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Et tu, MLS?
Were you there before the Multiple Listing Service “MLS” became the web-based platform it is now? I started in real estate right before the transition occured. The old MLS was accessed on the DOS computer system, you know, the black screen with the green letters. Real estate agents would punch in codes for their propery search and find listings. Then they 
would print on that old-school computer lab paper with the perforated edges that you could tear off. There you had it, a list of properties for sale or comparables for your client – and your client depended on you to access this coveted data. You were the gatekeeper to all this cyptic information. The list of comparables or duplexes for sale made you a very valuable consultant. What came next for the industry would change an agent’s value radically.
When I first saw listings posted online they looked beautiful. It was probably what seeing color TV for the first time felt like. No more green text codes, it was in an easy-to-read format with nice pictures. This was the beginning of our current era. Over the years, all of these fragmented and individually-owned MLSs would transition into more tech-friendly platforms. Then consolidation and data-sharing began. Fifteen years ago, there were several MLSs in the greater Los Angeles area, and data was not shared like it is now. I bounced back between Sandicor -the San Diego MLS, and SoCal MLS, which was the main MLS in Orange County. If I had out-of-area listings, then I had to do a reciprocal listing agreement with the other MLS and pay a fee for my listing to show up on the respective local MLS.
As the MLSs evolved, so did data-sharing. Listing data was fed to outside tech companies that would pay for it. Why, because consumers began looking at the internet for everything, so why wouldn’t real estate listings be on there as well. Naturally, with multiple tech companies trying to give consumers the best or most informative real estate experienced online, it started a race to offer the most data in the best format. This made a pivotal change to the industry. Consumers no longer needed agents for property information. They could go online and get it from tech companies. These companies became consumers of raw MLS data. MLS companies harvest that data from agents. We agents are like honey bees collecting nectar for the hive.
I always found the fragmentation of MLSs and local boards of realtors annoying. I liked CRMLS because I thought their platform was user friendly and their plan was 
ambitious. They wanted to grow and do data shares with surrounding MLSs, which makes it easier for agents like us. If you work in Orange County but happen to take a listing in Riverside or San Diego, or even Ventura County, you can input that listing and it will show up in the same pool of data. This growth has been working great until a recent uptick of MLS fines signaled a stark change in the MLS relationship.
MLS Syndication
Before I talk about MLS fines, I should acknowledge the first big MLS controversy. Many agents knew that if consumers didn’t need them for access to MLS data then it would damage an agent’s value.In other words, it makes an agent more valuable if they can be the gatekeeper to MLS data. After all, you, the agent, are the person inputting the information. It’s your listing. The MLS was intended to be a database for professionals, not a data harvesting center. That said, many micro-movements have erupted to prevent or at least control whether listings are syndicated from the private MLS to all these publicly-facing tech companies. Here’s the catch though, that cat is out of the bag. Consumers, including homesellers want their listing syndicated to every tech company site imaginable. Plus, many agents have embraved this reality and market through these tech companies, ie Zillow Premier agent. I can tell you as a broker that nearly every client demands that their listing show up on Zillow or realtor.com. Pandora’s box was opened, the notion of not syndicating listing is not practical. The movement has and will go nowhere. As far as I’m concerned the case is closed on this. However, there is a new issue emerging.
Exorbitant MLS Fines
Remember, I have been a big supporter of CRMLS, but they have changed. I did a podcast episode on monopolies, which was inspired by CRMLS the biggest MLS in the nation. A few years ago, if there was an issue with the data entered into the MLS by an agent, CRMLS would send a warning email. If there was a mixup, there was a data integrity department, even someone you could call to help sort it out. I don’t know when the transition occured, but I assume it was spawned by a board of directors meeting. The CRMLS has a ruthlessly zero tolerance standpoint for data integrity. I first discovered this when an agent at Balboa Real Estate was fined a whopping $1500. What grave mistake did he make? Well, he took a screenshot of a google map showing the proximity of his listing to local shopping and added it to the library of images for his listing. Naturally, when told to remove the map image, he complied, but it was too late. The fine had been assessed. NO EXCEPTIONS. Here is the text you can expect if you seek a penalty waiver:
Unfortunately, CRMLS staff does not have the authority to waive or reduce any fine, as the amount of the fines is set by the CRMLS board of directors. If you wish to contest the issuance of Citation# xxxx-xxxxx, you may do so by filling out and submitting the Citation Review Request Form, located here: https://go.crmls.org/crmls–
citation-review-request/
Hey, it’s not up to CRMLS, the fine was set by the board. An ambigous group, many non-employees, that meet when, quarterly? So, if you were hoping to talk to a manager or something, well, sorry, tough luck. No one that works there has a say in the matter. In contrast, how much is a red light ticket? You know, an infraction that could kill people…generally ~$490. So, yeah, $1500 seems totally reasonable, yes I’m being sarcastic.
