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Our home has been on the market for 35 days. We've had 14 showings in that time. My kids have been troopers but it's tiring to always be on call. It's was a quiet Sunday in my home. The kids were enjoying the A/C & computer games. The mister & I considered making some yummy foods. I sent him to the market and started lunch. Within 10 mins of me starting lunch I get a phone call from an agent. He wants to bring his clients by in 15 mins. I explain I need to clean up the lunch prep and get the kids and pets out of the home and ask for 30 mins. He accepts. I panic, do our pre-show check list and scurry out the door. With minutes to spare, we wait in our vehicle a few houses down the street so we can gauge when we can return home. The agent never shows. I text him and he doesn't respond. I'm aggravated with the lack of civility. I wouldn't think this is common but something similar has happened 2 other times. How can I better screen agents so I'm not wasting my time?
Last edited by Crunchy_mama; 07-26-2015 at 01:59 PM..
Reason: Clarification
While what happened to you was rude, please remember that you are trying to sell YOUR house. The agents are actually doing you a favor by bringing people by to see the house.
You can do many things to limit the disruption to your life, but all of them will also limit the number of people who see your house, and thus make it much harder to sell your house.
Why are you getting a call directly from an agent? Are you doing FSBO? If not, ask your listing agent to use a showing service. Then you can set up a minimum time for notice. When my house was listed, during the week, I always left it showing ready but they still always gave at least an hour notice, and even then, it was specially called out as an urgent appt. On weekends, I got everything ready in the mornings, but still needed that hour to clean up from any meals we were in the middle of and get us out the door.
As for the no show, is it possible that they did a drive by and the client didn't want to get out? I did that a few times when I was house hunting.
You got the call from the buyer's agent ? Is that normal in your area ? When I've sold my homes (5) it was always my agent that called me to get OK for showing. They did any screening necessary. Don't recall ever having a no show (Last house had 40 showings before sale. Some were very short. Do buyer's no longer read the listings ?)
You house has been on the market for over a month.
If they called you ON a Sunday and wanted to come by right then, they probably were already out on a house hunt and thought of your house as a "might as well." Sundays are prime time when house hunting.
They may have come by and saw something on the street or in the neighborhood that made them change their minds. Who knows? Or they may still come by.
I do believe, though, that no-shows are extremely rude.
1. I had ready to show at all times.
2. I didn't run out of the house and hide. I welcomed the potential buyers, told them to wander at will, open closets as they wished, and I sat at my computer. I told them if they had questions to please let me know. I left them on their own. The eventual buyers in both cases had asked me questions that only I could have answered. If I had been eating lunch, I would have continued to eating lunch.
Having said that, I am single, maybe with a family it would be different.
Saturdays and Sundays are big days for showings. 15 minutes is quick, but expect this on Saturdays and Sundays. Be ready to get out fast for showings.
Those buyers might have been looking at another home in your area and passed yours and requested to see it. It's possible that 30 minutes was going to be a long time for them and they just decided to pass on it. Or maybe something occurred during that 30 minutes that caused them to miss the schedule. Maybe someone got sick, got real hungry quickly and they decided to have lunch, or maybe they decided to write a contract on the other home that they saw first.
Maybe they saw you stalking outside and decided to keep driving.
I'm using an agent to sell our home. I've never heard of a listing service before but I will research and ask our agent if she offers such. Is it common for the listing agents to screen the potential buying agents? Id like her to do that but thought maybe that was asking too much
Agents have been instructed to call me before showing and to give proper notice because we have a large dog in the property. It's really for their safety.
Weekdays have been our biggest showing days. Today was the first Sunday we've had anyone ask to see. It's not that I was opposed to opening the home, it's the assumption that the home can be vacated of humans and pets and show ready in 15 mins.
It's possible the buyers and agents saw someone in a vehicle several homes up from the property but if that discourages someone from viewing they simply weren't serious and wasting everyone's time
As for the suggestion of greeting the buyers, I've been instructed to make the home as welcoming as possible without the owner's touch. I assumed that meant owners weren't supposed to be visible
I'm using an agent to sell our home. I've never heard of a listing service before but I will research and ask our agent if she offers such. Is it common for the listing agents to screen the potential buying agents? Id like her to do that but thought maybe that was asking too much
Agents have been instructed to call me before showing and to give proper notice because we have a large dog in the property. It's really for their safety.
Weekdays have been our biggest showing days. Today was the first Sunday we've had anyone ask to see. It's not that I was opposed to opening the home, it's the assumption that the home can be vacated of humans and pets and show ready in 15 mins.
It's possible the buyers and agents saw someone in a vehicle several homes up from the property but if that discourages someone from viewing they simply weren't serious and wasting everyone's time
As for the suggestion of greeting the buyers, I've been instructed to make the home as welcoming as possible without the owner's touch. I assumed that meant owners weren't supposed to be visible
In all the times we've sold, we have never been contacted by the buyer's agents. Our agent's company uses a listing service that calls us to set up appointments. In the old days, they would call the agency and the receptionist would call us to set an appointment. There has always been some kind of middleman.
Every market is different; in ours we never planned to be home or invest in anything like cooking on weekends specifically because of the potential for more showings.
With this listing service did you say it was by appointment only? I really only need 30 mins notice. It seems some agents expect families not to actually live in an occupied home.
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