Real Estate Blog - Take a number please

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Take a number please

Typically when showing a house to a buyer they usually come with a friend. More often than not, it's the wife and kids plus occasionally their parents come too, to offer guidance and concerned advise. Most of my showing appointments are pretty normal and uneventful as to the people. However, sometimes when I meet a party at a property first; not at the office, I might not know how many will show up. One thing is personal safety and another issue is crowd control. What do you do when the entire extended family including cousins, uncles and every person they know in life shows up together and wants in? Well if you let the entire gang in it can get pretty wild and even out of control. If I am meeting the party at the house, in most cases I have never felt it was a necessary to ask in advance, how many will be coming along to see the house. Do You? I now think I should start asking this question.

" Excuse me Sir...for crowd management purposes only, just how many will be in your touring party?"

Which brings me to a question, since a typical showing is where you would have 1 to 4 attending what to do? I got to this appointment and saw how many were there I immediately spoke up. Having encountered this a few times before. I start off by lying downs some simple ground rules before we entered the property. I stated, "Seeing as there are so many of you, please don't open any of the other exterior doors because they stick and will be impossible for me to shut again once you leave. This property is vacant and there is no power on, so please don't go into the basement without me knowing this first for safety reasons etc. etc. Of course they never listened to a thing I said. The moment they got into the house they all scattered in every direction. Going upstairs, going downstairs, scampering into the dark basement to check out the furnace and to see if the basement had ever been wet. They were told not to go there without my approval but that fell on deaf ears. Generally this group commandeered the building for the time they were there. When I ask them to stop doing some of the things I had asked, I got disapproving looks. There were unspoken emotions and looks directed at me for limiting their rights to explore anywhere they wanted. Implying, they were the buyers, how dare me! With buyer's entitlement made known, all the exterior doors flew open and one fellow yelled at me, "Look, the front door works fine, see!"

So why is it so hard for a Realtor to manage a large group showings? It is simply you are out numbered. You don't know the people you will be encountering or how they will behave at the home once you let them in the door. For starters the interior space may not be set up to accommodate a large group. They will often divide up into pairs and spread out causing you to loose sight of were they are and what they are doing. Learning some crowd management skill maybe essential and asking in advance before the appointment, how many will be there. This will help reduce upsetting surprises. The goal any showing is to sell the house. In the process it is also your responsibility to provide a safe and organized setting in which people can tour the house and hopefully want to buy it without incident or bruised egos.

Are you searching for homes to buy in Viroqua or Vernon County Wisconsin call Mary Strang at therteam.com RE/MAX Hill Country Realty 608-637-3599

Posted by Mary Strang ~ Viroqua, WI Real Estate on 08/04/2008 03:21 AM

Comments (62)

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Originally posted at: Viroqua Wisconsin: Take a number please

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62 Comments on Take a number please

AUG

2008

Mary, great blog! I generally have issue when showing a home and having 'drive bys'. They do not seem to have an issue with boldly walking through the door in the middle of a showing.

Mary

You are the Queen of Vernon County

Sincerely

Tom Braatz

Wow! This sounds more like a kindergarten teacher trying to wrangle a classroom of kids hyped up on sugar! I know that in some cultures it is customary for much of the extended family to tour a prospective home before it is bought but this usually happens after a home has been selected. What do you do if the home is occupied? I know the seller is supposed to lock away valuables and prescriptions but that many people would greatly increase the chances of something being broken or go missing. Maybe you should get one of those leashes/harnesses like some parents use on their kids! <<<smile>>>

I share your concerns on this one. Having had a buyer who had shown up by himself on our first meeting, only to have him bring "a friend" who had her foot in a cast, on crutches, with her young daughter for an afternoon of looking at three story townhomes for our second meeting. She just came with to look, took us forever to view houses and I had to reschedule as we went as a result.

Before meeting a client at a property I always ask who will be there. If there are more than 3 I try to determine why there will be so many. If there will be children there, I ask the ages. If they are young and mobile I try to discourage the parents from bringing them. I make statements like "it may be difficult for you to focus on the home if the children are with you -- perhaps for the first time, it's best if you see it without them there to distract you. If you decide it's the right home, then we can give the kids their own private showing at another time." or, as with a current listing that I have "there was recent construction work around the home and I'm not sure if all the nails and glass have been picked up. For your children's safety, it's best that they not be at the property this time." I won't deal with a "herd" of people at a showing. Anyone at the showing must serve a purpose -- buyer, the "wallet" or both. Everyone else, please stay home. ~Evelyn

Have never had to deal with this and can't imagine how you did it! So what was the end result? Did you ever sell them anything?

