Ever had trouble getting in to show a home to your buyer client? Today was one of those days.
On Friday I talked with my buyer and and she wanted to see five different homes on Saturday. I printed out the listings, went through the showing instructions and mapped out a good tour. Then I sat down with the phone and tried to schedule the appointments with the sellers or their agents.
OK, one was vacant. I could use this one as a filler in case one appointment went short or bypass it if one went long and come back later. We may have to drive a bit further to make the appointments work. No problem. So I call the first seller.
"Hi Ms. Seller "Can I show your home at 3 pm on Saturday to my clients?
"No, I am having company tomorrow. It is not a good day. How about Sunday?"
"Sorry Ms. Seller, we will have to reschedule."
On to the next call. "Hi Ms. Agent, can I show the home at 123 Main St at 3 pm tomorrow?".
"Let me talk to the owner and call you back".
Five minutes later the phone rings. "About 123 Main St. The owner says tomorrow is no good. She has to put the dogs outside when showing and it is suppose to rain and she doesn't want the dogs to get wet."
"Ok, we will try another time".
Call number three, another call to an agent. "Can I show the home at 456 Maple St tomorrow at 3 pm? "
"Sorry. We have two contract offers which are really good and we are deciding on which one to accept. The owners are really tired of people going through their house all the time so they don't want any more showings right now."
"Congratulations! I hope it works out for them. Can you take my number in case they change their minds?
So now I am O-fer 3 with one more possibility. I make the call and get an answering machine. "I would love to show the home at 789 North St. tomorrow at 3 pm. Can you call me back at this number to confirm?"
So with only two of the five still in play, I call my buyer back and give her the news. "Oh Jim, we are sorry, we have to cancel tomorrow because the baby is sick. Can we reschedule?"
I can't make this stuff up!
Hey Jim!
I know what you mean....Unfortunately, this happens more often than we would like to admit. I had an out of state buyer that wants to move here by JUNE --- and one multi-million dollar homeowner would not let us show the home on a Tuesday because she needed to straighten up ( now I called the agent to request the appointment on Sunday night ). Then, I called on Wed morning to show it on Thursday morning. Sorry, can't show it then says the agent ( after multi-calls back and forth) Too early, you see. Mind you this house has been on the market for OVER A YEAR !!!! My buyer finally said, I am not interested because the seller obviously does not want to SELL.... This was not my only case of this -- this week. IN fact, you have given me the inspiration for my own BLOG.....
Hi Jim - Another day in the world of real estate. It amazes me how in this market so many sellers make it difficult to show their home. At the same time those same sellers are probably complaining to their agent that their home isn't selling.