It amazes me how many Realtors® I still see working the the old fashioned way, delivering offers to the seller and then running them back to the buyer, often doing four or five trips before acceptance.
This has to be one of the biggest time wasters that I know of, average time 2 days.
When ever possible both buyer and seller should meet in real estate agents office to work with the offer. The average time spent on an offer when all the parties meet at the office is 45 minutes.
Your biggest problem here will be getting the other agent on side. Many agents will put up a wall and do almost anything to avoid coming in to your office, normally they will blame their client. However, my experience shows that well over 90% of my local clients will come into the office. In any event, if only 50% of the agents cooperate, just consider the time you have saved.
If the other Realtor® will not come into the office then the next best thing is to have them bring their client into their office and have your client come into yours. Do the necessary changes by fax, average time 1 hour.
If you cannot get the other agent to go along with this, then try to get all parties to meet at the house being sold. My buyer agents find that this is successful as they often have a hard time getting the other agent to bring their client into a real estate office, your average time will increase to a time of about 2 hours.
If you can not get the other agent to cooperate then see if you can them fax the offer to you and have your client come meet with you. I actually do not mind this, as you can delegate the follow up meetings too look at the offer to your team for simple changes and initials.
Finally, inform your clients as much as you can about the offer before you meet with them. I always amuses me just how many Realtors® still try to keep everything secret, all this does is create mistrust and slow down the process. If you tell your clients the details of the offer in advance of meeting them, they can prepare any questions and reveal their thoughts right away as opposed to having to “think about it.”
As a listing agent, I like having the offer faxed to me. I call my client on the phone and get all the changes done verbally. I call the other agent and explain what it is that I have in terms of acceptance and if they co-operate, I get them to do any changes over the phone with their client.
If necessary I fax an offer with the changes, less the signature. When we finally come to an agreement I either have all parties meet or I meet with my client and fax the signed offer to the other agent.
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