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How about house showing nightmares! We've had 4 showings in 6 days (not bad for the first week) and our second showing were these older ladies who should not have been even looking at our house (we live in a subdivision full of young couples and little kids ... our house in on a cul de sac aka neighborhood playground). Their comment was that our house looked "worn" and "not sharp". Well duh! If we manage to sell, our home will have had 7 children living in it. It's not dull btw .. fresh paint, carpeting and hardwood flooring ... puhhhhleaaase!!!
Hmmm, was one of them a lady that came and looked at our old house during an open house. This lady came in and right off the bat started saying the house was "pitiful", "worn out", "outdated" and on and on. Sure honey. The house was only 6 years old, fresh paint and fresh clean carpets, empty and had all the most up to date amenities for a house in that area which was a decent tract home builder. LOL!!! I wanted to tell her honey that this is the best you will find in this neighborhood and in this price range. And she kept saying that the price was at the TOP of her price range and we had it priced marked BELOW market value for that area only because we just wanted to sell. She came back at the end of the open house w/ her husband to make an offer but while doing that w/ the realtor kept commenting that the neighbors all seemed "cold and distant"??? Okay, ummm, did you actually MEET them?
I was renting a small cottage for a time (an in-between-houses house if you will). I decided it was time to dive back into the RE market and my landlord decided to list the place for sale rather than re-let. So far so good.
Now, I've bought and sold houses before. I'm on good terms with my LL and I want the best for him. I also know a thing or two about "staging".
I also, at the time, was a single person with a dog and a cat, a full-time job and was heavily into adventure racing (read: lots and lots of "gear": bikes, paddles, wetsuits, climbing rope etc etc....) living in a small house.
Sooooo, I asked for a "24 hour" notice before showings. I figured this way, I could scoop the cat box, vac the pet fuzz off the floors, store the gear away and make arrangements to take time off work and walk the dog (so she wouldn't be in the house during showings---hellllloooooo????).
Here's the puzzling part: almost every RE agent in town "got it" EXCEPT for the listing agent!!! What in de 'ell??? Did he not want to sell the place?
I'd consistently get calls from this person asking to see the house "in two hours" but of course I never got those msgs until I arrived home from work in the evenings . I would *not* feel comfortable giving this person my cell #, although my LL had it in case of emergencies.
Occasionally, if I was home, I would humor him, but always felt badly about the condition of the house (I like to show the place "spotless"!).
Things finally came to a head when my LL and I had a little meeting and found that the listing agent had lied to both of us regarding the whole situation. The agent claimed I was "uncooperative" to the LL and told me that there was never a "24 hour notice" agreement. He was promptly fired.
Moral of the story (for all of you RE agents in CD land): don't EVER under estimate the tenant in a rental property
Little did the listing agent know that I was looking to buy a house at
~2X the listing price of my rental. Little did he know that I refused to look at any of his listings due to his lying and his incompetence. I also had a say in choosing the listing agent for my SOs house (guess what? not him!!! LOL) AND I have since steered other friends away from using that agent's office. Payback's a ......
LOL!!! Plaidmom, I hear ya. We had moved out of our last house and kept it for awhile empty before deciding to rent it out. Had one family that snapped it up and thought they were great, checked ref.'s and all. In hindsight I'm betting the past LL's were friends and not their real LL's. Well after a year we decided that we did not want to keep the house forever and would sell it but first offered it to the renters who said they were VERY interested and would get w/ a mortgage person. This went for several months till we finally said, okay a REAL contract by x date or we are putting it on the market. That date came and went w/ nothing so we put it on the market. My mom was the listing agent and we knew that the central showing people would call the tenant and not us to make appointments to show the property. We just told everyone on all ends to be reasonable and that was it. Come to find out they would REFUSE ALL showings so much as even at times saying on the phone it was okay and then when the realtor and potential buyers would show up they would refuse them at the door. When my mother and I called to make an appointment to get measurements for the MLS we were told okay (I'm the owner so I do have rights to the property and can inspect it at any time w/ prior warning). We showed up and the sister of the renters answered the door and told us, "NO!!!!!!!!!" and slammed the door in our faces. First off the lease says NOTHING about any other people living in the home except the 1 family that I have an agreement w/ and it was even stipulated in the lease. Come to find out this sister and her child were also living there. Well, we waited and I retrieved one of my spare keys from a neighbor there and made a visit after she left. OMYGOSH!!!!!!! I sure did not want the house shown in THAT condition. What in the world were they doing. It was GROSS!!!!!!!! Smoke detectors literally ripped from the ceilings, things hung using clear packing tape, the carpets looked like they had wiped grease all over them, dust a mile high on their furnishings. EWWWWWW!!!! (As for the smoke detectors if they would have called I would have come and replaced the batteries for them). Oh, and many of the lights had burnt out bulbs including the large master walk in closet. How in the world were THEY getting dressed? Well we had not yet recieved the current months rent and they had said it would be late and we were trying to be nice and polite. Okay, no more Mr. nice guy. So we went thru all the proper procedures and had them move out and in the mean time took the house off the market as it was a pigpen. We heard from the few realtors that did get to show it that they tenants were there and even refused them to see all the rooms. When they moved out I literally felt like I needed a dip in Clorox after being in the house for a day cleaning. Ohh, this is funny. When cleaning I found one of those plastic silverware holders in one of the kitchen drawers. I threw it away and a few days later they had the nerve to call and want it back.
