An Open Letter: I Understand Why Your Home Has Been on the Market So Long

Jason, I've often wondered if folks like this really don't want to sell.  I had a similar situation on a short sale.  We made an appointment 24 hrs before.  I showed up and noticed multiple cars in the driveway.  I had my buyers stay outside while I went through the house.  One resident was in bed and another one was in the shower.  There was a note on the door saying to come in, but please don't let the dog out.  We just moved on.  They weren't interested in selling their house.  

I have had that and then found out it was a divorce situation where the one spouse in the house was staying until it sold, SO there was no incentive to show or sell!

Great letter - thanks for sharing!

I was going to post about this same thing happening in my market.  Like Austin, it's customary for us to contact sellers directly for showings.  And I've lost count of how many sellers have said, "Oh...that time doesn't work.  But what about tomorrow?"  Not happening.  It's when my buyers are out or it's nothing.

These sellers lack true motivation. Nothing worse than a poorly motivated seller. That sort of attitude is a big red flag for me. Tells me to anticipate a bunch of problems going forward with the seller.

Wow, some heated comments in there. I am with you though Jason, people need to understand local customs before calling you out on such things. I got called out for the same thing about 2 years ago when I wrote a post about calling 24 hours in advance and even being told it was alright to come, then when I got there was told, sorry, it isn't a good time after all. Boy, some of the comments I got about calling the seller directly were nasty. (I was embarrassed for the people who wrote the comments)

Jason all I can say is unbelievable and honestly I am not talking about your post although it was pretty amazing.  Yes, I read the whole post more than one time. I am astounded by all of the comments some good, some not so kind.  I don't know your area and would never pretend to nor do you know mine.  I did not find anything offensive or belittling or anything in your post to be judgmental about, you just sounded off a little and told the story, a good story.  Life's lessons.  Don't see how anyone could be righteous about your behavior.  Goes to prove that when someone needs you to listen you need to not only listen but to hear what they are actually saying, the same for reading a post.  Leave your own judgments out and just read the post and understand what it really says.

Jason,

 I am shocked by your behavior. In my market we sacrifice a baby goat prior to each showing. So by making multiple trips to the same property multiple baby goats die needlessly. How do you sleep at night?

When I calm down I intend to read your post. Looks interesting!

Jason, I just have to throw my 2 cents in the mix. I am surprised stunned shocked dismayed that some didn't understand that what is customary for one area is not for another. I am surprised stunned shocked dismayed when I run into situations like this.

As for my area... we run into a bit of everything. From call list office, log in and go, call list office for availability, call owner and go, call list agent for appt, list agent must attend, vacant go sell, there are a million. We have electronic lock boxes, we have combo's, push buttons, no keys, keys under the mat, stop by the list office and pick up the keys, you name it we have it. Often I have volumes of notes of who I called, who didn't call back, how to get in, on and on, bla bla bla. It is more complicated than building a website from scratch if you ask me. But you didn't.

I read my instructions, I follow the instructions, I do what I am told. But... on the off chance the seller is not cooperative then I cross it off my list!

Make it easy to show. Turn off your alarms, use a lock box, if your agent has to be there for all showings then make sure the agent you pick is flexible enough to accommodate buyers schedules.

Oh yeah.. one more thing. If you are coming into this area to show houses, you should have an electronic keypad. I love it when I hear .... but I don't own a keypad anymore.

Save us please... please please please....

And people... read before you comment, think before you say anything!

Great post!!!!!

For starters I'm late to the party as usual. Whatever happened I like your writing style. Your post drew me in. I'd say the sellers don't have a need to sell, yet.

Jason:

I read J. Philips blog and decided to come back to see what was going on.  I am amazed that a blog about sellers not cooperating with showing appointments could turn into such controversy. 

Sellers need to be told that they must make showing their home as easy as possible, after all the goal is to sell the house.  Putting road blocks in the way of agents is not a good idea.  That is true regardless of the local protocol.   I live in an area where we do not have a centralized appointment center.  I read the MLS instruction about showing and abide by those instructions.  Sometimes we have to call the seller to arrange an appointment, sometimes we must call the listing agent.

