Step On It: Follow Up

I don't know about you but I hate to pester people to follow up with something I've already contacted them on once. Makes me feels troublesome. But follow up is a very important part of a real estate business. There can be a lot of missed opportunity if we do not bother to follow up. I guess I will just have to get over being bothersome.

A big part of my real estate system is requesting the income and expenses on a property and sending in offers. I send request on so many that I need to keep a database to keep track. Once I receive the information back I contact the realtor with the details of my offer. If the gap between my offer and asking price is too big, I still send an email explaining where my first offer would be and explaining that I am aware that we will probably not come to an agreement.

This is where the following up starts. When I receive information on a property I change the status on my database from "requested #'s" to "sent offer" or some other comment depending on the situation. I need to also keep track of which properties I have not received the required information. For those properties I call the listing agent. My email as already gone unanswered so I do not bother to email again at this point.

Sometimes when I send my request for further information, I am made aware that an offer as already being accepted. I take note of this on my database. These are the ones that really needs to be followed up on. I normally asked for the date when the final condition is to be lifted. Shortly after that date I contact the realtor again, this time probably by email and inquire about the status of the sale. If the deal fell through, as they often can, this is a great position for me to step in with my offer. In fact I have gotten some of the best properties under contract using this method.