Your Kid is Obnoxious and Your Dog isn’t Cute

It’s best for owners to be absent during showings, the next best thing is to go for a walk when buyers arrive. Not a good idea to have your kid playing piano for “mood music” or to have your “show” dogs running around nipping heels. Every so often we run into a listing that simply has us walking away shaking our heads – is it that sellers don’t listen or that they just want to do things their way? This post has been waiting to be written for a good year, finally decided to do it.

Piano Boy
Anyone that attempts to tackle any musical instrument gets a salute from me, the piano especially. Billy Joel and Elton John represent the pinnacle, but there’s a time and place for everything.  Walking an 800K+ home with interested buyers is not that time. Despite my repeated suggestions that little “Timmy” ice down his fingers, we were subjected to Fleur de Lise for what seemed like a 30 minute loop. Timmy was into it; perfect posture, hand and head positions and he missed that same note every time he came to it. We started at flabbergasted, moved to a little annoyed and left laughing. Not at Timmy, but at his stage mother who for some reason felt that we were an audience instead of buyers looking at the house.

Ankle Biters and I’m Happy to See You
I know Precious and Sparky are great dogs, we have three beagles that are the best dogs on the planet (not) and I love dogs. Not everyone does, and not everyone wants to be accosted by them.  Walking a home one day we were peppered for the entire time by two Maltese dogs that kept nipping at the buyer’s feet and pants cuff. Dogs sense vulnerability and these two were enjoying the adventure – not so for the buyers. At another house we had a chance to meet “Sparky”, a 90lb chocolate lab covered in mud that was overly friendly. I don’t blame the owner, she told him to “sit”, he just didn’t listen this one time…he’s NEVER done that before.

Thanks, We’ll Figure it Out
Does anyone need a tour guide for a home? Maybe the White House or the Vatican…but is one needed for a 2400 square foot colonial? And ridiculous as hearing “….and here’s the kitchen…” is, even worse is having to stop everything to hear every painful and excruciating detail of what amounts to a standard sink, faucet or light fixture (I blame HGTV for all that).  Owners should be proud of their home, but be confident that agents and buyers coming through will recognize that and figure out which room is which.  Fact sheets are fine, tour guides (especially owners and/or their kids) are not.

Less is More
Working full time in real estate since 1989, between appraising and brokerage I’ve been in several thousand homes. Experienced agents and focused buyers have a systematic approach to recognizing if a home is appealing and is going to work.  I submit that within minutes of getting on site, a decision has been made as to whether or not a particular home “strikes a nerve”. We’ve all had homes that we’ve closed up within minutes; serious buyers know what they want. Sellers shouldn’t complicate things…it’s best to leave and let the agent and buyer evaluate your home alone. At the very least, take Precious and Sparky for a walk.