Glad to hear from you again!  And, can you believe that in the properties I was showing last week, one said "Showings only on Wednesdays from 12-4.  So, following the showing instructions in the MLS, I called the call center and was told that they would give me a call back.  This is on Monday, mind you.  Sure enough, and hour later they phoned me and said that this Wednesday would not work for the seller.  Sometimes I feel as if I have entered the Twilight Zone.

Great post!  I just had this same exact experience here in League City.  It was an unusual situation where I had TWO different Buyers riding with me one weekend.  These guys knew each other from family and work, and had very similar taste in homes.  So, it was really double the opportunity for any Seller that could accommodate our showing requests....which had been made the day before.  We arrived at our last house around 6:00 pm.  The owner answered the door (soooo glad I knocked!), but was clearly confused as to why we were there...even after I introduced myself and explained that I had made the appointment through their showing service.  "Oh, my husband must not have told me," was all she said.  No offer to come in.  No offer to reschedule.  Okay.....

The next weekend, we tried again.  However, this time the showing request was "declined."  No offer for a different time or day...just "declined."

The next weekend I had one of the young men with me and we went back to the same neighborhood.  We passed the "unshowable" house and were laughing about our previous experience, when we saw a For Sale sign had gone up on the property right next door!  So, I called the agent of the new listing.  We found out the sign was put up only 3 hours earlier and it was not even on MLS yet.  We scheduled an appointment right then.  The owner was very accommodating...and my client will now close on THAT home April 20.  It was easier to view a property not even on MLS yet, than to see one that had been on the market for months.  I'm sure my client will meet his new neighbors at some point, since they'll probably be there quite awhile!

Michelle, it is unfortunate but the lady in the first house will probably blame her Realtor for not getting her home sold as quickly as her neighbors home was sold.

Jason... I am also here after reading J Philip's post.  He of course wrote about all the bomb-throwing commentors who were in attack mode, and I just had to see it for myself.

So... I read the post, and started reading each and every comment... and when I got to the fifty-fifth comment or so... I am wondering... "just what the heck is Philip complaining about ?"

Then... I read commentor #60... and almost wet my undies.  (I know... TMI)  Good grief.  With a post like this, and with just about any post... it is SO important to at least try and read a large number of the comments, if not all of them.

It is so easy to make a total fool out of one's self if you don't.  And, some of those commenting did exactly that.

This post, and Philip's post... taken together, are a great example of the real meaning of the "community spirit" that a forum like Active Rain can have.

Great post.  I hope you are well... and that your lovely family is doing well, too.  Have a great Easter.

Jason - I saw Phil's post and just wanted to stop by to say hello and Happy Easter!  Sorry this turned into such a controversial post with some negative comments, but it was an eyeopener in terms of how different showing customs are in different areas of the country.  Real estate is local!

Jason, so glad you are back and I guess you may be wondering why you put pen to paper!  Get used to the insanity - there are a number of hostile people on Active Rain who go after every blog as though they were being paid to be in attack mode.  Glad to see you set them straight and look forward to hearing more from you.

Holy This Post Took On a New Set of Legs, Batman!  I read Phil's post and had to come back again to review the comments.  Since we have similiar showing instructions in our local market -- we call the seller directly in the majority of cases -- some people did become a little unhitched by that.  Well, it's very common here . . . and there! 

I'm new to Active Rain, and consider myself lucky to happen upon this post!  Jason, you made such a clear case I can hardly believe the way the comments deteriorated.  What a great learning tool this is for newbies.  It's one thing to comment and/or share information regarding differences in customs, but it's so odd that it was tangential, at best, to the point of your posting.  Please keep writing!

Donna LoPinto

Some sellers are just NOT motivated to sell their home-unfortunatly.  This is very frustrating for Listing agents...and obviously buyers agents too!