Comments on: “Sabotaging Your Listings” - Removing Home Showing Obstacles

By: Jack

Jack — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:07:28 +0000

Jack…

The most thorough and informative information I have found. Enjoyed it immensely….

By: Jill Wente

Jill Wente — Sat, 17 May 2008 23:36:34 +0000

That’s ridiculous showing availability. Definately NOT motivated sellers. In Spring Texas, the majority of listing agents use a centralized showing service. It makes it easy for buyer’s agents to only have to call one number to set up appointments. There are still quite a few agents that do not set their listings up with the showing service because it costs money. I have found once I started using the showing service my listings were getting more showings.

By: Frank Borges LL0SA- FranklyRealty.com

Frank Borges LL0SA- FranklyRealty.com — Sat, 03 May 2008 07:01:29 +0000

I was going to say “You are SO right,” but Karen beat me to it.

I have also planned a post on the importance of making your home EASY to see. The easier it is, the more people look at it, the higher the price. So on the listing side, my clients even change their voicemail to be more appealing. It says “Hi, calling about the house? I’m out, but use your lockbox key and leave a card, thanks” and the remarks say “Easy to show, call leave VM and go” (heck they have 3 kids, so they deserve a heads up).

But that is for sellers. If you are working with a buyer, the opposite applies. While it is more of a pain for us, make sure you get into those pain in the neck places to see. The renter who, if he shows you the place will get kicked out, is a perfect example. Nobody sees the place, it sells for $50k less.

Recently I also wrote about how people tend to skip over photoless listings. Not worth the trouble. Hello! I found that they sell for $15,000 less, so get inside them http://tinyurl.com/5wvqxz

Thanks for the post!
Frank

By: 2Tips4-2sDay: Selling Tips « Wand’ring Through Wayne & Pike County PA

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:39:50 +0000

[...] Rich Jacobson, a Kitsap County Washington REALTOR, wrote an article about not sabotaging your home showings. Thank you, Rich, for giving me permission to link your excellent article. [...]

By: Ryan Hukill

Ryan Hukill — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 03:38:51 +0000

The part here that gets me is not so much the seller’s unrealistic schedule for showings, but the listing agents’ willingness to go along with it, rather than doing his job to educate the seller on why that’s not only a bad idea, but will literally cut the number of times that home is shown by roughly 80%.

What happens when a home is seen by only 2 out of 10 potential buyers?

In such a situation, I would educate the sellers, then turn down the listing if they insisted on such nonsense. Who exactly is the ‘expert’ anyway?

By: Karen Rice

Karen Rice — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:56:47 +0000

You are SO right, Rich! I am amazed in this market that people put a 24 hour notice on (and really STICK to it, even if you give 4-6 hours notice…

My favorite one though required 24 hour notice. We had to wait almost a week before we could get my buyers lined up with the seller\’s schedule. When we got to the house, it was filthy, full of clutter, smelled of pets…and we just wondered….why did we have to wait all this time to see THIS? It was so stupid it was almost comical.