Patty, Yes a driveby can be a problem, you want to have them call and come into the house, but not with so many people

Thanks Tom, it is easy since no one else blogs in my county, LOL

Rich, funny comment, add that to the pre qualification question, if you come with a group please restraint from large amounts of sugar before this show, thanks you.

Richard, thanks for the comment, been there on that one too!

Evelyn you are so right on, it becomes a Herd thing the trick is to find out this before you get there and since you don't expect it or it does not happen often it is hard to ask every time, but you should!!

Joan, sorry to say they turned out to be just tire kickers

Interesting to read this. I"m a lender. I don't think that it seems all that hard to do, but you're showing that for God know's what readon it is.

you need to be careful with a group- they might wander and steal things from house..

Larry I am not sure what you mean??

Michael: Yes that too, since our customers are not clients we don't know for sure what type of person they may be and sometimes we find out too late. I always assume the best because after all they called me and I want to make a sale. That is part of the point, it is time to pre qualify for other things than just a loan.

AUG

2008

A few months ago I was at a home inspection when I think about 60 people showed up. My Clients had brought both sets of parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and a few best friends. While the inspector did his job, I conducted tours of the home with a maximum of 10 people in each group. Talk about crowd management! I told the listing agent and she laughed, but she thanked me for looking after her Client's property with so many people there.

My sister had an open house and the number of people grew so she just kept walking around trying to keep track of everyone. She found one couple, not of this planet, trying on the sellers close.. They didn't get the real estate open house concept...

Speak for yourself. Client control is between you and your clients. If you cannot handle the clients, don't assume that we can't either.

Cameron

Hi Mary - I read another recent post about a large group showing up and they were tire kickers, too. Maybe it's an indcator...

Good advice Mary. As for me.. No crowds please!

There is no way I am going to let the herd into the house. The primary buyers and their parents maybe. If they have young kids then they can stay outside with the cousins and best friends. If everyone wants to see the house then it is in 4's and no more. If the first group doesn't behave then the rest of them aren't going in. I did teach kindergarten so I know how to treat unruly behavior!

Crowd management skills wasn't a skill I thought I'd have to develop in this business (except for the rare open house that gets bombarded with people (yippee when that happens!) - But you're right - I've been there - It's only happened a few times but when it does, it's very difficult to manage - being up front about rules is a great idea!

Thankfully I've never had that experience. I do ask lots of questions though. Who should be at a home inspection? The Buyer(s) and the Home Inspector and a very quiet Realtor for the buyer IMHO.

Jim that is exactly what I am talking about, thanks for the comment

Rich I would about die if I had a buyer do that, they must have thought it was a estate sale.

Not ever had more than just parents or friends...2-4 which is managable. Hitting the rules with some humor may help disspell the "bad realtor" thing...."Occupancy limit...Elevator only holds..." a few laughs but they will get the idea and you won't be the bad gal.

Cameron, not sure what you meant, but thanks for the comment

Margaret, I read that too, sounded like his crowd was by far worse.

Hi, I have never had this experience. Most often I'm working with 1 - 2 people and can maintain good control. I'm not sure how I would handle such a large crowd! I have had large groups of people at an open house before ... that was difficult to manage.. I found myself bouncing from room-to-room just to make my presence known.

Christina, thanks for the comment, I bet it is a better chance of selling the place when there is no crowd.

Cindy, You are right, but when it happens by surprise that is the problem. It is best to ask on the phone who will attend so you can prevent larger groups coming, but I have never felt it was need to ask, now I do.

Nice post, you know you are really in for it when mom & dad have a tough time just getting the kids to the front door! Then its like opening the chute at a rodeo, and they're off!

Marcia, thanks for the comment, I don't think any of us feel we will ever have a large crowd show up, except at an occasionally at an open house, then too, it is hard to manage without help from an extra additional agent working it with you. But you just don't know when it will happen!

Judy, I usually make sure the owner is OK with me not attending home inspections, then the buyer and inspector can go alone. As to crowd control, as Jim commented above, 60 at an inspection is out of control too. I have never had an inspector tell me yet that more than the buyers showed up. Sometimes the father of the buyer comes too if they are young first timers.

Sally, thanks for the tip, it is always good to inject humor when things get tense.

Jon: I have had open houses like that too, that is a problem when it gets out of control because it is not expected that many will show up, thanks for the comment.

Mary, Maybe it would behoove us to have an existing policy of only "X" number of people in the home for a showing at a time. Of course, this is most important when a house is not vacant. When you have so many in a home you cannot "ride herd" on them. Sellers deserve more respect than that even if you are a buyer's agent. A vacant house like you had is a little different situation, but usually when there are that many in a group, they are usually looking for entertainment or are simply being nosy.

