How to Drive a Home Buyer (and their agent) Insane

by Jay Thompson on April 28, 2008 · Comments

in Selling Real Estate

I just don’t get it.

Agents talk about “How to Sell Your Home” all the time.

Pricing, curb appeal, condition, staging, marketing, declutter, blah blah blah. You can read real estate blogs for days and get great tips on how to sell your home.

But there seems to be a disturbing trend developing. Oh, it’s been going on since time immemorial, but recently it seems to be getting worse.

Dru Bloomfield up in Scottsdale mentioned it on Twitter yesterday.

I’ve written about it in the past

Yesterday Kris Berg, in typical Kris Berg brilliance, wrote about it. 

What is it?

It’s the simple fact that unless a home buyer can SEE your home, it’s highly unlikely they will try to purchase it.

This isn’t rocket science. It’s fundamental human nature. People tend to want to look at something they are going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on and take a significant portion of their lifetime to pay off.

Yesterday, in a scene reminiscent of The Exorcist, I watched my lovely bride’s head spin around backwards while she was trying to set up showings for a wonderful couple visiting from Canada.

Unanswered phone calls.
“No, tomorrow is not good, how about next week?”
“The house is a disaster.”
Unanswered phone calls
“I want to sleep in.”
“Only between 4:30 and 5:00.”
Unanswered phone calls
“We’re having a party, need to prepare for that.”

And on and on and on.

It’s insane. It makes no sense. We have a ready willing and able buyer who wants to see YOUR home that is for sale.

And either the seller and/or their agent makes viewing the home impossible.

I just don’t get it.

.

 


 

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  • I know it! People desperate to change their housing situation and they can't accomodate showings. It does drive me insane!
  • It is crazy. Yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised that most of the homes I was hoping to show were occupied, but then quickly became very frustrated as I tried to set up appointments. Of the twelve houses, I was hoping to show, we were only able to get into six. My client has 30 days to get into a home, has solid financing, and is getting very frustrated. Can't say I blame her.
  • I don't get it either. Some of the agents in my office were crying that we don't show each others listings and we are suppose to sell our in-house inventory first. That has always been my philosophy in selling real estate; your own listings, the company listings, the friendly fellows on the MLS, the other MLS folks, and if I must, a FSBO. I checked and they weren't showing any of my listings either. I checked the book to see why I had not been selling our own listings and that is a story in itself.
    First, I do show my agency listings and have sold in-house listings. The last three sales were in-house, my own, a friendly competitors. I wish I was selling more. But, I look in the listing book or appointment book and what do I see?
    Four telephone numbers to call with "leave a message" before taking key. There is only one key! The next one has two telephone numbers to call and a note that you must talk to the owner before the key is given out. Then another states you must give at least 24 hours notice. And, yes an agent has a timeline to follow for different days of the week. On and on the stories go on how to show a particular house.
    The solution. Show the competitions listings. Call the other agency and let their people make the appointments and call you back. Let them cry.
  • Wow, what a sore spot to hit! I can't tell you the number of times we've dropped what we were doing to meet an agent for a showing, even delaying dinner or an event we should have attended. You begin to see a pattern emerge when the same agent begins to put you off when you try to show one of their listings. And then they wonder why they have no sales. As for sellers who make you jump through a dozen hoops to see their home, how motivated can they be? If you want to sell your house, make it available to be seen, when buyers want to see it! There's too many other homes out there for buyers to play hurry up and wait for you to allow them inside! By Appointment Only works for lawyers and hair salons, not for ready, willing and able buyers.
  • True story: Me trying to show another agent's listing (agent is the owner herself) a few weeks ago. She says she can't make it at the time I requested 'cause she has an appointment at the nail salon. Besides, there is a big dog in the house. The icing on the cake: It's a short sale. Needless to say, I had plenty of other listings to show to my buyer.
  • Oh, these agents do it to clients as well. I had a couple from out of town contact me via my site and they had contacted another agent as well. They wanted to look at a few places but time was short (on the first trip) and would only be available from 9-11am on one day. I met them and got them into 3 places they requested. The other agent they spoke to said, and I quote, "Realtors don't work in the morning."
    Well, I guess myself and the other three who showed their listings are the exception.
    BTW, 2 weeks (three days) and 14 properties later we have a firm deal just shy of $1m.

    The lesson: Soon to be out of work, unsuccesful realtors don't work mornings. Ha!
  • This is my favorite topic lately. Actually I just wrote about it last week. Can you imagine in my market, with all of the condos on the market that listing agents actually ask me to drive to their office to pick up the keys to show their listings? I am sure their clients would love to hear that!
  • Jay, I just wrote about it from the buyer side.

    http://tinyurl.com/5oobsk

    One of the listing agents called for feedback on my (apparent) showing, she was surprised I didn't get an appointment and angry at her seller that I didn't get to view the home. If you actually had an appointment and liked the home, can you imagine negotiating with the kind of seller who doesn't really care if their home gets shown.

    What are they thinking?
  • You are right. No sane buyer or an agent will ever get it either!
  • We see the same thing on the real estate advertising side.

    Us: "You want photos on HouseViewOnline - OK. We will be by tomorrow"
    Seller: "No tomorrow won't work, give me a call next week"

    Following Monday
    Us: "When would you like to schedule the photos"
    Seller: "Not now - try later"

    Friday Noon
    Seller: "We are having on open house this weekend. We must have photos on HouseViewOnline today!!!!"

    Sometime we just wonder if the seller truely wishes to sell.
  • Hmmm...I wonder if some of the agents here were trained by the same people.
  • It really does amaze me when I get no response to 3 different voice-mails on three different phones. Gotta love vacant homes ;)
  • Because our listing are higher end, many sellers want verbal confirmation of the appointment. This means they have to answer their phone, if they don't they have to call back the office. The office has to call back the selling agent. All this takes time. Most appointments are therefore made at least a day ahead. When I tried to get appointments on a short notice (couple of hours), I only got half of them.
  • It drives me insane. Sellers still act like they can pick and choose who gets the "honor" of viewing their home and making an offer. Its wierd to get the brush off from sellers and to see the property get foreclosed on in a month.
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