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When we were house hunting, I always said what I wanted to say, I don't care who is around. Sometimes I was just being nice and actually didn't like the house. My offer is still going to be my offer.
I didn't ask my realtor the specifics of whether the other realtor will follow us around inside or just wait outside or what. He just said that if I wanted to drive up (7 hours) to see it that I couldn't do it while the other realtor was out of town because the other realtor had to be on site
Anyone run into this? Its not a big deal to me or anything, other than I tend to run my mouth and have zero poker face. I suspect its probably not good to let the other side know if you are super enamored about a place. Of course I can also be super critical but I don't see me trying to play games like that either.
The only time we really run into this is when it is a very high-end property. I had one exception, and it was a condo -- the tenant worked for a division of the state homeland security office, and had several firearms and ammunition in his condo -- safe, but still, being homeland security, he was taking no chances. So I agreed to accompany closings. I generally stayed out of the way when other agents were there, only monitoring their behavior in the bedroom, where the firearms were stored in a locked box. Sure enough, one dude saw the locked box in the man's closet and TRIED TO OPEN IT. Agent was useless. I told him, sternly, to leave the box alone, it was not being sold with the condo. His retort was that "if he bought it, he wanted to know if anything illegal was going on." Dumb cluck -- he was just being nosey. I turned to the agent and said, "I think it's time to view the rest of the condo" and shooed them out of the bedroom.
Honestly, though, these days it's better to have a poker face when viewing a property and discuss the property off-site -- waaay too many cameras and recording devices in homes these days to risk tipping your hand. If you don't like it, though, have at it. :-)
I have to admit, though, I'm a little surprised that the listing agent couldn't get someone to cover for them while they are out of town. That's pretty much SOP for agent leaving for more than a couple of days at a time with an active listing.
It's usually just overly-controlling sellers. Unless they have an expensive art collection or something (which if you do, you should put it in storage anyway when you're trying to sell) it's just people being a pain in the neck and a big red flag that I don't want to deal with them.
The worst is when the sellers don't leave for the showing though. I've refused to go into showings if the sellers are there. Nope.
LOL. You must not be looking in areas where the competition to buy is savage.
It is not overly controlling to want to safeguard your items if you are living in the home you are selling.
It is not practical to move every little thing or even most things in the closets, the pantry, the fridge, one's home office, etc. Fortunately, living in the SF Bay Bay Area, I won't have to cater to the whims of overly-controlling buyers who want to hang out in my house without my being there, so they can snoop in the closets, pantry and medicine chests, because unless I have moved to another house first, if my valuable stuff is still in the closets, I'll be somewhere on the property, too.
I hope that I will be able to move somewhere else first, but it's not looking like that will happen, so I will be your tour guide, though you might not have a clue I am the homeowner
Maybe the sellers have had a bad experience with theft or damage in the past.
Or maybe there is something about the property that the sellers want to make sure is explained to buyers--if there are a lot of special conditions or features that weren't spelled out in the listing or something about what conveys and what doesn't.
Maybe the homeowners lend their acreage to a nudist colony and just don't want anyone to be surprised.
Maybe there's some bigwig living nearby and arrangements have to be made with secret service blocking the roadway or setting up a checkpoint.
Honestly, though, these days it's better to have a poker face when viewing a property and discuss the property off-site -- waaay too many cameras and recording devices in homes these days to risk tipping your hand. If you don't like it, though, have at it. :-)
Speaking of cameras, etc., I don't want any looky-loos with cameras taking pictures of the contents of my bedroom closets, my office stuff, etc.
Do the agents in this forum forbid picture-taking by their clients? If not, why not?
I didn't ask my realtor the specifics of whether the other realtor will follow us around inside or just wait outside or what. He just said that if I wanted to drive up (7 hours) to see it that I couldn't do it while the other realtor was out of town because the other realtor had to be on site
Anyone run into this? Its not a big deal to me or anything, other than I tend to run my mouth and have zero poker face. I suspect its probably not good to let the other side know if you are super enamored about a place. Of course I can also be super critical but I don't see me trying to play games like that either.
There are several unknown answers to questions that the C-D posters would have to know the answer to, before they can give any intelligent answer to the question.
1: Is the OP using a Realtor from the local community. If not there is nothing wrong about the sellers demanding their agent be present. If the seller and/or agent know the agent, they usually allow the local agent to show the home not supervised. But if the agent and the buyer are not local residents, they are an unknown factor, and it would be foolish to allow them access to the home without the seller or sellers agent be present at the showing. I have sold many larger properties (not homes) in other cities, and other states and twice in other countries, where I was unknown to both the seller and their agent. I expected and encouraged the seller or their agent to be there to show the property. Someone that could answer questions only a local resident would know the answer to. Many times, I had the owner or their agent show the property to my clients. In fact, I never saw in person over 1/3rd of the properties, I bought and sold for clients.
2: If it is a ranch/farm property, income property, etc., and the OPs agent is not a ranch/farm specialist or income property specialist, and would demand that the seller or the agent that understood farms and ranches be there to answer questions, and to make explanations when needed. This includes many properties, other than single family homes. There is nothing worse, than having a broker/agent take their client out to see such property and their agent be a single family house salesman/saleswoman not understanding and able to explain the property, and to be able to answer intelligent questions a potential buyer would want answers to.
