It is not used here in my area very much at all.  So I do it. My listings do get looked at. I try to raise my listing out of the clutter of the MLS and get you looking at it and thinking of that buyer that is looking for just that special home....

However, if and when it gets to be the type of advertising that everyone is doing, I will quit.  It will no longer serve my purpose of raising my listing out of the clutter!!  It will be the clutter.  I will be on to the next thing.  

Sorry it has gotten out of hand.  I do watch how much and which properties I will email.  I can't give you a solution, but if you send me your email addy, I will add you to my list, lol : )

Shelz

I have mixed feelings about this. In the old days before the internet was so popular, agents used to hand deliver their flyers to the other agencies. Then the fax came out, and what a waste of ink. Now it is our in box on our e-mail. But I can't help myself. I read them. And the other day I actually got one that would work for one of my clients. Sometimes looking through MLS is so tedious. And so many. But when you get a nice full color flyer it is cool.

The other side of the coin. Yes, I get tired of looking through them, because 99% are nothing anyone I know is interested in. I can go and unsubscribe, but keep thinking, well the next one could be it. So still receiving them. And still looking at most. And what is really bad about me, I get them for areas I don't even service. If I had a wish list, it would be to narrow down the ones I could get based on the area.

I think the fad will end like others do. More agents will start unsubscribing.

Now, that is against the rules!!  all spam must have an opt out option and mine do.  In fact I have about 300 agents I send to, and only 1 has asked to be opted out.  I complied immediately.  But then my program is provided free from corporate... My franchise fee dollars at work I guess.  

Oohh...great topic!  I'm with Shelly on this one. I use e-flyers. However, I also choose the areas I send them to. I try not to send Eastside Charlotte stuff to Shelby - (way West) that's not helping anyone. Some programs won't let you be super picky. I don't want to become a nuisence either. But, I have been able to pull my listings out and show them off a little. And it has helped me notice particular homes for buyers. But, alas, it s a fad for sure.

Hi Phil,

We do send out our listings, but only 1 time a week and not every week.  We use a email flyer's service and it goes out to 8500 agents in our area.  We can choose to send it to other areas of the country but I really think it will be a local REALTOR who sells it.  I try to send to the light days, so there might be a chance of it being read.  I know I look over them especially if we are working with a buyer.  I also notice an increase in showings the weekend after I send out the email flyer.  Marcia and I set up a yahoo account just for this purpose.  If they pop up on my other email address (from some old list) I will  delete or click on the remove me from your list button.

Jana

I understand your pain and annoyance.  Our board isn't large -- only about 350, 360 members so the daily email burden isn't overwhelming.  I don't have my emails forwarded to my pda or messaged to my phone but I agree that duplicating all that would be a nuisance and a time waster.  We have a listserve that we all participate in so it is separate from where the board can give us important board messages through our MLS software and we can opt out of the listserve without missing board messages.   What really annoys me about our listserve is not the actual volume of emails on the listserve but the agents who reply to ALL instead of just the agent for whom they intend their reply!  

Is there some sort of common thread to the emails so that you can filter them into a special folder and then a second folder specifically for messages from your board office say with a filter using the names or email address of the staff in the board office?  Don't know if this would work for you - but if I had to, I could do this with ours. For instance, our listserve includes the term "agenttalk" in the address so I could filter those out if I needed to for later review and not clog my inbox.  

Does your MLS software have a message screen or portal where it would be better for everyone to post their special comments about their listings?  I know some companies do have this since I've been reviewing several MLS software companies lately.  The messages then appear on everyone's dashboard when they sign into their MLS.  Maybe this is something your board needs to look into.

Phil I get a lot of them every day and depending on time, some just get deleted. However, if I have some time I do look at them to see how they are being marketed, how the prices are in comparison to my perceived views, and on occasion have actually found one that was of interest.

It is a pain on some days but I only have them going to one email. Three different deletes would add to the frustration factor.

I think overall there are good but I would set it up to only get them at one location. Sometimes there is more information to be gained by looking at them then just the property they are marketing.

Similar to Velda, I automatically filter out the flyers into a special folder so they don't clog my normal mail.  I occaisionally check to see if anything interesting comes in, then do a bulk delete on the folder.  A lot of the services use the term "flyer" in the subject which gets most of them into the folder.

