Carolinas Real Estate Talk

A Rant and Some Tips from the Real Estate Agent Who Tried to Show Your Home This Weekend

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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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!

Thinking of selling your Charlotte NC home? Request a free online comparative market analysis.

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*