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I would very much appreciate your opinion. We are putting our home up for sale in about 3 weeks. We do have a special home with beautiful gardens, nice appointments inside and out - lots of curb appeal - we have literally had many hundreds of people stop by our home to look at the gardens and the house. There are not a lot of homes like ours on the market here. Sales are slow but there are homes selling
So, the here is the question. We are hesitant to have an open house or allow realtors to just pop in whenever because we do not want hoards of curious neighbors going through the house - all freshly painted, newly refinished hardwood floors - nice things - all staged for prospective buyers....we had intended on having it shown by appointment only but a realtor at an open house in our neighborhood recently told me that she ususally passes on "shown by appointment only" listings because there are so many homes for sale (quite a few are empty and needing fixing) and it is just too inconvenient to call ahead.
What do you think of this? The bottom line is we want to sell our house and in this market we don't want to do anything that will cause realtors to pass us by. What is your experience with "Shown by Appointment Only?" Does that offend you or is it such a pain that you avoid showing homes that you have to call ahead to see?
Open houses are hit and miss and usually don't sell a house. The only thing they're really good for is the agent holding the open house can pick up new buyer leads. As long as you dont stipulate "24 hr notice" your "by appt only" showings should be fine. Most agents will call a few hours, if not the day before they want to show a house.
My advice: don't make any decisions based on what only one realtor has told you. Too inconvenient to call ahead? That's one incredibly lazy agent! I would never choose such a person to list my home. Definitely not. You should interview several agents and choose one that's both aggressive (as I always qualify, in a nice way, and realistic.
I don't know what's usual for your area, but in mine, ALL showings are by appointment only. You say you have a special, very nice home which is admired by many folks - take that as your indicator that people will still definitely be interested in seeing it, even if they have to make the tremendous effort of making an appointment
Many realtors will tell you that Open Houses are not useful for actually selling the house. They're useful for drawing new potential buyers to the realtor.
Of course, some people do actually buy from an open house visit. But I think if you have a very nice house, at an attractive price, potential buyers will certainly be happy and willing to make an appointment to see it!
This is good news - I have been worried about the open house/shown by appointment only practice....you make a great point Boomerang - those who are really interested in seeing the house will make an appointment. I have to ask myself that same question - when we are looking for our next home would "by appointment only" keep me from looking at a house I was truly interested in? The answer is nope it sure wouldn't. Thanks Boomerang and Deb.
I would definitely specify "by appointment only" and even 24 hr notice if need be. That doesn't ever bother me. I call a day ahead to schedule an appointment most of the time. Unless it says 2 hr. notice or something like that.
There are several options in our MLS for showing instructions. There's "Go", means a vacant house. There's "Call First, Go" which means call the occupant and let them know that you're coming so they can let you know if it's an inconvenient time. There's Appointment with Occupant", meaning that the house is going to be more difficult to show because you're going to have to arrange all the houses you're showing around the convenience of that one occupant (owner or tenant). There's "Appointment with Agent", which could mean anything from you have to arrange your showing schedule around the time that the listing agent can be there to the listing agent simply has to give you some special instructions and that's their way of getting you to call them rather than putting it in the remarks to do so.
Now, picture yourself a buyer and their agent. You have time to view 7 houses in one day, 10 houses to choose from to view and there is a logical order in which to drive to see these houses. All of the houses haev "Call first, go" or "Go" except one, in the middle of the route, which has "Appointment with Occupant". Your choices are, if you view that house, to organize all the other houses around the convenience of the occupant of that house, or to use that to eliminate it.
I just showed a house that had "Appointment with Occupant/Appointment with Agent" (it was an owner/agent selling their own home). It took a week to be able to contact the occupant to arrange to view the house (the number listed for the occupant and for the agent's primary number was a home phone and she said, "I hardly ever check the messages on that phone"!). If we had not been able to make an appointment today, we would have skipped it as we had to last week, and wouldn't have tried again.
So, put yourself in the buyers' and agents' place and decide what you would do under those circumstances, then make your decision.
I agree, and tell my sellers, I'll be happy to do an open house for you, but they're really more for the agent's benefit in picking up buyers than for selling the house that's open. Then I leave it up to them.
We will defintely be "Call first, Go" - thanks for posting that info THL - I appreciate it. We would be completely available and ready to show the house within 30 minutes or less- we have our cells with us at all times and check our messages on our home phone frequently. I would not expect a realtor to arrange their whole viewing schedule around our house....in an effort to get our house sold, it will be our job to be available within a very few minutes to show the house whenever a realtor wants to show it, but we don't want any realtor to feel that they can just drop in any time without a phone call first. Does this sound reasonable?
It sounds reasonable - it actually sounds very similar to our "Call First, Go". However, I'd check with your listing agent regarding what the options are in your MLS and what message "Shown by Appointment Only" means to the agents in your neck of the woods.
I want courtesy call and show. I don't like "appointment only" because you will miss potential buyers. It happens, someone calls on a sign, come to the office, agent schedules several showings, can't reach you or your agent for an appointment on relatively short notice, take them the the call and show's, buyer likes one and buys one without ever seeing your home.
I feel pretty strongly about it unless you are in a very high end home for your market, in which case appointments are more the norm.
Oh, and I agree with you about open houses. I don't much care for them for the reasons you said and more.
Our MLS is what Brandon's is "courtesy call before showing." Meaning I can call you and leave a message if I don't get a hold of you to say the time I will be there, and then I show up at that time. I don't have an issue with appointment only, which is a level up from courtesy calls, as long as it isn't 24 hour notice.
Sometimes I can't work the 24 hour notices into my timeline, so we have to miss those ones. No one should be randomly showing up at your house, and I would pass on the open house.
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