Phillip,

I too receive many, and honestly it does get a bit annoying at times. I email listings to other agents that I have a relationship with for a few reasons. Their clients are looking for that specific property type or other ideas from that agent(s) I can use as well. Honestly, all listings that agents send are in the MLS. If I had a client that needed that listing we would have found it or my client's property wizard would have found it! Out of area agents are different (for example waterfront communities across the country). My biggest concern are all the third party companies selling agents on the thought of "We can email your listings to thousands of agents!!!!" Great... Now I have thousands of agents emailing me listings! Face it folks that's why we have a MLS. Email clients, now that's thinking.

I will share with you my solution.......

Create a new folder for listings in Outlook, then create rules in outlook to automatically move those emails into those folders for easy organization (you can even add exceptions). (Why... we really can't stop all those emails without stopping the few ones we DO want).

Go further with OUTLOOK and create client folders, lead folders, efax, realtytimes, inman, property wizards, relatives, friends, attachments, etc. Outlook can do so much and almost everyone has it. If folks do not know how to create rules, I will post the directions online!

This topic really hit my 'hot' button a few months ago.  We (Susan and I) have numerous different email addresses for marketing reasons and most forward to one main address.  As a result, we were getting about a dozen duplicate e-flyers EACH.  

I tried my best to get the e-flyer companies to take me off their spam list but without success.  One morning I opened my inbox to several hundred of these flyers and decided enough was enough.  I took most of my day to send each and every one of them to the agents who sent them (so they could see that we were getting as many as 24 of the exact same flyer) with a notice that they had 48 hours to get their e-flyer provider to take me off of the mail list.  After that 48 hours, if I received even one flyer from them I would turn it over to my attorney to begin legal proceedings against the e-flyer company and the agent and I would report the agent for ethics violations.

Amazingly enough, we stopped receiving the spam almost immediately!

I think the e-flyers and the paper flyers are an incredible waste of time and money... my gosh, we have every listing available to us with a few keystrokes!  Why on earth would we need or want the flyers?!

Almost daily, one or more agents drop off a stack of paper flyers at our office and our receptionist dutifully places one in each of the agent's boxes.  The agents then take them out of their boxes and drop them in the waste basket sitting next to the boxes.  What we end up with is a basketful of colorful trash! --- Yeah, like printing the flyer on pink, yellow or blue paper is really going to help get the property sold! Please....

Hi Phil, All of these go straight to my SPAM folder to be looked at (maybe) at a later date. We also have a broadcast email system for agents in my company to let us know about new listings, price reductions, open houses, motivated sellers, closing help, personal items for sale, etc... You get the picture... Those go straight to the SPAM folder too.

The only way I can filter these SPAM messages is by the senders name, so I do go through my SPAM folder to check the subject in case I've missed something "real". The way I handle SPAM is probably not the best system, but it's better than having my Blackberry vibrate all... day... long...

Phil, I get them and I send them. I like them. Of course, I don't get as many as Tim and Susan but I am not tracking that many email addresses - they seem to have a marketing system that is fine tuned. Anyway, I get agents who hit the op-out and agents who send me nasty grams about how they "know" the market and check the MLS daily. I use them for open house, price reductions, and new listings so some may think they are the same flyer over and over again. I like seeing the information on the cost of homes from all over. And, the same is true about commercial property flyers. I enjoy the pictures and the verb age they use to highlight the features. Some are very funny and sometimes I get a good idea. I don't think I have ever sold a home because of the flyer, but I have shown one or two because of them. Same on the other side, I have had many agents show a listing of mine that would not have given it a second thought if they had not gotten the flyer. The flyer I use allows an op out and also allows me to track it. I know how many times you open it and look at it. I don't check that feature too often but one guy who sent me a nasty gram looked at several flyers over the course of a year multiple times (15 on the last flyer) so they must have really ticked him off.

Phil, it's fair game; and in the famous words of a well known scholar - "Deal with it". Besides, this will pass soon.  In 2009, you can complain that when we're in an up market Realtors are not changing active listings to pending fast enough for you.

LOL - Come on 2009!!!!!