But wait, you can contest the violation – for $200. If you lose, you are out $1700 now! A local board recently told a Balboa agent she has only seen once person successfully overturn their fine. Just once. The odds are not in your favor. It’s a terrible $200 bet. You probably have better odds taking that $200 to a casino and winning the $1500 needed to pay the fine. than successfully contesting the violation.
If the average real estate agent makes $46,000 then a $1500 fine is 3.26% of the agent’s annual income, or 39% of that agent’s monthly income. What is the MLS thinking? The ostensible answer is they want to maintain strict criteria to ensure unblemished data. However, the penalty is unnecesary. All they have to do is suspend the listing. If they place the listing on hold then the agent will panic to fix the issue. If the agent is still uncooperative after a warning measure THEN assess a fine. Preferrably a figure more based in reality.
Not just one Balboa agent has been assessed the $1500 fine, but three have.
As an example of the most recent case. A Balboa agent had a lease listing. He asked the former listing agent if he could use his pictures for the lease listing. The former listing agent was cooperative. In fact, he was happy to agree, in writing, for the Balboa agent to use the pictures. The Balboa agent, appreciative of the favor, simply downloaded the pictures from the former listings and added them to his listing. Again, this was done with the other agent’s written permission. Perhaps it was the CRMLS watermark added to pictures, but something triggered a violation, in which the Balboa agent was accused of the unauthorized reproduction. Naturally, the Balboa agent contacted CRMLS to furnish them with a copy of the permission and clear up the misunderstanding. Not so fast, there is a process remember? This agent must apply for a citation review and pay $200 with no guarantee of repealing the penalty fee of $1500.
Now What?
What can you do? MLSs are growing bigger and consolidating when possible. When there is competition, a business must be courteous or else their customer will leave. Most MLSs, namely CRMLS don’t need to be courteous, few agents will bother to leave. They have become big enough to make the customer dispensable. There are so many of us, or at least enough of us with limited options that they don’t NEED to factor in the agent’s point of view very much. They can do as they please and funnel the agent through whatever policy labyrinth they construct. In summary, when a MLS gets so big that they are almost monopolistic, we get the benefit of expanded coverage. If things go wrong, we are left with few options. In this case, the outrageous penalties are the dark side of the otherwise useful MLS expansion. All I can say is be very careful not to violate the MLS policy and procedures. Contact me, ask me to double-check your listing draft, and don’t, for a second, think the MLS is your friend.
Transcript from podcast:
Contingencies episode #3
In this episode we are going to talk about real estate contingencies I get a lot of recurring questions about contingency periods, what happens when they expire, and how that affects the deposit, so I figured it would be good to do a primer that covers important factors to consider when it comes to real estate contingencies. So among the many contingencies in a real estate transaction there are three big ones that everyone’s paying attention to and the first is the buyer inspection contingency which lasts 17 days from acceptance, the next is the buyer appraisal contingency which also last 17 days from acceptance, and then the third is the buyer loan contingency which lasts 21 days from acceptance.
