Orlando Real Estate

I had trouble with the subject of this blog post, because I am trying to keep things positive in light of my "real estate optimist" title. Lately, it seems the "new normal" in real estate is for agents not to call you back. I submitted three offers - good offers not ridiculous low ball offers - last week. One agent responded. One out of three, and I did not just e-mail the offers over. I always call to verify they received the offer, because frequently e-mails with attachments go into spam folders. So, I e-mail offers (full price - as-is - cash by the way), I call the agents, and only one even responds. The one that responded said the sellers were accepting my buyer's offer. Since then, I still have not received a signed contract, but that is another story.

The other two properties did go pending, but I was never informed as to the status of the offers I submitted. Listen, I know that there is a lot of competition for well priced properties under $150,000 in Orlando. What ever happened to professionalism? Another agent e-mailed an offer to me over the weekend, and guess what? I responded to her, and contacted my seller. I sent her a response to her offer too. Wow! What a concept. I guess I cannot complain about this new normal, because I met with a family last night to sign up a new listing. They called four agents last week. When they called me, I was on the phone, but returned the voice message right away. Another agent called them back a few days later, and two never returned their call. This is not an isolated occurrence either. I had another seller a while back that contacted two other agents and me. I met with him, listed his house and had it under contract before one of the other agents finally got around to calling him back. This is not an exaggeration - it really happened.

I was speaking with Shelly Mannebach with North American Title. She happens to have her real estate license, and wanted to refer her parents to an agent in Michigan. Apparently, this inability or unwillingness to call back is a nationwide malady. She had to call five agents, to get two to call her back. Based upon these observations, while there may be 8,500 agents in Orlando, only about 4,000 are actually returning phone calls. Busy can be a good thing, but if you are too busy to actually conduct your business what are you doing?

David Welch Real Estate Optimist, Orlando Real Estate, Any Home-Any Phone