Earleene, I totally agree with your comment!

Hi Mary,

I'm glad this doesn't happen often, but I find when there is a large group laying down the ground rules first is a must. If someone breaks one of the rules, well then I let them know (in a fun way).Good post! :)

Suzanne, That is the way to handle it, when I got there and saw this crowd, my attitude was not the best that day.

Fortunately in the active retirement communities I work in I rarely have to deal with more than 2 people and every once in awhile another couple. It would make me very uncomfortable showing homes to a crowd that size. Especially after reading about thieves who use this method to distract an agent while someone in the group is pilfering. I think I would have to ask them to go in small groups I could manage and the rest needs to please wait outside.

Right on Kathy, since this one was vacant and no personal property not any risk for theft, but always good advise to control the showing.

Mary - fortunately I have not experienced that ... yet. I have seen herds of people come thru an open house and it is difficult to keep eyes on everyone as they pair off into different parts of the house. I do have experience in crowd control (past experience with a police department) and if it ever does happen - I will definitely require some people wait outside until the others are finished looking - everyone would be given the opportunity to see the house - just not all at the same time.

This is a great post - thank you!

Oh my! Fortunately I've never encountered this type of showing, however this is the main reason I no longer hold public open houses. I don't have control if there are too many people in a house and cannot gaurantee no damage/theft will occur.

Hello there, Great Blog Mary. So many people at one time, how many go thru Open Houses at a time.

The more people there exploring and putting their two cents in can only muck things up. You can always tell them once they own the house they can have everyone over for a House Warming.

Yikes! I've never encountered quite this many people before, but I did have one set of buyer client that brought their brother and sister-in-law and mother on every showing and they all dropped by for the home inspection too. They were all very respectful and fun to be around; the other positive was that it made my buyers feel good about buying the house because everybody approved!

That's enough to drive one batty---I've even had issues with 1 family and a couple of unruly children. So hard to keep track of everyone.

I always meet with clients first before showing property. However, this is not always fool proof. I had a large group show up and told them, I would have the buyers and 2 others in the house for a first tour -- and then they would wait and the next 4 could tour the house with me. I decided where everyone would go and everyone had to stay right with me. Kids waited outside with the other adults. (they were very small).. the weather was fine -- so that wasn't an problem.

Mary - I love your crowd management thing. Yes, it happens sometimes that the loving and caring family shows up at the house and tries to supports the decision made by principle buyer. Interesting but some sellers love these situations. - they feel like it's a sign of a big interest to their property. Some sellers just do not tolerate the crowd. It's a difficult side of the art of Real estate which we do master. It's so easier when we manage to get no surprises!

Mary.....great blog and well pointed. Thank you so much for sharing this story and it helps bring some insight.

Crown control can become a problem as they end up chatting more than seeing homes.

AUG

2008

Bob and Carolin: You are so right, groups do end up hanging around longer. Thanks for the comment

Pam: thanks for reading

Svetlana: If the seller is around, I would think they would believe the won the lotto with this action, but this was a short sale and a bank owner to be, if not sold soon. I did get an offer 2 days ago and hope it goes.

Joan: You are so right, that was the case. It's not always fool proof to meet clients first at the office. If the property is out the way they are living, they don't want to come into the office to drive back 8 miles to the house nearby them, that was the case here.

AUG

2008

I've never had anything like this happen, thank goodness. Sounds like a nightmare!\

AUG

2008

Mary, thank goodness I'm learning about this possibility now, instead of through experience. Just another thing to ask. Maybe it could lead to other relationships too.

AUG

2008

I very rarely meet clients at a property. We meet at my office and I drive. That would be one way of finding out how many people were coming. But I guess, the rest of the family could still show up at the house. There definitely need to be FIRM rules though. Everyone should stick together. Maybe telling them to put themselves in the sellers shoes and behave accordingly would help?

AUG

2008

Mary ..sounds like you have to worry about personal safety and crowd control....do you carry a taser?

AUG

2008

Hello Andrew, no I just carry a electronic room measure and pretend it is a taser, point and use the laser beam button, while yelling get back!!! too funny!

OCT

2008

Mary,

Thanks for the post.

I once had a buyer for a property 25 miles away and they were always wanting to show it to the

relatives before closing. I finally had a lot of appointments around that time. Relatives can kill deals.

P.S. I also wondered what Cameron was talking about.

DEC

I once had the buyers, both sets of parents, 4 or 5 brothers and sisters (with spouses) from both sides, along with about 10 kids show up for an inspection.

From that I learned to set expectations up front about who should attend and what they would be doing.

Ask questions, set expectations. Hasn't been a problem since.

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