Yesterday I was out with a client who is looking to buy a parcel of land. I was amazed as I made the appointments for these properties at how many of the listing agents had NEVER EVEN WALKED THE PROPERTY. I was further amazed by agents telling me they weren't exactly sure where the property was.
Whenever I am going to view a land listing I usually have a few standard questions:
- Is there a sign? Will I be able to see it?
- How much road frontage?
- Is there a survey?
- Is there a way to find it if the sign is not there?
In asking these questions is how I came across the answers of "I don't know because I haven't walked it" and "I don't know because I haven't been there." Okay I am going to sound like a teen here but OMG and you have no problem telling me this??
Now I will never list a land parcel unless I get to see it first. How else can you intelligently answer questions about it or direct someone else to it if you haven't done this first? I have had people ask me to "just put it up there until I can meet you out there to show you." That will always be met with a NO. Not only is this doing a disservice to the client as well as a potential buyer but I don't put up listings without pictures and you can't take pictures unless you visit the property.
Which brings me to my next point - one of the lots we looked at had a picture that looked like this:
And that is what drew my client to it in the first place. They would like property with a view. Even a small view would be nice. So we went to look at this property with the great view. And this is what we saw:
We tracked down this view which was about 1/4 of a mile AWAY. I stood in the same place and took the picture we had in our hands. That property didn't have a view to be found even if we took every single tree down. Not only were my clients let down but they were ANGRY. This is why real estate agents get a bad name. Their time was wasted and it was not something that was an innocent mistake.
So if you are a "busy" agent and "don't have time" for certain things then please don't take listings you can't visit beforehand or use pictures that aren't accurate for one reason or another.
We are all part of the same team - lets work together, get things sold and let people know why they should be using REALTORS when buying and selling!
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