Reverse Prospecting Etiquette

With our new system (FlexMLS) in place, we’re discovering a whole new set of tools that will help us do our jobs better at helping our clients sell and/or buy real estate.  Often this will also lead to new policies and procedures to maintain order and professionalism.  One area that I feel will be the first to be ironed out is the tool Reverse Prospecting.

In the context of FlexMLS, Reverse Prospecting will show you the agents that have a search that matches your listings.  This is great in concept, you can contact those agents instead of doing a blanket email approach to notify every agent of your listing.  Great, awesome, now you can call them and have a talk about it.  Well, not really.  Let’s talk about an ideal situation and then work from there.

An Ideal World

I have a buyer, great buyer, we’ve gone out and looked at homes, they’re pre-qualified and serious.  Since I know that they are not just window shopping, I open them up for Reverse Prospecting on FlexMLS.  Listing Agent Ann has a new incentive going into the MLS (price change, financing, trip to Hawaii, whatever), she reverse prospects and sees my name.  She sends me a nice eMail that really is more about how this will benefit my client (the incentive) and less about the hard cold facts of the property (which are in the MLS that I will be checking later on anyway).  Ann helps me to help my client which in turn helps her client.

I read the eMail (because it’s not bulk spam) and I see the benefit to my client, I go to FlexMLS to make sure it is a great match for my client (and their specific needs/tastes) and I call Ann to verify the eMail and ask a few questions.  Hopefully I’m getting excited about finding a great opportunity for my Buyer, I forward them a link and give them the call to go over the property and incentive.  They too get excited and we go see the property that day and make an offer that closes quickly and everyone lives happily ever after….

Reality

That’s the way it should be, use Reverse Prospecting to provide value.  Let’s look at what is happening today.  Listing Agent Ann takes a listing or her listing is not getting enough attention (or possible both over time).  Runs a Reverse Prospecting, then sends a short note to all the agents saying that we should check out her listing.  I get that as well as 30 other ones just like it, I open it, realize that my client and I have looked at this and decided not to pursue (not a good opportunity, over-priced, bland, any number of things).  Now, I’ve just wasted time looking at something that doesn’t add value for my client, and because I’ve done that 30 times today and the last couple of days, I either (a) ignore these types of eMail (also called SPAM) or (b) turn my high probability (A-list clients) off of Reverse Prospecting.  In either case, Reverse Prospecting has lost it’s value add position.

Going from Realty to Ideal

So, for those agents reading this blog, let me summerize my Etiquette recommendations:

1. Only mark client searches for Reverse Prospecting if you truly believe they will be purchasing a home soon (in other words your A-list clients).
2. Reverse Prospect when you have something new or helpful to offer.  In the body of the eMail should be the news or helpful information.
3. Do not call to reverse prospect, it would be nice possibly after an eMail exchange, but I’ve already got too many things going on to talk about your listing if it’s not a good match or a good time to talk.

So, what are your thoughts, does this make sense?

Related posts:

1. FlexMLS Reverse Prospecting
2. Great Resource for Reverse Mortgages
3. FlexMLS Beta Testing Review
4. Feature Highlight: Contacting Agent & Scheduling a Showing
5. FlexMLS The Client Interface