Hey, Kyle here with winthehouseyoulove.com.
Today, we're 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've 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.
Okay.
So, 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 is the word followup.
Followup is the key to the game in real estate sales training.
And 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 or homes.com or a Trulia, 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.
And sometimes your info gets put into a database, and then it's sold
several times to different companies.
And this is where you're getting this string of calls happening.
For instance, you might have 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 a sudden I got like three
calls in a row and it was just obnoxious.
So, your information is sold when you sign up on these sites and agents know
that the more they call, the bigger chance they have at 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 make, I get one deal.
Right.
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.
Okay.
And it's not an inherently bad thing.
But it's just something to be mindful of is that I know some agents who they
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 to 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.
Maybe you listed your home for sale and it didn't sell.
That's called it an expired listing.
There's some agents who just called expireds 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.
And again, that's not an inherently bad thing.
Those 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, and 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 polled 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.
But, 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.
And another thing is 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 somebody's home is here,
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.
So for a quick moment, let's have a calm moment because this is a lot and it can be
frustrating when all of your information is out there and people are using it and
it 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 to 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 more peaceful experience.
Something that you can do if you want to go even more extreme is you
can set up a burner phone through Google Voice and a temporary email
through Gmail, make your make a new Gmail called smithfamily@gmail.com.
And go get a burner number on Google Voice, and only use
that for your real estate side.
That way your personal info stays sane.
So it's something you can do.
But let's go ahead and talk about how you can stop it.
So, first of all, we can go back to the source and think, well, we can really
put a stop to it if we be very careful on where we're putting in our info.
So be really mindful about what you're putting your
name, number, and email in on.
Don't just cause you see a home listed online and it says to see more pictures
or to get more info, put your info in.
It doesn't mean you have to do that.
Okay.
Because that information is going to be used probably how
you don't want it to be used.
So, be mindful of where you're 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.
Right?
So if you see a home, if you see 123 Main St, don't sign up to ask for info.
Pick up the phone or text an agent and say, hey, I'd like
more info on 123 Main St.
Don't request it through a website because that's going to be sold.
Okay.
Also be clear when you're talking to agents and lenders.
So if an agent calls you or text 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.
I 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.
Okay.
Again, because they've been taught in sales training, it's all about
followup, followup, followup.
So they're used to reaching out to people 10 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 then to have to have someone
to keep reaching out to you.
Okay.
So for instance, 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.
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 I 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.
And move on.
Something else you can do is sign up on the, Do Not Call List, donotcall.gov.
Now not all agents follow this, but it's at least a step in the right direction.
A lot of agents, the software that they use to make these calls 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 start.
Also respond the word "stop" to text messages, specifically continuous
texts because there is a lot of software out there that is auto texts.
Okay.
So for instance, if you sign up on a website it will look
like an agent is texting you.
But it might actually be an auto text.
And because of the way that texting rules work right now is if you
text back to the keyword "stop".
So just the word "stop" or "unsubscribe", it will remove you from that texting list
if it's an auto responder text message.
You can do that to remove yourself from those.
Go ahead and unsubscribe from emails.
That's the easiest way instead of just continuing to press delete 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.
And then also say no on phone calls and block the number if you need to.
So if somebody calls you and they say, hey I'm a real estate agent it's
perfectly okay to say, hey, no, thanks.
We'll reach out if we'd like to, have a great day and hang up.
Okay.
If they keep calling, you're welcome to block their number.
If you want to, you can be more rude if you want to do that.
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 and reaching out.
And that's just going to eat into your emotional space
and get you more frustrated.
Okay.
So 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 here.
If you want to learn more about how to find a trustworthy realtor, over
here, this video is going to help you understand some things to look
out for so that you can go with an agent who is going to help you and be
on your side instead of relentlessly calling and badgering you all the time.
Alright, thanks so much.