Before I go further I should actually talk about what constitutes acceptance because this actually gets confused fairly commonly, what happens is on a purchase contract if you look at the very top there’s a little space for the day prepared and that’s the date that the agent write up the contract I’ll see a mistake where someone will just jump back into a transaction to the paperwork two or three weeks in and they’ll look at that date because it’s just right there on page one and they’’ll count the contingency period from that date which is incorrect. Then of course the buyer signs that at the end of the purchase contract and the date the buyer signs may or may not be the same date on the top that they prepared when the offer was filled out by the agent and neither of those dates matter quite frankly all that matters is when the seller signed that contract which likely will be a completely different date because the agents going to write the offer they’re going to give it to the buyer to sign the buyers going to send to the seller and the seller may sit on it for a day or two or whatever then the seller is going to sign and at that point the offer becomes accepted it’s ratified as the other the other signature on it that’s needed in order to be fully executed so the date that the seller signs that contract that’s when your account from now the same idea applies to counters so let’s say the cat the seller gets the offer from the buyer decides they want to do a counter the seller writes up a counter offer in sent it to the buyer another buyer might sit on it for a couple days well if the buyer decides after a couple days of thinking that they like that counter and they sign it and then they date it well that’s the date that this whole contract you can fully executed that’s the date of acceptance and that last signature needed in order to fully execute. Counter offer the date by that signature by the other party that’s the day that you count from so it’s really whenever the last party needed in order to execute the document signs whatever date that that party signs that’s the date in which will count from to determine the number of days in that continue CPR the starting date all right so just important to when counting when when coming back into a transaction a couple weeks in because you want to remove contingencies it’s important to look at the start date and end Trace that trail of counter-offers and figure out when the last signature was done because often I see mistakes made where people just look at it the purchase contract in forget that account or with sign my book party both parties 2 or 3 days later you know one chip also is got in house when we do the in-house transaction coordinator we have an Excel spreadsheet and the second that we start a new transaction we find that date and we put it in one of the first columns on that spreadsheet that way as we go through the transaction and hit all the milestones we can always refer back to that date and where the earlier columns on a spreadsheet so we always know how many days into a transaction we are so it’s very helpful in my opinion to write down that that magical starting date somewhere that you can quickly refer to back to it so that you’ll always know how many days into a transaction you are all right so what happens when a contingency is not removed well the simple answer, the quick answer is nothing happens because contingencies don’t expire naturally on their own they stay in place until they’re removed by the buyer in so let’s say 17 days arrives your 17 days into a transaction that marks the end of the inspection and Appraisal contingency. Well it’s incumbent upon the seller to enforce was periods because again those contingencies will stay in place until the buyer removes them and often buyers are in a huge hurry to remove them because hey they want all the time they can get to do their inspection and get their loan also the buyer’s deposit is refundable 100% refundable as long as there’s a contingency in place so another reason why it’s incumbent upon the seller is that they don’t have the the full commitment from the buyer until the buyer has skin in the game and the buyers have skin in the game until they removed all their contingencies and they know that their deposit is in a non-refundable position so the buyer knows that they need to be proactive about going to transaction closed because if not they’ll lose their deposit now the buyer’s deposit could be jeopardized if they wait so long that the close of escrow date comes and goes and they don’t actually close escrow and fulfill their purchase then they risk it being in default and that’s another situation but the buyers defaulting on the purchase they made a commitment to we’re talking about is merely just the contingencies which basically is an escape clause for the buyer until they’re removed so what can a seller do to enforce contingency periods well the seller for the most part stuck on a real estate transaction the buyer can back out they have these contingencies in place the seller doesn’t the seller can’t really right to the buyer 2 weeks until the transaction say you know what thought about it don’t want to move after all let’s cancel the sellers stuck the buyer on the other hand they of course come back out to the contingencies are removed so what the seller needs to do is send a notice to perform to the buyer requesting that the buyer remove contingencies the newest perform document has a two-day window that it gives the buyer to perform the specified action or the seller can cancel so here’s an interesting thing that I’ve seen some agents do what’s a good is 17 day contingency. Now let’s say the seller’s very eager to have the buyer remove contingencies what’s a the sellers just very anxious or the buyer possibly backing out well the seller can wait 17 days and see what happens and at the end of the seventeenth day if they don’t get a contingency removal the seller can then send a notice to perform but then the seller has to wait two more days for the buyer to make good on that nose for form document because if the seller sends it then the buyer has two days to deliver the contingency removal and the buyer effectively bought themselves two more days and 19 day contingency. Or the seller can send that notice to perform to the buyer on day 15 and in anticipation that on day 17 all the continue the specified