I was making my showing appointments for this morning. I am usually pretty good at estimating arrival times but it is harder since this will be my first day out with this client. I don't know yet whether he will be one who can know in 5 minutes whether he likes a house or not or one who will take 45 minutes to look at every house even the ones he hates.
Anyway, I plot my route and begin to make my appointments. I use the showing service and set up one house for the 2 hour window between 10:45 and 12:45. The showing service calls back to ask if I can narrow the window down to 11:45 to 12:45, per the homeowner's request. I comply, figuring I can juggle around as need be to ensure that I am there on time.
Then I get a call back from the showing service with a message from the homeowner "He will arrive at precisely 11:45 and he will give me exactly 5 minutes to show up and if I am not there in those 5 minutes he is leaving!"
Huh?
I tried to clarify, he meant 5 minutes after the 1 hour window, right? No, he meant he was narrowing the showing to a 5 minute window ; 11:45 to 11:50.
There is no way I can commit to a 5 minute window when we are looking at 7 homes, factors such as traffic, etc are out of my control.
I cancelled the showing - my buyer has several other properties he liked so we are heading to see those today. I will try to make it back to this house if we go out a second time.
The listing has no lockbox (which means the owner has to be present for the showings), no interior photos, an exterior photo from 2006, and an owner who is not being very cooperative - could be a hard sale. You just never know which showing is going to be the one!
This is probably a listing that the listing agent needs to make the showing appointments because if the owner isn't being cooperative the agent could also meet prospective buyers and their agents at the property.
Comments(4)