is a voicemail in their account. They call their Mobile Manager and listen to the voicemail (up to 5 minutes in length). They press two buttons to answer back. Once that kind of connection has been made, the agents just answer back and forth to each other. They can also share voicemails with anyone by e-mail (say the seller who does not believe their selling price is too high). Once the paperwork needs to get done, it can all be faxed to the same Mobile Manager account. The receiving agent simply goes to the Internet and prints it out, and/or forwards it by e-mail to anyone.

Check out this website. There is so much more than that!

Garrie O'Neill

http://onecall.realtown.com

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Tom Greenan Licensed Real Estate Agent

Date: May 26, 2008

T-Mobile charges me 15� for each text message. Whether you send or receive you're still charged. It's "ala carte" or $4.99/mo. for 400 messages.

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Iggy Dybal

Date: May 26, 2008

T-mobile has unlimited text plans for $20

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Denise Esposito

Date: May 27, 2008

Texting is a great form of communication.  It seems to be "the" preferred form of communication, especially amongst the 20's to 30's age groups.  And yes, a test message always gets the quickest response, hands down, over phone calls or emails.  And you can save the messages to refer back to if need be!

Denise Esposito

Weichert Realtors Independence

 

 

 

 

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