contingency must be removed the benefit of that is that if the buyer doesn’t deliver the contingency removal then the seller can immediately cancel the sellers two day waiting. Where the seller waits for the buyer to make good on removing contingencies takes place during the last two days of the contingency. So that way if the last day of the contingency. The buyer doesn’t deliver the contingency removal the seller does not have to wait they’ve already done their two days and they can immediately cancel if they want unfortunately would typically happen to the sellers are lenient they don’t listen to notes perform didn’t want to be perceived as too aggressive and they go day after day after day after the contingency. They might get a verbal promise from the buyer or one way or another they are encouraged to offer more time to the buyer and it’s usually that were very close Phone call and it’s usually that were very close to closing escrow or the close of escrow date is scheduled to close of escrow date and the buyer still hasn’t remove contingencies and the lender the buyer’s lender usually is hard to reach or asking for more time or has done something that’s freaking people out so my first advice on this is get the notice for To the buyer soon as you can it has nothing to do with being aggressive it’s just a natural course of action even if the seller doesn’t want to cancel it’s good that the seller at least has that Leverage because it sends a message to the buyer that the seller is serious and wants to hear to the timelines prescribed in the contract but also what the seller needs to get out with the seller doesn’t want to be trapped what if they want to market for a backup offer or or move on with another offer entirely it’s just wise to have that no spur form sent out and demands made to the buyer to deliver a contingency removal so the buyers committed because if you’re after 3 weeks into a transaction after acceptance there’s no reason why the buyer shouldn’t have their deposit non-refundable on the line to show a commitment that they’ve spent all this seller’s time with taking the home off the market to other buyers to go down the whole process of a transaction only to back out in the end so the short answer is synonyms for form and make sure that the buyers committed with a non-refundable deposit because until that continues to use removed the fire come back out even the last minute even if it’s the day before the close of escrow the buyer can send a cancellation over and say you know what sorry to waste the last 29 days of your time but not going to work out when you can get me the loan that I wanted whatever their reason whatever the reason they can back out and they can ask for a deposit to be returned and almost certainly that deposit will be returned at entirety and if it’s not if the seller wants to be vindictive and try to hold on to the deposit there’s a California civil code section 1:05 7.3 that says that the seller can be fined for withholding that that deposit because for deposit to be returned does the buyer will typically send a cancellation form and I’ll ask for a refund of the deposit in the seller has to sign off a green to it and escrow needs mutually a mutually signed instructions for both parties that states specifically instruct escrow specifically how to release that deposit and ask her to have a deposit just sits in the escrow account so the seller can be difficult if they want and say I’ll get around a signing that that release of deposit later or they’ll refuse to maybe if that happens the seller can be subject to a penalty of fine if they do if the seller refuses to sign off on instructions for 30 days to release the buyer’s deposit inactive bad faith essentially because they’re angry and frustrated that the buyer wasted their time they can be penalized so again these sorts of boundaries when it comes to enforcing the contingency. Need to be addressed punctually in the middle of the transaction it shouldn’t be just a matter of leniency we’re at the very end everyone’s better because the buyer took advantage of the fact that the contingency doesn’t expire naturally didn’t send a contingency removal form and Drug transaction out too long so that’s why it’s it’s it’s professional courtesy that people stay on on timelines when it comes to removing contingencies all right so you’re something else to consider two sometimes you have offers from investors or a cash buyer that says they want to wave continuous he’s okay so if it’s a cash purchase the loan contingencies going to be waived right cuz you’re not getting a loan so that makes sense the appraisal contingency will very likely be waived it may not maybe that fire investor wants to have an independent third-party come out to an appraisal to make sure they’re not overpaying but Austin cash offers don’t have an appraisal contingency so what’s your big can can you see that I had brought up the inspection which is very important because most cash buyers or usually looking to do an inspection figure out what their cost to fix up a property or what they’re getting into is going to be so awesomeness still have very short inspection contingency periods send them to see him as short as three days some ice some I even see waves so some investors some offers I see investors put that they’re waiving inspection. Okay or Converse that I should add that some sellers that may have a lot of offers or have been Jaded by investors coming through and an example of this as we’ve had clients that are selling a fixer-upper and I’ll get multiple offers and investors will come in make a cash offer tie up the property and escrow and then after a few days decided they don’t want it or they’ll try to renegotiate a lower price and the property will fall out of escrow well if that happened once twice three times the seller gets really burnt out on the process we’ve had sellers have called their office and they and they tell us look we have a lot of cash offers can we counter no inspection contingency well here’s something to consider regardless of which party is interested in doing a no inspection contingency contract by law by California law once the transfer disclosure statement is delivered to the buyer the buyer has 3 days to back out this is another California code section 1102.3 yes I wrote this down at and memorize it but it’s on the last page of the transfer disclosure statement