I can remember a few years ago when our office was going to convert to using a showing service to book listing appointments. Oh boy, the howls, screams and gnashing of teeth, coming from both listing and showing agents.
Centralized Showing Service hasn't changed much since that time, but it just keeps plugging along every day, doing what it was designed to do very efficiently, which is make appointments. For the nominal charge per listing, the service has turned out to be a terrific time saver for brokerages and agents.
Listing agents enter the showing data, and all calls to show listings go to a centralized number. Reports are available to the agent, seller, or both. Listing agents get emails when a showing is scheduled. Showing agents get a confirmation email with the showing details. Quick, easy and efficient.
CSS sends out one or more emails asking for feedback. If you don't want feedback, you can set an option for that too. I don't have a 100% success rate with feedback, but asking an agent for feedback in an email seems to be more acceptable than asking by telephone.
Where the service really stands out is when showing homes. When you're making appointments to show multiple homes, I can get all the CSS ones out of the way with one phone call. It's easy to make half a dozen appointments to show homes in the space of about two minutes. I cringe now when I see the ones where I have to make an appointment through the brokerage, or worse yet...through the agent.
Are there stories of CSS making mistakes? Sure. I do wonder though, whether the mistake was theirs or the information provided by the listing agent. Personally, I've found that their error rate is pretty low.
There are other showing services we occasionally run into when making appointments, but Centralized Showing Service is the 800 pound gorilla in our market.
Why a brokerage would want to keep making appointments in house escapes me. CSS is a win/win for listing agents, showing agents, and brokerages alike.
Richard Iarossi, REALTOR®
Long and Foster® Real Estate, Inc.
Crofton, MD 21114
410-451-6255 Office
443-995-9595 Cell
Web: http://www.RichSellsHomes.com
eMail: Rich@RichSellsHomes.com
Annapolis MD Real Estate
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Rich Iarossi is a full time licensed REALTOR®, working in Crofton, MD. My coverage areas are: Anne Arundel, Prince George’s, Howard, Calvert, Queen Anne, and Baltimore City and County. I specialize in residential real estate, working with both buyers and sellers. Use the registration free search on my website at www.RichSellsHomes.com. If you’re not already working with a REALTOR®...I can help. Call me at 443-995-9595 (Cell) or 410-451-6255 (Office).
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We have the service and it is wonderful. It has made our jobs much easier.
Rich, showing services are great. They make it more convenient for everyone. Agents just don't like spending the extra money it costs on the listings.
It saves the sellers a lot a aggravation from the aggressive agents in our area.
The service that some agents in my office use is called MA Pass.....most still use our office administrator to make appointments for our listing to be shown and then email us the information....
GITA: This turned out to be one of the ones we love.
ALAN: For the length of time listings can be on the market, this one is pretty cheap.
YVETTE: Agents too.
BARBARA: If you have a busy office, you can save a heck of a lot of time. Time that may be better used.
Good post and something that should be read by the agents that do not use CSS. Have a great week.
Hi Richard, you answered many questions I had about CSS. Thanks for the great post.
Boy howdy.
You can work in your business or on your business. I'd lose my mind haggling appointment times all day. We went with CSS 3 years ago and never looked back. When I show sellers how they can read feedback online they list. period.
We use eshowings and I can make almost every appointment online, which is great! They also provide emails for feedback, which is great, and they are open very long hours, which is very helpful.
Great post and very true Richard. Unfortunately my office doesn't use this service, but I've developed my own version from our online showing requests from the MLS along with a script I use in Top Producer. Works for me as an alternative.
ROY: Thanks for stopping by.
DAN: It's been a great service in this area.
J PHILIP: Well put.
SUSAN: There are a small number of eshowings around here. CSS had the market locked up before they got in.
GABE: It's a time saver for the price.
We are getting a bid on it, one agent is using it in my office for his personal team. Right now most in our board use Showing Desk, but I love the idea of being able to set up all the showing at one time with one call.
Sounds like I have more to learn. Here in the northwest, the buyer's agent calls the seller. Unless stated otherwise in the listing, the agent gives the voice mail (if no answer) a time range and shows. If things change, they should call back, and things often change. We only have to call the listing agent or office 0.5% of the time.
Timely and wonderful to hear, Rich. Our office is now implementing, although the calls and appointments come to our front desk. We agents take turns staffing it. Yours truly is the lead on this and many are fearful. Nice to have your posts to show them.
MISSY: Once it starts and agents and brokerages see the benefit, it just keeps growing.
GLENN: Just another example of real estate being local. Here in Maryland we rarely are allowed to call the owner direct. Usually only in the case of limited listing brokers.
IRENE: Our front desk hasn't had to make an appointment in years. CSS does it all. The front desk receptionist has more than enough time to do everything else.
An interesting aspect of Active Rain is hearing how different parts of the country handle a section of business. In the Sacto Area, I haven't heard of this. We leave a message for the owner (most instructions are this way), and if we dont hear back, we go. If it's appt-only, we need to connect with the lsiting agent. But I'll keep my eyes peeled for this. Sounds bizarre, but so did rubber bands, I'm sure , to the inventor's wife!
SALLY: Local practices. Here we never contact the owner directly if there is a full service brokerage on the listing.
We have CSS here in the Raleigh area as well. I think, although not perfect, it allows us to make showing appointments much more efficiently than trying to track down a listing agent or someone from their office.
It use to be that the Realtor chose to sign up for CSS - I was charged $30 per listing. Showing agents were not charged. That has recently changed. Now CSS is requiring a per month cost from every agent in our office so it gets tacked on our monthly office bill. Don't like the change by CSS but that's just one of the many monthly costs associated with being a Realtor that I have to suck up.
I Love CSS as a productivity and communications tool. My MLS System (North Texas) has CSS integrated into it. So when I am creating a listing in the MLS - I click the CSS button and it opens up that section. I always allow my clients to have a password to access their CSS online and Alter Showing Instructions, view feedback, etc.
I like it when my phone gets either an e-mail or a text msg from CSS as an fyi when a showing has been set up on one of my listings.
Plus on the MLS in the Agent View of a home listing, at the bottom there is a highlighted link to set a CSS appointment. It is so simple to go online and set an appointment. It sends you an e-mail confirmation w showing instructions - Pets - alarm system - supra - etc. No miscommunications.