The other day I got a voicemail from someone that included “I don’t text so you can call me on my telephone”. To give you perspective, my voicemail greeting says “you can leave me a message or send me a text”.
In my quest to view information quicker and more efficiently than I did yesterday this is a great model. Most of the real estate related voicemails I receive look like this: “is your listing still available?” or “can I show your listing?” or “it’s John, call me”. Not like it takes that much time to listen to voicemails, but you do have to stop what you are doing to dial/listen/call back/delete and call back/or write down the number they actually want you to call them back on.
A text message is instant and my response will be instant too. Very little goes into a text message and for simple yes/no questions, this is by far the superior route to take.
Do you text? If not I’d love to know why not. Leave it in the comments.
Carson Matthews Blog 
I don’t like text messages, for the most part.
Here’s why: http://www.bradnix.com/text-messages/
Don’t you have an iPhone? The messaging feature is so in tune that I rarely feel the need to add people unless we are in regular contact, and I would hate to think they are doing the same for me… The story concludes that I could have sent her a response via text immediately, but instead wasn’t able to hear her voicemail for another two hours…and we know that can be the difference between someone looking at your listing or not. Hope you are doing well.
I do have an iPhone. The SMS itself is very interruptive with the pop up and then the red icon that remains on. I suppose your specific case here could warrant a text message, but I manage the whole voicemail access problems via YouMail, which transcribes voice mail into a text email for me to quickly scan and replay as needed. I just prefer most of my messages to funnel into one channel (email works best for me). This eliminates random interruptions in various channels throughout my day.
Thanks for asking the question and starting this conversation. I’m doing well and hope the same for you.
I find text to be invaluable in real estate for quick responses. As realtors, we are constantly juggling multiple clients, showings, appointments, etc all at the same time. However, there are times when text in not appropriate and we must pick up the phone and have a conversation. Too many people “hide behind” text and email. Been wanting to try YouMail…thanks Brad for the reminder. 🙂
I totally agree Rhonda. There is a right and wrong time for it…often times they lead into phone conversations, but a great way to handle showing confirmations and the like.