So they were talking about a fun subject. It's actually not, but why do realtors keep calling you and lenders for that matter. If you're in the home buying space, you just jumped into it. Your phone is probably getting so many calls and texts and emails, and it's relentless.
We're going to talk about why it's happening and what you can do to stop it moving forward.
First of all, let's talk about why in the real estate world, when people are being taught, how to become a real estate agent or how to become a lender, what they like to emphasize as the word follow-up.
Follow-up is the key to the game in real estate sales training. What that means is realtors are trained to continuously call text and email people until they get a response. They see it as this big game of numbers to be able to get a response back from somebody.
Because when you sign up on a site like Zillow or realtor.com, homes.com or Julie, or all these other home-buying websites, your information is sold. That's how Zillow exists is they actually take information that you put in and then they go sell it to the highest paying realtor. Also, sometimes your info gets put into a database, and then it's sold several times to different companies. This is where you're getting this string of calls happening. For instance, you might've gone to a website signed up and then all of a sudden, within a period of an hour, got like four calls and multiple texts.
I remember one time I did this just to test it out, see what would happen. I signed up for some information on Zillow, and all of a sudden, I got three calls in a row and it was just obnoxious. Your information is sold. When you sign up on these sites agents know that the more they call them, the bigger chance they have an appointment.
Again, it's just this game of numbers to them. They're dealing with a lot of contacting of people and a lot of them have this figured out where they can say, Hey, I know that if I make 100 calls, I can get one lead. They'd get one more listing out of it, or one more buyer's transaction out of it for a lot of really seasoned and really professional real estate agents.
They know these numbers. And it's not an inherently bad thing. But it's just something to be mindful of is that I know some agents who know how much each call earns them. They know that if they make one call, that's like a $15 call because they know if they make a hundred of those, it turns into one deal. So something to be mindful of.
So how does your information get to these agents in the first place? Number one, you signed up somewhere. So maybe that was a Facebook ad or it was a listing website, like Zillow or realtor.com, or maybe just a local branch website.
That's called an expired listing. There are some agents who just called expired listing and what they do is let's say you listed your home for sale and it didn't sell within the time period that you had with your original agent. And then you're going to have agents who are going to sit and call you to try to earn your business, to sell that home.
Again, that's not an inherently bad thing. There's still might be really great agents, but it's something to be mindful of. If you're trying to avoid this mass influx of communication with calls, texts, and emails coming to you.
Another thing that could happen is maybe you shopped for your mortgage and this is what's called a trigger lead. I don't think these should be allowed to exist, but they do.
Here's how a trigger lead works when your credit gets pulled, no matter who it gets pulled by. Your information is going to get sold. The fact that you pulled your credit is going to get sold and who's selling it? It's Experian, Equifax, TransUnion, it's the big players. There's no way for this to change. There's no way any company can get around it, no matter how ethical they are.
So for instance, when I pull a client's credit, That information is getting reported. And there are other companies, other lenders out there who are buying what are called trigger leads. And basically, it's a list of everybody who's had their credit pulled and they'll go and call those people and say, Hey, we saw you were shopping for a mortgage. Do you want to consider another option? And I don't think that's very ethical. It's something that happens and it's right now, it's impossible to prevent.
I think there should be a law against it, but I don't make the laws. So that's something to be mindful of too. When you get your credit pulled, you might have people reaching out to you knowing that your credit got pulled and they want to give you other quotes.
Another thing is that you might just be on the receiving end of cold calling.
Cold calling is very common in real estate, and this is where agents will just buy a database of numbers of people who are likely to buy homes.
Or maybe a home around you sold and they're doing what's called farming, which is where if someone's home is being sold, they're going to call everybody in the homes in the surrounding area. So they'll call all of these homes and say, hey, there was a home that sold recently around you. Do you want to look at listing your own? You might just be at the receiving end of that as well.
Let's have a #CalmMoment because this is a lot and it can be frustrating when all of your information is out there and people are using it and can sometimes feel like, Hey, I'm I feel like I'm being seen as a number. Some of my information is being abused a little bit and that's completely understandable.
