Penny Wise, Pound Foolish

Just a major bug bear about real estate agents:

1. Why do some real estate agents subscribe for caller ID barring (this means that when you receive a call from such a real estate agent, your mobile phone will not have a record of the caller's phone number). I would have thought that in this business, you would like to people to return your enquiries about properties. Instead, one's caller list has "No Caller ID", and there is then no way of returning the call.

2. Why do the rest prefer to call from fixed line phones, and almost always, hunting lines at that? Sure, we can return calls to fixed line phones, but if the estate agent rings from the company phone, you just get a "aaah - who did you want to speak to aaah"; "##$%!!! I don't know, I was just returning a missed call"; "aaaahh. wat's your name aaah?"; "Malek"; "AAAAAAH, ANYONE HERE CALLED MALEK AAH? AAAH? (then back to the phone) "Sorry aaah, no one here called you aaah, nevermind, nevermind, the person will call you again aaah, ok aah, byee aah"

Sure, fixed line calls are cheaper but for the extra $200 per month, you would get a lot more of your calls returned (and more chances of closing the deal that will pay for that month's phone bill 100 times over)

Tip #1 for real-estate agents : If you call from a mobile phone and allow your caller ID to be displayed to the other party, then you dramatically increase your chances of getting a return call or a return SMS, leading to higher chances of closing a deal.
"