That is the good news; the not so good news is in how easy it is to misread or misunderstand the senders tone, attitude or words in an email. When it comes to communicating in an email I believe “measuring twice, cutting once”, is sage advice. Our business can be very stressful. How we communicate through email with sellers, buyers, and lenders, etc. can work to increase or reduce the stress we feel.

If you receive an email where you perceive the sender’s message coming across as them being upset, angry or rude, before responding back make sure you are reading and understanding the sender’s intentions correctly. This may require you to send a follow up email asking for clarification from the sender or you may want to pick up the phone to avoid further problems and confusion.

There will be times where we read more into the email than was actually there or incorrectly interpret, or just plain misunderstand the sender’s message, or feelings, due to busy schedules and our fast paced lifestyle. Taking the time to compose an email that accurately reflects the intent of the message is a must as our transactions become increasingly difficult and stressful.

Suggestions that will prevent your emails from coming across wrong would include;

• Using a polite or friendly salutation and a valediction. The beginning and ending of your email will help set the tone. The use of dear, hello or just using the recipients name at the start of the email and ending with thank you, best regards, all the best or something similar will make it less likely your email will be misinterpreted.
• Be careful when using jokes or satire. If the reader is not following along, jokes and satire could create an unwanted situation between the writer and the person receiving the email.
• Write as though the person was right in front of you having a conversation. It is important to remain politically correct, polite, clear and concise with our message just as we would speak to the person as if they were in the room with us.

Re-read your email before hitting the send button and practice the suggestions mentioned here and you will reduce the number of times your emails are taken wrong.

I recently completed the 14 hours of continuing education required by Florida law prior to renewing a real estate license and one of the chapters of the book I studied dealt with State and Federal laws affecting real estate.   The chapter discusses the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.  This law deals with requirements for sending commercial emails and penalties for spam.  According to the Florida Continuing Education For Florida Real Estate Professionals 9th Edition text book, real estate agents who make it a practice of emailing other agents and brokers information about their listings could be in violation of the law.

Make sure you check with your broker or manager prior to sending out a listing email to every real estate professional in your local board or area.  Fines for each incident can be up to $11,000!

When will agents understand there are no free computers to be had?  I predict agents will finally get it when:

• When the number of agents who blog exceed the number who don’t.
• When agents start checking their email account regularly.
• When agents start consistently listing their website addresses on all their marketing pieces.

Until that time I am confident will continue to find these amazing computer offers in my inbox from agents who would not understand how to get the best use of the computer even if it was given to them.