I showed 9 homes for sale in Weston yesterday. Of the nine 6 were regular sales and 3 were foreclosed homes.
The 3 foreclosed homes were in total disrepair, dirty and smelly. But my clients spent more time inside of those 3 homes than they did the clean, beautiful ones that were owner occupied. Why? Because the seller stayed in the house while we showed; 2 even followed us around the entire time.
My clients commented several times that they felt uncomfortable. They are here from Boston where they say it is pretty standard for the seller's to leave the house for showings.
Buyers want the chance to look closely at closets, cabinetry etc. They don't want the seller's to see them "looking" through their stuff so they basically just kind of walk thru these occupied houses without really "looking" at the features.
Another issue we had with 2 of the owner occupied homes was timing. Yesterday was a very rainy day and we were running about a 1/2 hr behind schedule. 2 of the homes did not have lock boxes and required the owner to be home for the showings. One of the owners let us in anyway, although she acted put out (which made my clients feel even more uncomfortable) and the other refused to show us her home entirely because we were 30 minutes late. Although I apologized for being late and had even called her agent and left a message that I was running late, she would not let us in.
As listing agents we need to be more assertive with our clients. We need to get them out of the house during showings and we to install lockboxes on the doors. Seller's need to remember that this is a "buyers" market and finding the right qualified buyer is not easy. Any showing that is refused or made to feel uncomfortable is a real loss for the seller.
My clients are back on a plane to Boston today without a contract to purchase and a rather bad feeling for the Weston market.
Who is the real loser here?
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