You met a real estate agent – perhaps at an open house, perhaps you saw a few homes with him or her, or perhaps that person did a market analysis on your home and interviewed to list it – and now that person keeps phoning or emailing you. Why? Why won’t he or she leave you alone?
The answer to that is simple: that Realtor or other real estate sales person thinks of you as either a client or a potential client (a prospective client or prospect or a “lead”), so is following up to get your business. Realty professionals are always looking for their next job; perhaps job # 1 is finding people who want to hire them since without clients, they are out of business. To that end, when real estate agents are trained, they are told to stay in touch lest they lose business. So those who are serious about being successful will do just that. Some licensees will try communicating a few times and then give up. Others will be undaunted for longer.
Rather than the “ignore them and they’ll go away” approach, why not just politely tell that individual that you are not going to buy or sell with him or her? Yes, it’s awkward. But it beats feeling like you’re being hounded. And it’s better for them to not waste their time too.
Some of them may ask you why you made that decision. For those who do ask, a truthful response is usually helpful because they want to improve. Most will simply thank you and wish you well, though.
Is a phone call too difficult? A nice email or hand written note should do the trick too.
Remember, that Realtor or real estate professional is running a business and you raised your hand as being interested in working together, or you would not have given out your phone number or email address. That same persistence may be a good indicator that he or she won’t rest until your place is sold, too – so it is not a bad sign! If you want to not be called or emailed, just let that person know. He or she doesn’t want to waste time pursuing prospects who aren’t interested in working together, so you’ll be doing both of you a favor by being nice, direct and truthful about it.
