Inspection scheduling madness

[shrubberyvaluation]

We have Showingtime and BrokerBay for sales. Lately, the agents will turn them off after getting a contract and I get the "must call agent" notification. Refinances are more of a challenge. Sometimes the lender gives you old phone numbers or wrong phone numbers. Or, the borrower is not quite in the same hurry as the lender. Or, they order the appraisal at 5:00 the day before the borrower is heading out town for 1-2 weeks.

Had one where the borrower was deaf. Be nice to know or at least tell me only text or something so I'm not wasting my time calling. But of course not.

 

[shrubberyvaluation]

In 34 years (34 years? Holy…) I have customized my calls to a tee. Before I call, I look at my schedule, my due date, my inventory of other orders. I then pick my days and times and hours.

I generally like to schedule my first appointment at around 10am, based on not worrying about rush hour traffic. I then call the broker or owner, introduce myself and say, “Is it possible to be there blah, blah at 10am?”. That takes away their first choice. About 7 out of 10 times, that is fine with them. If they have a problem with that time, I suggest the other options I have already thought of. That keeps me in charge as they haven’t done the scheduling research I have.

I do similar but I request a couple hours range say 10-12. Even if it's the first appointment I may get another I'd prefer to do first and makes it an easy swap

 

[Alsie35]

My wife makes all the appointments. I was amazed when we started together 10 years ago how skillful she is at immediately offering them a couple of times (based on our schedule, of course), and leading them to pick one. Of course, occasionally people need a different day, so we adjust, but 80% of the time "fence-sitters" can be made to "come down" by a skillful approach .... needless to say, she is much better at it than I ever was ... also helps that she is a kind person with an excellent "telephone manner", so it makes people WANT to agree with her ... we ideally want all our appointments to be between 1000AM - 100 PM, so we can miss the heavy traffic "on both ends" ...

 

[TC]

I wonder how the PDC collectors are faring with the annoyance of appointment scheduling. They sure do a lot for their dinky $75-$100 fee - schedule the appointment , then drive to a property, pay for gas and wear and tear on the car, do a detailed inspection, fill out a form, and upload it. I bet the turnover is high because it very demanding considering the pay and one assumes usual tight deadlines and constant demand for updates.

I've been doing it for 5 years and average 100 bucks a pop. Don't know about turnover.

 

[Fernando]

I look at the due date requested by client and also if there's a pending date about to close before due date.
Then I would intentionally make an appointment date on or after closing date so I can use that pending sale as a closed sale.

 

[alebrewer]

I have a client with Reggora and I have not seen that. For me that is a Hell no! I am 100% in control of scheduling.

No one said you had to use it. It's still a free country - so far.

 

[ZZGAMAZZ]

Whats everyone’s trips and tricks for scheduling inspections? Biggest frustrations and annoyances?

I leave two messages, then simply show up unannounced for the propery inspection, based on the premise that I'm providing a service. About 90% of the time it works, unless it's a scenario when the lender is trying to shake the busy by ordering the appraisal without the borrower's knowledge. Makes me shudder to think about having a job that REQUIRED me to cold call...

 

[ZZGAMAZZ]

I look at the due date requested by client and also if there's a pending date about to close before due date.
Then I would intentionally make an appointment date on or after closing date so I can use that pending sale as a closed sale.

I have purposely delayed an inspection for a week or two for that reason. Slippery slope but nothing about it in USPAP.