We work with both home buyers and sellers throughout the Austin area. For many years now, the majority of our business has come from working with buyers, since much of our new business comes from the internet. Typically, I have found that those clients searching online are looking to buy, not looking for a listing agent. Obviously, there are exceptions to this, but this is my anecdotal experience.
Often, while I am engaged in the showing process, I hear something along these lines from my clients:
"Jason, I'm impressed. You are really organized. Thanks for preparing so thoroughly for our day together. It made it really smooth for us."
Even though I have heard this dozens of times, it still surprises me, for two reasons:
- I don't consider myself to be overly organized as a general rule.
- I just always figured that planning was part of my job as an agent.
I think buyers say this more often when they have already met with another agent in the past, or if they have become disenchanted with someone else and then we end up working together.
"Wow, the guy we used to buy our last house always seemed like he was sort of winging it. Sometimes, he would just show up at the houses and ask if we could look at them."
This strikes me as simply amazing and disrespectful. It seems like the professional thing to do to set up the showings ahead of time, and to give each home owner a pretty good idea of when we will show up. To be sure, there are extenuating circumstances sometimes, but I usually have a list of properties and I can estimate with some level of certainty when we will see each one of them. The primary exception occurs when I have a buyer that takes an inordinate amount of time to see each place. I once had a buyer whose dad tagged along, and he insisted on seeing EVERYTHING (even the attic), even when they were not going to buy that home. I had to gently nip that in the bud.
So, is this out of the ordinary to adequately prepare for a day of showings? I would imagine that if you are reading this as an AR member, you probably handle yourself in a better-than-average fashion, so this is probably old hat for you guys.
Comments(23)