Never Talk to Another Estate Agent For More Than Five Minutes

I love estate agents. I work with them every day. You probably like estate agents, too.  They’re your colleagues, your co-workers, your friends and the people you spend most of your time with every day.

But you should stop talking to them so much.  Why? Very simple. They’re almost certainly never going to buy or sell a house with you.  You need to spend more time with people who actually might.

Unfortunately, a lot of estate agents spend an inordinate amount of time every day talking to other estate agents.  We get pulled into these never-ending conversations where we complain about the market, gossip about other agents and share war stories.  Obviously, that’s all largely wasted time, and you should do your best to extricate yourself from those traps as much as possible.

But even the “productive” conversations you have with other estate agents can sap your time and energy. So here’s the rule you should follow. Never talk to another agent for more than five minutes.  Anything you need to discuss, an offer, an inspection, a transactional issue, listing feedback can be done in five minutes or less. Any more than that and you’re just wasting time.

A great way to limit your phone calls is to use “I only have a moment” trick, which goes like this: “Hi Bob, I just wanted to call you to go over the inspection, but I only have a moment.”  Why is this so helpful?  Because you’ve signalled to the other agent that you need to make the conversation quick, which encourages them to get to the point quickly. It’s not rude, it’s almost flattering. You’re indicating to them that you have a busy schedule but you’ve carved out time for this call because it’s so important.

Indeed, the other agent will probably appreciate it.  Don’t flatter yourself. They’re probably thrilled if they can get you off the phone in less than five minutes….

Tom Benedict
Marketing Director,
@britainbesthome
Google+
www.britainsbesthome.com