When you sell your home, what is it that you need above all else? BUYERS! You need as many qualified buyers as you can get and you need them badly. You don’t want just one – you want as many as you can cram through your door. The more buyers, the more offers. The more offers, the higher the price. Buyers are pure gold these days but, they can be elusive and slippery. So how does a seller attract the elusive, fleeting buyer?
The first vital step is getting buyers through the door to actually view your home. After all, there won’t any offers from someone who hasn’t seen your home. These days EASY ACCESS is key. These are not the halcyon days of 2005 where there was only one house and 100 bidders. Buyers have choices and in some areas there are so many choices that homes that are difficult to access will be passed over.
Nevertheless, this past week I have been have run into several situations where listing agents seemed bent on throwing as many road blocks as possible between the buyer and the property as they could. By making agents with buyers jump through unreasonable hoops just to gain access to the home, these listing agents are doing their sellers a big disservice. Sellers need to ask potential listing agents how buyers and their agents will access their home. The three strategies I ran into last week should be a red flag to any seller if they are part of any listing presentation.
Strategy #1 – Listing? Listing? Is there a listing?
The first incident involved a listing that somehow took 11 days to get into the MLS. There were rumors flying around that there was indeed a listing – but no one knew exactly who how or where. Several agents had buyers and were trying to figure out just where this mysterious listing was. The listing existed, but it couldn’t be shown to anyone save the few buyers that the listing agent had in tow and perhaps a handful of other agents within the listing agent’s brokerage. If agents don’t know the listing exists, how can they show it? That meant that all the buyers working with the 7000+ other agents who work in lower Westchester had no idea this listing existed. Why restrict access to such a limited number of buyers? Surely this is not in the best interests of the seller.
When your agent takes a listing, it should be on the MLS within 24 hours. To ensure that your home has been properly listed, ask your agent to email the listing to you as soon as it is available. This will also ensure that there are no errors in the comments and remarks.
Strategy #2 – Lockbox? What’s a lockbox?
The second incident was a listing in a cooperative complex where everything is always on lockbox. Yet in this case, the showing instructions indicated that the keys needed to be picked up at the brokerage and the IMMEDIATELY returned. WHY??? Don’t think that’s a big deal? Guess again. The parking for that brokerage is nil. You either risk a major parking fine or set aside 20 minutes to park your car in a multilevel structure and pay for a meter. Then you IMMEDIATELY have to repeat the process while your buyers are cooling their heels waiting to go to the next property. Turning a fifteen minute showing into an hour long obstacle course IS a big deal. Further, with the electronic lockboxes that are now available, there is absolutely NO NEED to put any agent through so many hoops in order to keep a home secure.
If a listing agent doesn’t want to leave the keys on site in a lockbox – ask WHY. Listen to their answer. If they say it helps them keep track of who has actually been in – RUN the other way. Electronic lockboxes can accomplish this far better than having agents run to the brokerage for the keys. The keypads record which agent has accessed the box and when. Individual codes are required along with a card key. There is no excuse for not using a lockbox unless you live in a condo or coop complex that doesn’t allow them.
Strategy #3 – Locksmith? What’s that?
The third incident involved a listing where the listing agent insisted on accompanying agents and their buyers to EVERY showing because there was only ONE SET OF KEYS! This is INSANE. Why on earth would there be only one set of keys? The locksmith trade has a noble history that extends for hundreds of years. I find it hard to believe that the agent hasn’t heard of this service. Further, there should always be an extra set on hand in case of an emergency.
Nothing makes buyers and their agents groan more than a listing agent that INSISTS on inserting themselves into a showing. The listing agent has no need and no business being present at a showing. Their presence often prevents the buyers from discovering the home for themselves and can inhibit them from asking relevant and penetrating questions. Further, setting up a showing schedule is not as easy as it looks. It can take two to three calls to set up some showings. These showings are carefully planned. The last thing a buyer’s agent needs is a listing agent throwing a monkey wrench into their showing schedule. It adds an addition layer of complexity that can throw the entire schedule off. It generally creates delays and can sometimes throw the schedule so far off that other showings in the schedule have to be scrapped for another day.
These days buyers are gold and sellers should be doing everything they can to attract them, not discourage them. As far as the buyer’s agent is concerned, there are generally enough listings out there to avoid the listings that require them to jump through thousands of hoops. Personally, I’ll jump through the hoops if I feel that this is a listing that my buyers need to see. But when you are in a market that is slow with a lot of overhanging inventory, making a listing difficult to can be the kiss of death. After all, the object is to sell your home, not just list it.
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Ruthmarie,
While somethings seem common sense to us they are rocket science to others.