Hey, You Are Bugging Me!
Published July 20th, 2007 in Metro Detroit.
For just about a month now, Dmitry and I have been receiving really irritating phone calls from a local company that is asking Dmitry if he would like to list his home in the MLS.
First of all, as most of our enlightened readers know, we are Realtors. A major part of our job involves listings homes in the MLS. Not likely we would hire someone else to re-list our listings. Right? We happen to do our job quite well, thank you.
The company is using some very strange sales tactics to entice us. They call repeatedly from unlisted numbers, calling as many as 15 times in a 5 minute time frame, never leaving a message if we don’t pick up the phone. They call Dmitry’s phone first and then switch to mine and repeat the process. Their calls are often at midnight or later. If you have a young child, and even if you don’t, I bet you would find late night calls soliciting MLS services, well, irritating.
The few times I have picked up the phone, I have asked them to stop calling. When I have tried to ask them questions about their company they have said, “Ma’am, I don’t have time for your questions. Please get me Dmitry.” OK, folks, if you are calling MY phone and you want to speak to MY husband, I suggest you find time for MY questions. Otherwise I am not too likely to hand over the phone.
They are also violating the Realtors’ Code of Ethics. They are not supposed to solicit other brokerage’s listings. They could be in trouble with our Board of Realtors, if we could find out who they really are. But they don’t really answer many questions when we have tried to figure out who they are. They are interested mostly in Dmitry’s credit card number, and not in answering any questions. I am not sure that they are actually Realtors (members of the National Association of Realtors) though, in which case they are not bound by the Code of Ethics.
We would like them to stop calling. We filed a police report. Yes, it has gotten that bad. I will call the FTC and file a complaint since our numbers are on the Do Not Call list AND we have asked them not to call. In the meantime, if you get a phone call from anyone claiming to be an “MLS Expert” hang-up quickly and pray that they never call you again. I have the feeling they are calling consumers too, and I would hate to see others experiencing this sort of harassment.
______________________________________________________________Written by Maureen Francis
SKBK Sotheby's International Realty, 248.430.4450
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And we wonder why Realtors get a bad rap. I hope they find these people soon. If you play along, I wonder if they would give you their phone number or website.
Would you like to list your house all you need is a credit card number!
How stupid is that? Since you are on the DO NOT CALL registry, the FTC should take care of this one quickly.
That is what gives real estate agents a real bad name. I can’t believe they would call your house at anytime past 8pm. I would answer the phone, get their information, and report them. There are laws against calling that late.
Rex
Criteo Tech Evangelist
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MF - that is ridiculous! I really hope they stop calling you but I do have a funny story for you. Our own house is on the market now and we did not notice that the listing had expired. Within hours of the expiration we started receiving calls from Realtors.
The MLS states “owner-agent” - the name of the agents on the listing is the same as the owners of the house - we are in the “do not call list” -
Talk about not knowing what you are doing and giving the business a bad name - we took down names as they called and gave them a big scare….with the hopes that they learn.