HGTV recently presented a TV show titled “25 Biggest Real Estate Mistakes.” It will air again May 14th on HGTV. #24 is “Not Providing Easy Access For Showings.” HGTV’s quote: If the house “is difficult to get into, buyers may just skip it and look at someone else’s property instead.” In today’s tough real estate market, sellers need to make every effort to accommodate buyers. I have a buyer client who considered the house below. However, the MLS instructions showed that there was no lockbox, but that “the owners work from home and are normally home.” I placed a call to make an appointment to show it Saturday; no answer. I left a message. No response. If the sellers weren’t home and had a lockbox, I could have shown it. Four hours later, the seller called me back. It was too late; we had already looked at other homes in the area and wrote an offer on one. This seller might have lost out on a sale.
Another local agent told me she tried to show 12 homes on Sunday in Scottsdale and that four of them told her, “No, not today.” What’s going on?
Agent Kris Berg in San Diego has noticed similar responses and wrote a blog entry about a recent experience. Read about it here.
And then Jay, the Phoenix Real Estate Guy, wrote his own blog post about uncooperative sellers too. Read about it here.
Craig, an agent in Phoenix, added his thoughts on sellers here.
No wonder some agents prefer to show vacant houses.
4 responses so far ↓
1 If You Can’t See It, You Can’t Buy It // Apr 28, 2008 at 12:42 pm
[…] Another fellow blogger is truly a fantastic source of tangible and fascinating information. If You Canâ […]
2 Dru Bloomfield // Apr 28, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Leif, It is hard to believe the number of sellers who refused showings yesterday. Going back to see buyers #1 choice tonight.
3 Craig Frooninckx // Apr 30, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Yea, with inventory levels so high, you would think people would do what they could to sell their home. This is just plain crazy. My listings get a staging consultation to help the sellers prepare to sell their homes. So we have counts of how many homes are vacant on the MLS, can we figure out how many really don’t want to be sold?
4 Ugly House Photos » Blog Archive » Update On the Phoenix Real Estate Market // May 2, 2008 at 1:17 pm
[…] With so many homes being vacant and readily accessible, it is even more important for owner-occupied sellers to be ready for agent visits. That means jump when the phone rings, install a lockbox if you will not be home, deactivate the alarm, and keep the house tidy. See previous post “If You Can’t See It, You Can’t Buy It” here. […]
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