and this pertains to transactions in which disclosures are delivered to the buyer after acceptance of the offer so in Northern California for example off and disclosures will be delivered in advance well in Southern California this the overwhelming standard is that once there’s an accepted contract the seller will deliver all disclosures within the 7 Days prescribed on a purchase contract cuz he’ll see the seller has 7 days to deliver everything to the buyer 7 days from acceptance well in that case whenever that transfer schools your statement which is one of those documents is delivered to the buyer the buyer has 3 days to back out based on what they’ve seen so effectively creates a three-day inspection contingency. Beginning from when that transfers goes your statement was received from the seller so that’s just another side stripe when I wanted to bring up in regards to inspection contingency is because you see all sorts of contingencies waved and change to make offers appear more attractive there’s kind of a small Trend that right now going on where fires that are obtaining financing from A lender are waiving the appraisal contingency and the thinking behind that because it’s it’s it’s it’s silly obviously because the lender is going to require an appraisal the transaction is subject to the appraisal the lender will not furnished out loan without that appraisal coming in at the appropriate expected value so what the buyers doing is they’re trying to make their offer look more attractive by saying hey we don’t need an appraisal contingency you don’t to worry about that but there really is one because the appraisal contingency expires after 17 days from September the loan is 21 days even longer if the appraisal comes back and there’s a problem with it then that means there’s a problem with the loan so the buyer just cancels under the premise there’s an issue with obtaining a loan and they have the loan contingency in place for 21 days there for the buyer can cancel so it’s kind of a sneaky tactic in my opinion because really it’s an appraisal issue and and they’re just they’re just waving at appraisal contingency so the seller thinks it’s an issue like they’re taking some sort of worried off the sellers chest but really the buyer will just just assumed cancel Under the Sea under the guise of the loan contingency rather than appraisal so I hope that Trend doesn’t stick around because I don’t think it does anyone any good it’s somewhat deceiving it’s oh there it is in a nutshell contingencies they stay in place the buyer gets their deposit back until they’re moved by the buyer in writing it take away is that sellers Force those contingency periods the seller should send a notice to perform the seller should be on top of the transaction and forcing timelines and making sure the buyer is removing contingencies as each of those contingency periods expire and that will insure a a much smoother transaction and at the transactions going to fall apart so be it but it’s better that it falls apart earlier than later because if it’s inevitable that the transaction was going to fail would it be better for it to happen at day 21 rather than day 28 or 35 or day 41 because I’ve seen it happen I mean these will go on for weeks I’m some months after the end of the contingency. Because the sellers just let the buyer get away with it for so long and the buyers defense it’s almost like a survival Instinct for them they’re just they want the house they’re waiting on a lender sometimes lenders get flaky at the end of it because the lender will say Alex in underwriting and everyone is waiting everyone’s holding their breath the buyers one there by the specially the buyers terrified of losing their deposit because it’s a lot of money and the same time depending on the lender to get their act together to deliver so the buyers is doing everything they can to buy themselves more time because they’re afraid of losing a deposit so it’s a fine balance Define balance where at a certain point the buyer has to have a reputable lender that’s going to make sure that they know by day 21 they’re confident that they can get a loan and if not then there needs to be a serious conversation with the listing agent about extending contingency. Extending close of escrow or what the problem is exactly I hope you found this episode on contingency periods to be informative and I appreciate you for listening thank you
Real Estate agents spend a lot of time comparing commission models, office amenities, and company policy when they consider joining a brokerage. Equally important is the name of the brokerage. Consumers have access to nearly all the data, so it is incumbent for agents to prove their value. Agents prove their value by building trust and credibility with their prospects. This brings us back to the company name. If you are a well-established agent, and your name is already very recognizable, then the name of your real estate brokerage takes a backseat your name. However, that is very rare, some tiny percentage of agents, much less than 1%. For the rest of us, the question will come up with clients, “what brokerage are you with?” These prospective clients are sniffing around. They want to know about your support system and if they are reputable.
So, you can choose a reputable name, like Keller Williams and be done with this, right? Yes, but you also are factoring in what the brokerage will charge you when you close a transaction. Let’s say you want to save the most commission for yourself, so you look at 100% commission model brokerages. This is a different segment of the brokerage world. Again, you will have to look at a list of companies, what they offer, and, of course, the name. So, Balboa Real Estate fits the bill as a 100% commission brokerage, and we don’t charge monthly fees. We are partial to our name because rather than something generic, like “First Home Realty,” or something abstract like, “Cyber Broker.” The name Balboa is a California icon. In each county of California it has different geographic landmarks and meaning, it sounds familiar.
Agents often call our office because they heard we offer a 100% commission program and they like our name. That is the conversation starter. Agents join our company because our reputation gives agents the credibility they need to win over clients. Agents stay at Balboa because we offer great support and take care of them.
