Autoresponders

[ResaleBroker]

Does anyone here use an autoresponder with follow-ups? I'm interested in seeing how others are using this tool on their "real estate" sites.

[ERE Breckenridge]

Auto responders are great but sometimes they can cause problems.

Let's say someone contacted you using a contact form on your website and they provided you with a fake email address: abcdef@hotmail.com. Your auto responder is going to send an email to abcdef@hotmail.com, however, hotmail.com servers are going to bounce the email back to you and at that point your auto responder is going to send an email back to hotmail and you will be stuck in a loop for a while getting rejected emails from hotmail. Not a big deal but it can be very annoying.

[pcdoc]

Not a big deal but it can be very annoying.

Several times, I've been the recipient of hundred of emails from an auto responder run amuck -- wanted to throttle the guy.

[Oppenheimer Group]

Why not build your initial autoresponse into your form page. If you use a dedicated form for each purpose, home search, home sale, CMA... each can have it's own personal response message including the applicants name and can contain a purpose specific message.
e.g.
Thanks for requesting our MLS emails, you'll begin receiving every MLS listing that meets your specification shortly. If you have any questions please call me between the hours of .... at 555-123-4567, looking forward to assisting in your search.
Joe Friendly Realtor

Then just add there requirements into the MLS email system and your drip mail system and you good to go.