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If your local norm is to use the agency, don't buck it.
Don't turn mole hills into mountains, and hurt your marketing by throwing up barriers. The fact is, if you aggressively market, some unqualified buyers will see your house. Discouraging qualified buyers to weed out the unqualified buyers is counterproductive.
Selling a property will always have its ups and downs, but if your local agents are accustomed to getting access via Centralized Showing Services, why make them call your agent?
You will lose more showings than you will gain. I guarantee it.
Why should I call an agent to see a property if there is a ton of inventory and CSS can get me access without a lot of probing?
Why should I answer probing questions about "serious buyers" and "prequalification" to someone if I can easily get into a thousand other properties without running that gauntlet?
As an Agent, I love working with Centralized Showing Services. Their accessability is much greater than the average agent's accessibility. Their attempt at professionalism is excellent, I think.
Our realtor used CSS to sell our house and it wasn't bad at all. It was our first time selling so I don't know how it compares to the old fashioned way, but we had about 50 showings in 6 weeks. There were a few showings actually scheduled around the same time, which I thought was weird but it worked out fine, as long as the house gets plenty of exposure, right?
Our realtor used CSS to sell our house and it wasn't bad at all. It was our first time selling so I don't know how it compares to the old fashioned way, but we had about 50 showings in 6 weeks. There were a few showings actually scheduled around the same time, which I thought was weird but it worked out fine, as long as the house gets plenty of exposure, right?
CSS will tell me, "There is another agent scheduled to show at that time. Is that a problem?" I think I coincide with the other agent about 10%-20% of the time.
Generally no problem, but the heads up is nice.
In my area you get a mix of things, centralized showing service, calling the office or calling the agent directly. In my office, we take care of our own showings, it says, call agent directly for showings, we give a one hour window, for showings. I have as a buyers agent used all of the above obviously when dealing with other brokers. I never have had a problem - sorry you are having problems.
Is it the company or the MLS area that uses the service to set up showings? We don't have it, and I wouldn't want it.
CSS is available through the MLS. It is the company, or the client's choice.
It is the norm here to use CSS, as it is such a good service and widely accepted.
At this point insistence on setting all appointments through the listing agent is an unnecessary barrier to showing.
I can set appointments 24 hours a day from my computer, and if confirmation is needed, CSS will call for confirmation on them first thing the next day.
I prefer that flexibility to having an agent call me at 11:00 PM while I am sleeping.
When the agent must set the appointment, it is all too common for them to not return phone calls on a timely basis. "I don't carry my phone when I'm with clients." "I was in a long closing." Etc.
That pretty much eliminates short notice showings, or drive-by showings which are common on vacant homes.
Foreclosures are a whole 'nother animal. Why throw up barriers? I drive to them, consider curb appeal, call them in, and show/view. No fuss or bother for anyone.
It's not the norm here to use a scheduling service - and I hope it never becomes so, based on my experience, as a buyer's agent, in a couple of areas where they are used.
We have a variety of choices to offer, as listing agents, for showing instructions. There's "Go" for a vacant house, "Call first, go" which usually means call the owner or occupant (if it doesn't, the phone number for the owner/occupant is not shown), "Appointment with Agent" which could mean that you need to call the agent to get a code or because more information needs to be given than will fit on the MLS (complicated directions, for example) or could mean that the agent actually has to be there, and so on. The vast majority of listings have the first two - either the home is vacant and you can just go when you want, or you call the occupant and give them a heads up that you're coming and when, and call them back if you're not going to make it. Works pretty well, takes out the middle man. Our lockboxes keep track of who's shown which house when, and will automatically request feedback if we want it set that way, and/or give us the information if we want to do a follow up contact for feedback.
Takes out yet another middleman in the process, which means taking out yet another opportunity for a snag. I like that.
We are native Californians, and I never heard of a showing service until I read about them on this forum..hmm...we have always had the buyers agent call our agent, or call us, whatever..I don't think those are used in CA or Utah where we are now...our agent always calls us. I guess whatever is customary in your area....just go with it. I would be extremely ticked if they said my house was off the market when it wasn't...
Location: Danbury CT covering all of Fairfield County
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In my area when I make appointments, I typically have to call the list office to check in and then call the homeowner or just go if it's vacant. Other than that, it's call or text agent for an appointment.
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