A Rant and Some Tips from the Real Estate Agent Who Tried to Show Your Home This Weekend
Dear Charlotte NC Home Seller,
I see that you have had your home on the market a long time. I imagine that you are very frustrated with your home selling experience.
Guess what? I’m frustrated too because I tried very hard to show your home this weekend but you made it too difficult to do. 
This is what you missed. My buyer clients were from out-of-town on a home buying trip. They were ready to pay cash for a home. They had a three-day visit in which to choose a home. That meant that we had to look at a lot of homes each day.
But we couldn’t see your home because you set so many showing restrictions that we just couldn’t fit you into the schedule. Maybe you aren’t as motivated to sell your home as your listing agent says.
Or perhaps you are simply misinformed about how agents schedule showings and how the showing service for all Charlotte NC home sellers works. If so, here are some tips for making your home more accessible. Remember… the more showings you have, the more likely you are to get an offer.
- It’s not unreasonable for an agent who is showing ten to fifteen homes in one day to request a two-hour window for the showing. When I have out-of-town clients, we have to look at many homes each day. If I’ve never shown homes to a set of clients before, I have no idea whether they will spend a little time or a lot of time in each home. When you restrict me to a one-hour timeframe, you may be giving me an impossible task. You don’t have to leave your house for this two hour time period if you want to be at home. Just wait until I arrive, greet us at the door, and take a walk around the neighborhood.
- When I have a full showing schedule, I have to group the properties that we will see into a geographic tour that makes sense. Don’t reschedule my showing of your home to a different time. If you do, you may not fit into the geography. We will cover a lot of ground on our tour and it won’t work to backtrack because you decided to reschedule me to a time completely different from the other homes in your neighborhood.
- Showings for Charlotte NC home sellers may be ordered online through the showing service. This is a very easy process and my preferred way of setting appointments. Did you know that if my online order conflicts in any way with your showing instructions, I will receive a “showing declined” without any explanation? I am very likely to pass on “showing declined” listings. Don’t put any restrictions on showings, if at all possible. That includes the one-hour timeframe as well as a required 2, 12, or 24-hour notice of showings. If I have to reschedule your appointment on the fly and you have a two-hour notice requirement, the appointment center will make me wait another two hours to show. And please don’t make me call the appointment center when I’m 15 minutes away from your home. That is just too easy to forget when I’m showing a lot of houses.
Thanks for listening to my rant. If you are not getting a lot of showings, take a look in the mirror to see if you are violating the first rule of selling your Charlotte NC home: be accessible!
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Copyright 2011. Carol Fox. Allen Tate Realtors. *A Rant and Some Tips from the Real Estate Agent Who Tried to Show Your Home This Weekend*
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Carol; I'm with you here! Too many restrictions for showing a sellers home, means LESS showings. I, too, schedule my showings as you do, and if a seller makes it difficult, it gets scratched.
Excellent, Carol. More often than not, I will bypass homes with highly restricted showing instructions. Even the showing service can cause us to bypass a home. Note to sellers, "If you want to sell, make it easy, price it right, keep it show ready and we will sell it."
Well...we need every showing we can get, but our sellers are getting burned out, especially the ones with little children. Showing restrictions are one way to keep sanity. Lots of showings and no offers and not overpriced...just too much competition and too few buyers with extra high expectations.
I know it is hard being on the market with pets, kids, work schedules, etc.,...and we need the showings, but sellers have to live, too.
Carol, I think you hit all the important points here! I agree with you wholeheartedly! When sellers make it impossible to show their house, they usually get exactly what they want ... no showings!
Spot on. I was really happy to see a rant that was not an attack on fellow agents.
You make many good points here Carol.
If at all possible, we try to give sellers at least a second chance if things don't work out on the first attempt. If a buyer really wants to see a property, we will do whatever is neccesary to get them in. It is about the clients, not about us.
Sellers have to realize that to maximize the liklihood of a sale, they have to be as accomodating as possible.
Sometimes the demands of buyers agents are also unreasonable.
In markets with a lot of inventory and few buyers, when a buyer asks to view a home, those sellers should be not only jumping at the chance but asking how high they should jump. To do otherwise is just plain fruitless.
Carol - THANK YOU! WELL STATED! The ONE showing a seller misses may have been the golden one...the ones with the ability to buy and who wanted the home. Congrats on a great feature.
We get a lot of requests here in Manhattan for the buyer coming into the city for a 24 hour period, all cash, that is going to buy for sure while they are here. I must get that request at least once or twice a week for some of our listings. A lot of properties get shown a lot with no action and then that one right buyer comes in and takes it. You just have to be consistent with showing the unit and having access as easy as possible because you never know when that right buyer will show up.