Tim & Susan - I'll tell ya what.  I'll even send you one of my special realtor e-mail flyers when we get close.

LOL - Thanks Phil... your emails are welcome anytime!  And, as bad as my memory is lately, I would really appreciate an email every morning telling me what DAY it is.  -- It's hell getting old! LOL

Tim

Gregory wrote: "...' allows me to track it. I know how many times you open it and look at it."

I never thought about using my 'disappearing' email program for sending these out since it also allows me to see who opened it and how many times. http://www.bigstring.com/mail/main.php

Tim & Susan - I do have good news for you!! Due to lack of interest and the every growing sinkhole we call the Real Estate Market, the rest of 2007 has been cancelled.  Tomorrow is Tuesday, January 01st, 2008. The jury is still out on how long 2008 will last......

SWEET!

I feel like Rip Van Winkle. ROFL

Gene, that is FUNNY!

I'm Sleeping Beauty.

Phil, it is terribly annoying and a sign of the market but here is another suggestion if your board takes that hard line position. Provide the MLS with another email address that isn't your primary email and everything (hopefully) will go to that. I've done that and a great number of real estate flyer emails are finding their way to a place I don't look. Actually there isn't much the MLS sends out that is important that isn't on the home page anyway. Others do slip through and I have my finger on the delete button for those many other spam emails that find me each day. Did you get a greeting card today :)

OK, as much as we hate them, I have to say, Thank you e-Flyers!

I just sold an incredibly difficult property and the agent who brought the buyer said it was due to the e-Flyer I had sent out.

Last year after looking at what felt like a million homes with a buyer, I received an e-flyer with a property that looked pristine.  I forwarded the flyer to my buyers and what do you know?! We wrote the contract that evening.

I look at the ones in my area that may be of interest and delete the rest.  The best ones are the reductions and incentives.  My email is always on.  2 clicks - open and delete. It takes time to log in and run a search in the MLS.  Call me lazy!

My thoughts are the same as Martha's.  I immediately delete the ones that are WAY out of area, but I do pay attention to ones that I feel my buyers may be interested in.  Some may be in an area that is outside of where we are concentrating so I wouldn't have pulled it otherwise.  

I get probably 5-10 a week so the quantity is not overwhelming.  I'm sure I would feel otherwise if I were to receive 30 a day as Phil does...

I just received (and read) one announcing an open house this Sunday. Since it is one I was unable to tour on tour day, I will make a point to stop and see it since it is in my marketing area. I also send out my own fliers but will need to add the opt-out verbiage at the bottom.

LOL, Martha you just gave me a different take on eFs--there is that convenience factor. I get tons of them, mostly hate them but usually because they are out of area.

I don't get that many right now, but I can see that in a larger area, this could be a real problem.

Phil, you just verbalized my sentiments. Who works for who? Hint: I cut a check.

I've built several "groups" within my prospects section targetting selected offices in certain areas.  When I get a listing in that area, I will selectively send out a notification to local offices.  I'm assuming that the local offices will have most of the local buyers, so it's a limited number of agents that get my emails.  So far this year, 2 of my listings, or listings of other agents in my office, have received offers from agents who got the emails when the listing went active.  It's worked for me, and VERY few have opted out of receiving them.

On the other hand....I'm getting tons of new builder flyers with spec homes and incentives.  These annoy me because the 'spec' home is one home that is usually gone by the time you bring your buyer out there.  It reminds me of the new car ads that have only 1 car at that price!

Tim - You commented "and I would report the agent for ethics violations" and being on our PSC I'm curious what Article and SOP you would base it on.

Good question, Gene.  I don't know for sure that I would have had proper grounds or not.  My thinking at the time was that I had repeatedly 'opted out' of the emails with all the various companies that were sending them and had sent the agents email asking them to please contact their e-flyer provider and have all my emails removed.  I had sent the agents and the e-flyer companies an email with a list of our email addresses and the request to be removed from their list.

When this did not work, I decided to try the threat of legal action for the spamming and the 'ethics' report to try and get their attention so that I wouldn't be inundated with the SPAM every day.

Where my 'requests' fell on deaf ears, the threat worked.  

