Top 5 Reasons Why Buyers Won’t Buy: #2. Hard to Show.

Or, the top 5 reasons why a home does not sell.

We read an article last year about the reasons that keep Buyers away. It was a national article out of Inman News, and we thought we’d update it, and explore how it applies to our South Lake Tahoe real estate market now. A link to the Inman News article appears at the bottom of this article.

We’ll do each of the top five reasons in a separate article. This is number "two."

2. The Home is Hard to Show. Sometimes a Seller makes a home difficult to show, other times it’s the listing Agent. In either case, anything that limits the ease of showing a home for sale has a negative effect on the home’s marketability. It takes longer to sell, and that may eventually affect price, especially in a market going through a correction, or downward change.

Making a home more difficult to show naturally causes it to take more time to sell. When one considers the time value of money, this too can have a negative effect on a Seller’s bottom line.

If a Seller needs to sell in a hurry to move, for example, or to get cash, as another example, both the Seller and the listing Agent must make a home as easy to show as possible. To do that it must be on the MLS and on a Lockbox, unless there are security reasons that prevent it.

Examples of how to make a home difficult to show: (lets avoid them)

• -- Time when the home can not be shown, such as not before noon for example
• -- Days that a home can not be shown, such as can’t be shown on weekends, which is a real show stopper.
• -- Notice before a home can be shown, such as a 2 or 4-hour notice (the shorter the better).
• -- Owner has to be there, this is also a real showstopper and almost always not in Seller’s interest.
• -- Listing Agent has to be there. This may offset some agents and/or buyers who prefer to preview a home on their own.
• -- Vacation Rental Program. We see this in Lake Tahoe frequently, as do most second-home markets in the country. Homes usually can not be shown when occupied for a vacation rental. If a Seller needs the income, the listing Agent and the Seller must work with the property management firm doing the rentals to facilitate showings as much as possible.
• -- Tenant Requires 24-hour Notice. In California, for example, a tenant does not have the right to refuse to allow a home they are renting to be shown, but they do have the right to demand a 24-hour notice. Both the Seller and the listing Agent must work with the tenant to limit the notice to as little amount of time as possible and to facilitate showings as much as possible, even it that means giving some extra consideration to the tenant.
• -- Pets. Sometimes a Seller’s pets may limit when a home can be shown. Both Seller and listing Agent must minimize this as much as possible.

Here’s the prior Inman News Article.