Real Estate Agents: Are You Making These 6 Email Mistakes?

Thank God for email. As a real estate agent you can get a ton of work done without having to pick up the phone. Furthermore, when you have an email of a conversation you also have documented proof.

But not everyone knows how to use email correctly. Here are the mistakes you need to avoid.

Leaving Out the Thread

Sometimes we feel like we are doing people a favor by cleaning up a conversation by cutting out the thread. That’s no good. When you respond to an email make sure you always include the entire thread of the conversation. You and everybody else send a lot of email. They have a lot of conversations. It’s easy to get confused. Scrolling through the thread allows someone to reorient themselves. It’s easy to get lost without it.

Using a Generic Email Client

While Gmail is a robust email client with a ton of storage you don’t want to use it for your business purposes. Sure, you can sync your professional and personal to make things easy, but make sure new clients see you sending email from yourname@yourdomain.com, and not skikid77@hotmail.com. On the mild end that email is going to raise eyebrows. On the extreme end that message is likely to end up in the spam filter. .

Not Replying to All

If you have more than one person in an email conversation, keep it that way. The only option would be if you want to talk to someone off the record. If that’s the case, you are better off just picking up the phone and talking. Otherwise keep everyone in the loop.

CC the World

Before you reply to All you need to consider if everyone should get the email. Before you hit All ask yourself if it is necessary that everyone on the email. Case in point: if people are out of town and won’t be checking their email for a few days, don’t slam them with a hundred emails.

Ignore the BCC Function

Now you can keep someone in the conversation without making them part of the visible discussion. That’s the function of BCC: it hides from the main recipients another reader who needs to be clued in. This is a great way to protect people’s email from others also.

Meandering/Long Emails

Get to the point. Your first sentence in an email should tell the reader what you want. You can include small talk like “Hey, hope all is well.” But the next sentence needs to get right to the point.

If it is going to take you a lot of words to send the email, ask yourself if you won’t be better served by picking up the phone and calling. Emails that are too long often get archived–and never read again. Or they get misunderstood and you end up with more trouble than you began with.

Sloppy Writing

Email is not an excuse for bad writing. Especially when dealing with clients. Do not use abbreviations or breezy talk. Email is not Twitter. Even if you use your mobile phone you need to pay attention to good spelling and grammar. End your mobile email signature with “Forgive the bad spelling–using my phone” if you use your phone, but never allow that to be an excuse.

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