Since you are on the PSC, perhaps you can shed light on this for me.  Is it 'ethical' for an agent to send these unwanted emails even after being asked to stop?  Should we not respect each other enough to honor such a simple request?  To me, it was bordering on 'harassment'.  It was no different than getting offers to make me more appealling to my lady.  It was SPAM, pure and simple.

If it isn't 'unethical', I think it is certainly 'disrespectful'.  What do you think?

Tim - Unfortunately the NAR COE does not address harassment but instead deals with the way real estate is transacted between the public and other agents. I would hate to think that a panel would have to meet to explain how to use the Delete button or set up email filters that almost all systems provide.

I am just as frustrated as you are about emails with the lack of results when reporting the use of the term Realtor in a URL. The person who replaced the previous lady in charge of following up on these complaints has done nothing to stop the usage reported. I continue to receive the same handshake listings showing the URL's that are in violation. Maybe the COE needs to be updated to include the improper use of the term so we could file on a local level.

No, Gene, I don't need a panel to explain the Delete button or email filters.  Every email filter I've used has ended up filtering out some 'good' emails too so I ended up having to go through all of the junked emails anyway to make sure I didn't miss an important email.

As for 'deleting', this becomes quite a hassle (and annoyance) when you start receiving dozens to hundreds of these spam e-flyers every day.

Consider what it would be like if even 10% of listing agents started sending out these flyers in markets with 20K, 30K, 50K listings. It would be a nightmare.

Here in Jacksonville, we have an excellent MLS system and it is very easy to search for any and all listings utilizing different criteria filters and, of course, setting up for automatic notifications, etc.  I prefer to search out the listings that match the needs of my buyers as opposed to wading through dozens of emails everyday for which I have no interested buyers.

I think that this has escalated with the softening market and the agents seem to think that it shows the seller they are working hard to sell the listing. I realize it is less expensive to send emails to agents than market the property to the real estate consumer.

Unfortunately, the email continues, and as Tim and Susan point out, our MLS system is superb and if I am looking for a house in that price range and neighborhood, I'll find it without the agent's extra help.

Stephan, I know exactly what you are talking about and I've done something similar. I target my email to specific agents based on the product I am marketing.

Oops sorry, Phil. I just saw you addressed target marketing...

Tim - You know I wasn't trying to be rude when I talked about a panel meeting to decide on unwanted eFlyers. What I was suggesting was why can't you simply highlight the email and quickly add it to your blocked list? Today I received fliers from these two addresses and was easily able to add them to my 'blocked sender' list.

eFlyer@sendeflyers.com and electronicflyerco@bizkc.rr.co

'eFlyer@sendeflyers.com' has been added to your blocked sender list. Subsequent messages from this sender will be blocked. Would you like to remove all messages from this sender from the current folder now?

This took two simple mouse clicks and any future emails from them will never enter my inbox.

Not to worry Gene... I should have put "LOL" in there somewhere so you'd know I was joking with you.  I took no offense. ;-)

Phil - I got two today from agents sending their own out and I agree that I would not want to block their email address. Being in the Chicago area, I can't help but agree with everyone that this will someday be a huge problem, especially if they are obtaining our email addresses from our Board. I've done like Stephan and made up my own group lists which mostly consists of agents that I have dealt with in the past or are heavy listers/sellers in ceratin neighborhoods and look forward to doing another deal with.

Here's what I see is happening with the email people.  Last year the service I use said it sent 12K out to my fellow agents.  This year when I set up a new flyer it said 6K.  I suppose that is because of the opting out feature.  So, eventually this service will go away.  But, another new one will take its place and here we go again.....

Send a "reply back" and just say "thank you"

Or, click unsubscribe if its a service or just delete.

I think if everyone sent an e-mail back to these agents and give them a taste of their own medicine maybe it'll cure it....who knows.

Let them open  300 or 400 e-mail thank you's :)

I get email flyers from some different places.  I'm in TX but I've received a few from Costa Rica, Florida, California, and Vegas. They are the scams like buy a square yard on the moon emails either.  Don't know how I got on those email lists but there aren't a bunch of them and they are kinda interesting.  Right now, they aren't annoying.

Hey Velda, I got one of those square yards on the moon wholesale. Vacation there often . . .at least once a month. ;)