in order to sell your home? I emphasize to my sellers that ALL showings are important, especially in this market where there is so much to look at. Sellers need to understand last minute showings are the norm and agents might be a little late for their 1 hour showing time slot. People are people; when a buyer wants to see a property, we, as agents, tend to jump. We hope the sellers would also. We also don’t want to rush a client who is looking intently at one house, so we can get to the next one on time. We like to give each house a thoughtful look. Some buyers are faster at this than others.

However, I do draw the line at some requests. I had an agent call me at 7:30pm on a Saturday night asking to preview a property at 8:30pm that same night for a client coming to town late next week. I called the homeowners who ended up not being home. I made the call not to let the agent in the house. One, because I didn’t have permission and second, I didn’t give my sellers time to prepare for this preview showing. As I said above, preparation is key in this market.

Now, let me tell you a scenario I would have hunted my sellers down for: An agent calls me from Starbucks at 7:30pm after taking some transferee clients out all day. They didn’t see anything they liked, so they stopped for coffee and free wifi to see what else there is on the market. They decided to see our property and would like to get in before they head back home in the morning.

Now you bet with that information I would have called every cell number I had and personally gone over to straighten up had they been too far away. Scenario one lends itself to rescheduling with the agent when the sellers can prepare; scenario two is a now or never proposition.