A Homes Accessibility Directly Communicates Willingness To Sell!
I was inspired to write this blog by a fellow Rainer's blog Leslie Elbersole's latest blog Dear Listing Agent: Yes I am serious are you? In the blog in the introduction Leslie mentions the fact that she had to wait six hours for the listing agent to return her call for an attempt to get an appointment to show the home to her buyers.
This brings many points to mind on how accessible is your home to potential buyers. These days while it is not a seller's market by any means the home buyers in today's market still have a lot of inventory to choose from. Case in point I have myself in working with buyers lately been instructed to take homes off their list because after two tries we could not get a listing appointment. Accessibility directly communicates willingness to sell.
So does your listing agent use an appointment desk with a toll free number and a staff answering the phones to make those all important appointments. The appointment services will take the requests from agents verify their identity, and call the sellers to confirm the appointments if required, give the showing agent any showing instructions, send out requests for showing comments, and notify the listing agent of all appointments. Then in some cases a agent or small firm may save a few dollars and try to manage this task in house by having ONE agent on "call duty" at their office or home answering the phone to make appointments for their listings.
In some cases you may have a one person shop where the agent is on their own and they handle everything. So now your home is at the mercy of that agents life.
Here is a scenario I have experienced: I call Thursday morning to attempt to make a showing appointment for one of five homes my buyers wish to see. My call is not returned until 4:00 PM (because the agent was in a required real estate class and unable to answer their phone). They stated that the sellers wanted 24 hours notice to show the home SO we could not view it tomorrow morning. If I had been able to talk to someone when I called orginally they would have had over 24 hours notice! The next time I called for the same home to make an appointment (I only had to wait for only three hours this time for the agent to return my call) I was told that they were having the deck power washed and they did not want any showings. Well my buyers took it off the list! In their minds they are ready to buy, these sellers are not motivated to sell. Of course much of the issue I place on the agent not the sellers but, my buyers are my clients and therefore my employers. If they want to dismiss that home so be it.
I see a fail on several levels with this listing.
*By not being accessible the agent has hurt the sellers chances
This could have easily been fixed by utilizing an appointment desk that is open 8:00AM to 8:00 PM
*The sellers themselves have limited access by asking for 24 hours notice (which is their prerogative)
Maybe just two or three hours notice on weekdays when they are at work anyway.
*Lastly if you are having work done outside I would have still shown the home. They do not have to walk out on the deck to see the home.
The home will sell itself to the buyers. Do you really want to turn people away in today's market?
By the way this was in the $600,000 to $700,000 range. We all know that the pool of buyers in that market are limited so turning away qualified buyers that are ready to buy is not in their best interest.
