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What nonsense! I've been on both sides of the issue and I have NEVER had someone show up and linger, or spend 5 or 6 hours coming back repeatedly.
The OP's concerns are perfectly reasonable. It is absolutely unreasonable for any buyer to expect an owner to spend hours and hours of time over repeated visits because they can't make up their mind. Fish or cut bait. My ex's 3rd wife has a penchant for going to open houses, not because she wants to move, but because she's a nosy Parker who wants to see inside other people's houses!
Having people out to your house to tour it is an invasion of privacy. Sure, its a necessary hassle if you want to sell your house, but its still a hassle. You shouldn't need to walk the property line more than once, if that. At least refer to the GOOGLE maps overhead view and the plat map instead of making the owner walk the lines over and over and over again.
Terrible idea. There are disclaimers all over the internet that such depictions are approximate and should not be used to transact business. This is true even when the maps are on official government websites.
Correct. I can keep a schedule. It's not rocket science to look at your watch and tell time.
Well it's nice that your schedule is one that does not have unforeseen changes come up which is not true for most of us. Traffic, weather, children, parents, car problems, illness, injury, miscommunication are some things that happen to everyone; they tend to throw schedules off.
I understand your job requires you to be at your large monitor and on the phone to accomplish your tasks but does it need to happen in a certain time frame? On the days when you have viewings scheduled can you start an hour early or work an hour late?
That's not normal at all. 3 showing to the same person is crazy and for them to stay that long after having seen the place twice seems like they are a crazy person. Who has such lack of decency to invade your privacy like that. The audacity to view a home 3 times and not make an offer is insane. i'm thinking they are casing the joint or something.
So coming back to view a house that is on the market is considered "invading your privacy"? Good grief. Buying a home is a huge decision, I can certainly see the need to be sure. I'm not positive but I believe we looked at this old house 3 times.
Perhaps I missed it but I still don't understand why the OP can not come home and get to work, perhaps with the pets in the office as suggested earlier. I work from home, I continue to work as my bathroom is being torn apart. The dog barks every time the contractor comes through my office area. I could certainly work with someone walking the property line.
Jeez if you want to sell a house this is what you have to deal with some times. This is not news.
Most appointments were an hour. One was 1.5 hours. We do have 7 acres with a house and pond. But frankly, agents should know if they need more than an hour. Shouldn't they?
The people who have been 3 times have spent almost 5 hours at our home and had my husband and the agent walk the property line. My husband suspects they are very interested, but trying to find issues so they can get a lower price. He's probably right.
I never know how long the buyer is going to spend in a house in advance. The engineer/analytical types can spend an hour in a house they hate.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jakealope
The people who have been 3 times have spent almost 5 hours at our home and had my husband and the agent walk the property line. My husband suspects they are very interested, but trying to find issues so they can get a lower price. He's probably right.
That is a lot, but some people are that way. In my experience, these are the most difficult people to work with on both sides.
Perhaps I missed it but I still don't understand why the OP can not come home and get to work, perhaps with the pets in the office as suggested earlier. I work from home, I continue to work as my bathroom is being torn apart.
I work from home as well. Lots of people do these days. It's hardly a situation unique to the OP.
For most of us, working from home gives us more flexibility than a traditional office job. It sure doesn't make us hidebound or making plans to install steel shutters over the windows and machine gun turrets so the barbarians won't break through the gates.
Quote:
Jeez if you want to sell a house this is what you have to deal with some times. This is not news.
After nine pages and adamant refusals to take any of the reasonable advice that's been offered, there is only one possible conclusion: She doesn't want to sell the house. Too bad she wasted so many peoples' time up until now.
I highly doubt it's the OP's realtor showing the house. And if you think OP's realtor should start lecturing other realtors who are showing the house, let me know how that has worked out for you.
Everyone needs to be flexible and as accommodating as possible... Period. We know it's not fun. We get it. Just try to work through it.
I've personally 'SOLD' a number of houses on my own and also helped some realtors do so. (I also spent many years in professional sales). IMO, the RE Agent problem is that too many have a RE license, but, no grasp of the difference between actually 'selling' a property ... and redundantly going through the motions of listing a property in MLS, putting a sign in the yard and showing it to any warm body who calls. The last RE downturn in 2007-2009 weeded a lot of these people out of the market, but, the current upturn is starting to lure them back.
"The notion of being as flexible and accommodating as possible... period", typically leaves every 'looker' in charge of the entire transaction. Those ultimately successful in RE sales quickly and efficiently qualify real, potential buyers and focus on connecting them with exactly what they are seeking (rather than repeatedly showing whatever they have listed). They also know how to push for a decision and move the process along, rather than simply drifting along with dithering 'lookers.'
So my house is on the market. It's in a rural area and I work from home and have 2 dogs. My agent put in the MLS that owners need 24 hour notice for showings. I did not expect showings right off the bat due to the area I live in. I should have been prepared for immediate showings, but I didn't expect it based on other houses in the area that sit on the market for usually at least 3-4 months.
Long story short, every potential buyer has gone way over their appointment time, even though they are told I work from home and they must finish on time, or shortly after. Some potential buyers have been to my house 3 times now and they went over on their appointment yesterday by 1/2 an hour. Is this normal?
When we sold our country home up north we had potential buyers stay from 30 minutes to 90 minutes. The eventual purchaser looked at it twice. The second time he brought along a relative and they both looked everything over with a fine tooth comb. At first it really aggravated me because they took so long. When I expressed this to their realtor she apologized because the relative was a last minute addition. Fortunately I kept my cool as they were actually discussing how much they both loved the property. They bought my home at list price,so it all worked out in the end.
That's not normal at all. 3 showing to the same person is crazy and for them to stay that long after having seen the place twice seems like they are a crazy person. Who has such lack of decency to invade your privacy like that. The audacity to view a home 3 times and not make an offer is insane. i'm thinking they are casing the joint or something.
It's absolutely normal. It's a huge purchase and that takes most normal people a bit of time to make the decision. House Hunters is staged, they don't look at three houses one time and then choose their new home. The only houses I have looked at more than once were on my short list and I needed to compare the pluses and minuses. Sometimes people then have to make sure that the financing is right for the offer they make before they actually make an offer. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. If you put your house on the market, then you need to be at least a bit flexible. Complaining about the time or the number of visits is really silly if you really do want to sell. I left for 10 days when we put our house on the market because we have 4 large dogs and 2 cats. It was under contract the next day, but even so, there were back to back showings lined up, some overlapped. BTW, hotels DO take dogs over 90 lbs. There are many that also take 4 dogs, I know because I have stayed there with my 4 large breed dogs. LaQuinta and Red Roof are the most flexible.
. Sometimes people then have to make sure that the financing is right for the offer they make before they actually make an offer. .
right so they have to bother the home owner 3 times, 90 minutes each time for that.
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