Note: There are an awful lot of agents/brokers that take on listings, or clients to acquire a certain type of property, that do not know and understand the type of real estate properties and clients for other than single family homes. They are like the blind leading the blind. Let me give you an example.
My wife and I had flown to Kansas City Kansas to put together a multi party exchange we were involved in. My wife was also a broker. I handled the clients and wrote the first contract. She took over from then right up to the closing. While there we found there was going to be a state wide real estate exchangors meeting. There were about 50 Real Estate Exchange specialist at the meeting. Each participant would pass out an information package to all participants, and be given a chance with a moderator to present the property being offered for exchange. It is a very effective place find takers for property exchanges. That meeting was profitable for us.
We were known, as specialists that often exchanged non real estate items for real estate. A young couple got me aside during a break. Their uncle had over 50 of the Finest Arabian Horses in the country. He listed them with those kids to exchange for a farm, and they had no idea of what to do.
I went up on the rostrum and took the mike and said I wanted to make an announcement. I told them that those 2 young people had listed 50 pus fine Arabian horses to exchange on an irrigated farm. They were mobbed by farm specialists. One man had the power to make decisions and sign contracts on a farm adjoining the Arabian owners farm, that their relatives and themselves had inherited and needed to be sold to clear probate. It was adjoining to the Arabian owners farm. The young couple called the uncle to see if he would like that farm. He gave a big squeal and said yes we could hear several feet from the phone. He knew the farm very well and really wanted it as it just about doubled the size of his farm when the two were combined. They went under contract that afternoon, and closed in less than 30 days. People asked the agent that had the farm why he wanted those horses. His answer was there was a big Arabian Horse auction in 30 days, and they were as good as cash.
I later heard from him when he called to tell me it had closed, and thank me for bringing it to his attention. When he picked them up the day before the auction, they were trucked direct to the auction yard. He said, the Horses brought a lot more than expected and his family had invested in them. Boy were they all happy. The one farmer, doubled the size of his farm, and it was one big rectangle. The young kids, got a 10% commission on the horses. The other broker got his families property sold, the commission, and more net proceeds from their share of the farm sale than had been expected.
There are many reasons that the seller may want himself or their agent to be present for showing, depending on the type of property involved.
Posters have noted that this might make sense in a few special cases. Absent a special case, I would expect the sellers to be hard to deal with. Could be over-paranoid sellers, could be sellers who are not really serious.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dblackga
Honestly, though, these days it's better to have a poker face when viewing a property and discuss the property off-site -- waaay too many cameras and recording devices in homes these days to risk tipping your hand. If you don't like it, though, have at it. :-)
Thanks all for the interesting insight. Never thought about cameras for sure. I was more wondering if you lose bargaining power if the other side knows you want it.
In this case I think the comments about being serious are more on track. Actually my realtor sort of alluded to something similar when I asked if I should drop everything and race up. He thinks its priced too high and won't go anywhere. (But he has said that about other properties and they sell before I get a shot). So then I looked at history and it has a lot of previous listings.
It is priced lower than ever before so I wonder if that is an indication that they are finally getting serious. Last year the much larger nicer house next door sold for 275 (sold by this properties realtor) but the market has changed and this listing has extra lots with it. Unuseable lots but they provide for future privacy. Their realtor said they want to move south and be closer to other family.
At some point I suspect they will hit a point where they will sell to whoever, but to be there at that moment is needle in a haystack kind of luck.
It has multiple listings and taken off markets on zillow
09/08/17 Price change $334,900-14.1% $221 Real Estate On...
08/24/17 Listed for sale $390,000+11.4% $257 Real Estate On...
11/05/15 Listing removed $350,000 $231 TRAVERSE NORTH...
05/12/15 Listed for sale $350,000 $231 Traverse North...
05/27/11 Listing removed $350,000 $231
Something really odd showing on zillow for the first time today, an old listing picture from long ago under the current one. Interesting, the listings and removals go even further back. I think these included a lot with a small house on it that they lived in while building. They are selling that separate for 120K
I requested my realtor go room to room with the sellers back when we were selling our house in 2007. I didn't want strangers in my bedroom where they could possibly steal something. Although I was careful with my jewelry and guns, some people are just nosy and open drawers, etc. Now if the house is vacant I see no problem with letting the potential buyers look all they want.
I didn't ask my realtor the specifics of whether the other realtor will follow us around inside or just wait outside or what. He just said that if I wanted to drive up (7 hours) to see it that I couldn't do it while the other realtor was out of town because the other realtor had to be on site
Anyone run into this? Its not a big deal to me or anything, other than I tend to run my mouth and have zero poker face. I suspect its probably not good to let the other side know if you are super enamored about a place. Of course I can also be super critical but I don't see me trying to play games like that either.
Why not just ask the realtor to give you some space and let you look around on your own?
As far as letting the buyer know you are interested, I don't see a problem. If you weren't interested you wouldn't be looking. I've looked at many properties and told the seller (or their agent), "This place looks great!" but that doesn't mean I'm going to make an offer that suits them or any offer at all. Likewise as a seller.
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