Thanks, everyone, for your comments. I think that listing agents in my marketplace should do a better job of explaining to sellers what the consequences are of heavy restrictions on showings. It seems that more and more sellers are restricting the showings to a one-hour timeframe. When I'm showing one or two listings that's fine. But it doesn't work for relocation buyers and we all know relocation buyers are golden.
Dawn, there is another side to the story and I could write another rant from the perspective of a listing agent. I've had many situations with showing agents not showing up, not cancelling, etc. But one rant for today is enough.
Morning Carol, Wow, you are really preaching to the choir on this one. I use the " ...feel free to stay in the home until I arrive - then go for a walk" offer and it is very much appreciated.
I often show a bunch of properties when out and I have home owners requesting me to call them 10 minutes before I arrive. I have to tell them nicely that's just not gonna happen, I can't be calling 10+ homeowners 10 minutes before I arive when I'm out with clients.
Buyer agents get extra courtesy from me at all times. I know the hard work involved on their side of the transaction and helping them only serves to help us all. Why isn't this attitude standard in the industry? We have a symbiotic relationship that is pretty obvious to even the novice...good one Carol..thank you
I know that we all have misgivings about sellers who make it difficult for their homes to be shown. What about their listing agents? How much time did the listing agent spend instructing the owner about the importance of making a home available to be seen? A well appointed or professionally staged home with great curb appeal in a desirable neighborhood with a reasonable price will not sell if it is not seen by prospective buyers. It may not sell at the best price for the sellers if it is not seen by enough prospective buyers.
It's great to hear that I'm not the only agent who gets frustrated trying to make appointments.
Dustin...thank you for your comment. Calling ahead drives me crazy.
The best words I can see in the MLS when it comes to showing instructions is: EASY TO SHOW!
Carol, it's a sad story. Purportedly these sellers want to sell. Sounds like a lack of motivation to me!
Carol, a few weeks back I called to set up an appointment that requested a 24 hour notice. When the listing office called me back, they said I couldn't get in because we called 23.5 hours before I wanted to show it. Turns out the listing office didn't call the seller for 3-4 hours after I called, so they took it out on my. Gotta love it!
Carol:
I like the idea of a showing service. Sounds a lot easier than the process we have. Sellers who set too many restrictions on showing their house are at a disadvantage. They need to make showing their house as easy as possible.
Don't get me started on this one. This is a pet peeve of mine. Do they want to sell or not? If so, allow us to show your home.
I guess I'm fortunate in that I've never experienced this problem (at least that I can remember). It's not worth the rant after all the seller is the one that really looses (for sure since the buyers don't actually know if they like the house or not).
Make it as easy to show as possible. I've had those out-of-town buyers too. We see a lot of properties in the length of time they're in town. Make is easy or we pass it by . . . as in bye-bye.
Hi Carol. I've rarely run into this and we don't have too many agents using a "central showing service" around these parts. Generally it's "call office, call agent" & sometimes "call the owner".
It is absolutely difficult to narrow down a time frame to minutes, but I would think narrowing to withing a couple of hours should be do-able along with an update along the way. After all, the seller's life is as important as the buyers!
That said, the easier to show the better! Absolutely! Additionally, not having to wait days for a return call when requesting a showing or information is even more important (and becoming more rare...).
Bruce
Althought it can be difficult sellers should try to be as accessible as possible. We actually sold our home to the couple who worked off hours and could only come to view our home at 9:00 p.m. at night. Granted it was definitely inconvenient for us to have to leave for an hour at that time of night, but we had determined we wanted to sell the house and we were going to do what it took.
I know that sellers do have a hard time accommodating every time. I know what they go through always trying to keep the house clean, not having any parties and leaving every time someone wants to see the house. But it comes with the territory, if you want to sell your house you have to show your house.
When I list a home I ask my clients to speak with the showing service and ask them to call the agents while they wait on the phone and suggest alternate show times. Conversations are really a great tool when technology doesn't work the way programmers thought it up.
Hi Carol - You certainly hit all the key points, and ones I try to remind my sellers of when they think a showing request is unreasonable. When you are selling your house you have to be as accommodating as possible...it just goes with the territory!
Good morning everyone,
Thanks once again for all the comments.
I really do like the showing service system in my marketplace. It's very efficient. However, when the showing service technology meets sellers who impose too many showing restrictions, it can make scheduling very difficult. And it's the sellers who generally lose out.
Carol,
Interesting to learn about the showing service techno problem - I can see how that would pose a big problem for everyone. I still personally set up all showings of my listings and can usually make it happen to accommodate the buyer agent's schedule. Sellers do need to understand how we work and I hate it when I am denied a showing! Great Post!