We are often asked if real estate agents can be paid directly from escrow.
The close of a real estate transaction often marks the culmination of months of work to earn a commission. Naturally, agents want to be paid that commission as fast as possible. Any reputable company has requirements to be met before the agent is paid. Namely, that all required documents are in the file. At Balboa Real Estate, we want agents to be paid as soon as possible. Our corporate office is in San Diego Cuunty, but we have agents all over the state of California. Therefore, it will save agents a couple days if agents are to be paid directly from escrow. If an agent has a complete file with all required paperwork on or before closing, then we will send dibsursement instructions for escrow to pay the agent their portion of the commission directly.
With so many different 100% real estate brokerages in California, agents often wonder which company has the best plan? It’s been our goal at BalboaReal Estate to create a flat-fee-per-transaction-inspired commission model that allows full-service real estate agents to pocket as much commission as possible. Our company started in 2011, and in that short time we have tested just about every low-cost commission option for real estate agent. The goal was that despite agents keeping more money, there would be no compromise on the service. On the contrary, the expectation is that our 100% commission plan is a reward only available to deserving agents that offer excellent service to their clients. In turn, we offer excellent broker support to Balboa Real Estate agents.
As mentioned before, 100% commission is not all the same. Basically every company has their own take on what that is. Many companies charge a monthly fee; we do not. In fact we don’t charge any sort of application fee, initiation fee, risk management fee, E&O fee, desk fee, franchise fee, or other fee. We just charge one simple flat fee per transaction. This begs the question: what is Balboa Real Estate’s flat fee per transaction? The answer is simple: 10 basis points of the sales price. Written another way, it is 1/10th of 1%. This means that if the sales price of a property is $500,000 then the broker fee is $500, that’s it, no other fees. Another example would be if the sales price is $800,000 then the broker fee is $800. You can multiply .001 times the sales price to find the broker fee. The licensee keeps the rest.
Real estate agents mught ask if this is the best 100% commission brokerage program. Our answer is unequivocally yes. An agent typically earns 2.5% of the sales price as the gross commission when it’s all said and done. This means that 2.4% goes to the agent. If the agent earns 3% then 2.9% goes to the agent. Some times agents will ask about transactions with the sales prices in the seven-figures. They notice that the higher the sales price the higher the broker fee. This is correct, however, it’s commensurates with how much an agent is earning too. If a licensee sells a home for $2,000,000 then the broker fee is $2000 while the licensee keeps $48,000 in a 2.5% commission scenario, or $58,000 in a 3% commission scenario. We sell a fair amount of homes in the seven-figure range and our overhead does increase with larger transactions. This is why we feel the “basis points” model is fair for the company and generous for the licensee. If you have any questions about this program please email admin@balboateam.com or CLICK HERE
Real estate agents often ask, “does outbound calling work,” or, “does cold calling work?” The answer is at the end of this post, but first it’s important you know why. Real estate agency is competitive and has a long ramp-up period. New agents are super motivated and are eager to be proactive in order to drum up business. This means holding open houses for other agents, sending direct mail, and even picking up that ice cold sales phone to dial for dollars. While outbound calling is better use of time than additional training for agents, it’s not a good use of time.
Several years ago and before, let’s just say 2007 and earlier, outbound calling was still a fairly effective way of generating business. However, a lot has changed since then. The internet has become a huge factor in consumer thinking. If a consumer is considering a service or even using a particular agent they will go online and do some investigatory tail sniffing to see if they check out as a professional. This has created a major shift in how professionals and consumers meet. We’ve moved from sales-system oriented marketing to relationship-based sales. Social media and internet presence meet consumer research. Connections are made and quality informative content is delivered to consumers which often results in a sale. This is unequivocally a higher quality way for consumers and professionals to choose to work together. Consequently, it makes outbound calling look more desperate and less credible. The relationship model has has been naturally selected over outbound calling as the winning marketing strategy.
It’s not enough to just say that outbound calling is less credible as the reason why it’s not as good. It’s also important to mention that because it is an outdated method facing extinction, the conversion rate is worse now too. This makes it harder for the remaining die-hards still out there in the boiler room trenches. Will these outbound callers drum up any business through cold calls? Some might, but at painfully thin conversion rates which beg a bigger question – is cold calling a reasonable and sustainable longer term business model? The answer is simply NO.
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