I know that I don't like a bunch of people that have my information. I signed up on a site once for some other financial service, and I got so many people calling me to this day is still people who I can not get rid of, no matter how much I say no to them.
Just know it's going to happen. It comes with this territory, but there are things that we can do to make it so that you have a more peaceful experience. Something that you can do if you want to go even more extreme is can set up a burner phone through Google voice and a temporary email through Gmail, make your make a new Gmail called like smithfamily@gmail.com, and go get burner number on Google voice and only use that for your real estate side. That way your personal info stays the same. So it's something you can do.
But let's go ahead and talk about how you can stop it. First of all, we can go back to the source and think we can really put a stop to it if we'd be very careful on where we're putting in our info.
So be really mindful about what you're putting your name, telephone number, and email in on, don't just because you see a home listed online and it says to see more pictures or get more info, put your info in. It doesn't mean you have to do that. Because the information is going to be used probably how you don't want it to be used. So be mindful of were actually putting in your information.
It's going to be best to get it from the source. So get it from smaller websites instead of these bigger websites. And maybe talk with a realtor in person or over the phone or over text, you reach out to them instead of them reaching out to you for more info.
So if you see a home, if you see 123 Main Street, don't reach don't sign up to ask for it. Pick up the phone or text an agent and say had more info on 123 Main Street. Don't request it through a website because that's going to be sold.
Also, be clear when you're talking to agents and lenders. So if an agent calls you or texts you about information, they say, Hey, are you looking at buying? How can I help you out? You can just say, Hey, I'm not looking right now. Appreciate you looking out. I'll get back in touch if I'm interested. That's all you have to say.
But if you just try to ghost agents or lenders, a lot of them are just going to continue to reach out to you. Because they've been taught in sales training, it's all about follow-up, follow-up, follow-up so they're used to reaching out to people 10 plus times not hearing back before someone reaches back out to them. So be very mindful of that. Just be clear in your communication. That's so much easier to just say no than to have someone keep reaching out to you.
So for instance when, whenever I have a real estate agent who says, Hey, here's this person I want you to call. They're looking for a mortgage. I only call them maybe two, three times tops. I'm not going to sit and harass people all day. I'm in my view, everyone is a grownup. They can make these decisions if they want to, I'm not going to buy a home for them. I'm not going to get a mortgage for them. I can't do that. They have to have the responsibility.
I'm going to call them a couple of times. Maybe I miss them the first time, maybe a call a second time. But after that, it's in their court. If they're interested, they'll reach out. Not everybody has that same mindset.
So just know it's okay to say, Hey, no, thanks. Then move on.
Something else you can do is sign up on the Do Not Call List. Now not all agents follow this, but it's at least a step in the right direction. A lot of agents that use a software application will recognize the numbers on the do not call list and force the agents to not be able to call those numbers. So that is a place you can stop.
Also, respond to the word, STOP to text messages specifically continuous texts because there's a lot of software out there that is like an auto text. So for instance, if you sign up on a website its local website, it will look like. Is texting you, but it might actually be an auto text.
Because of the way that texting rules work right now is if you text back at the keyword STOP. So just the word STOP or Unsubscribe will remove you from that texting list. If it's an autoresponder, a text message. So you can do that to remove yourself from and go ahead and unsubscribe from emails.
That's the easiest way to, instead of just continuing to suppress the lead, every time they come in, just unsubscribe, because it's easier to unsubscribe now, before your information possibly gets sold to more email lists and you get more emails from places you don't even know how you got on those lists.
Then also say no on phone calls and block the number if you need to. So if somebody calls you and they say, how many real estate agents it's perfectly okay to say. No, thanks. We'll reach out if we'd like to have a great day and hang up. If they keep calling, you're welcome to block their number.
If you want to you can be rude if he wants to. That's not me personally, but you can say no, it's easier to say no than to have an agent keep reaching out and reaching out and reaching out. That's just going to eat into your emotional space and get you more frustrated.
This should help give you a solid idea of how to get some of this stopped if it's causing some chaos in your life.
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