I'm not trying to brag, but I feel that we were pretty darn good tenants during our rental days. Had a wonderfull relationship with our German landlords (a relationship we still maintain) When we first moved to Ohio, we rented one of the properties a local Realtor owned. The Realtor had just bought the house prior to our moving in. He was a nice enough guy but VERY much on the cheap side. We had to buy our oown dead bolt for the front door. And my wife loves working in the yard (unlike me... ) She devoted a LOT of effort to clean up the back yard that had been neglected for years. We stayed a second year while still feeling out the local real estate market. Even though we liked the LL, that dead bolt thing stayed in our minds. We ended up buying our home FSBO and haven't recommended him to any of our friends...
We've been house hunting the last few months on line. What I have seen there has left me dreading what I am going to experience in the flesh!
People ... I DO NOT WANT TO SEE OR SMELL YOUR NASTIES!
Come on, please.
Due to the nature of our jobs we have rented for many years. In almost every case we have left the house in a better condition than when we moved in. It's not hard to do so, if you have respect for yourself first and foremost!
As a realtor I have seen things that mystify even me.I have seen squatters living in vacant houses, abandoned pets,Filth all over the place, one house that was so filthy we didn't even know what half the rooms were supposed to be.
Houses with over 50K in structural damage and owners will make no concessions. Garages that have been turned into a Gentlemens Clubs complete with mirrors, poles and tile floors. Marital aide chairs hanging from the ceiling. One condo had turned the sunroom into a type of mexican cantina with neon, leis and all things plastic and thought it was the high point of the place.
Foreclosures always seem to smell like cat urine and have dried **** all over the place. All appliances ripped out and something rotting somewhere. The longer I am int he busimess the more oblivious to it I become.
We just had a showing. First of all, 90 minute windows stink, especially when I have to figure out someplace to be with 2 little ones in tow. Sigh.
Anyway, I got home and these people went over my house with a fine tooth comb. Shades were way up or down ... I leave them up when I leave. They closed the shade on my sliding doors .. they opened up the stationary doors on my 2 sets of french doors and left them wide open ...
Whenever we look at a house, we leave it the way it was ... RUDE!!!
Ok folks, we got an offer this afternoon ... a completely bullhockey lowball plus benefits offer. I'm steamed.
They are offering 15K below list, PLUS (!!!!), they want us to hand them 3K in cash at closing PLUS (!!!!!) they want us to completely replace the concrete step outside ... I don't mean fix or patch it, I mean, demolish, regrade and repour!
Dont feel bad, I got an offer 30k less than my asking price but then I got a "real" buyer who paid close to asking and wanted nothing to be fixed, I love those buyers but there arent many out there.
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When my mother and I called to make an appointment to get measurements for the MLS we were told okay (I'm the owner so I do have rights to the property and can inspect it at any time w/ prior warning). We showed up and the sister of the renters answered the door and told us, "NO!!!!!!!!!" and slammed the door in our faces. 
First off the lease says NOTHING about any other people living in the home except the 1 family that I have an agreement w/ and it was even stipulated in the lease. Come to find out this sister and her child were also living there. Well, we waited and I retrieved one of my spare keys from a neighbor there and made a visit after she left. OMYGOSH!!!!!!! I sure did not want the house shown in THAT condition. What in the world were they doing. It was GROSS!!!!!!!! Smoke detectors literally ripped from the ceilings, things hung using clear packing tape, the carpets looked like they had wiped grease all over them, dust a mile high on their furnishings. EWWWWWW!!!! (As for the smoke detectors if they would have called I would have come and replaced the batteries for them). Oh, and many of the lights had burnt out bulbs including the large master walk in closet. How in the world were THEY getting dressed? Well we had not yet recieved the current months rent and they had said it would be late and we were trying to be nice and polite. Okay, no more Mr. nice guy. So we went thru all the proper procedures and had them move out and in the mean time took the house off the market as it was a pigpen. We heard from the few realtors that did get to show it that they tenants were there and even refused them to see all the rooms. When they moved out I literally felt like I needed a dip in Clorox after being in the house for a day cleaning. Ohh, this is funny. When cleaning I found one of those plastic silverware holders in one of the kitchen drawers. I threw it away and a few days later they had the nerve to call and want it back. 
) She devoted a LOT of effort to clean up the back yard that had been neglected for years. We stayed a second year while still feeling out the local real estate market. Even though we liked the LL, that dead bolt thing stayed in our minds. We ended up buying our home FSBO and haven't recommended him to any of our friends...
