Should I try to enforce a 'pre-qualified buyers only' requirement on my listings?

I agree a home unseen is unsold, but I always ask the buyers agent if they are qualified. On short sales I put a pre qual letter with each deal.

Why would you waste your time showing homes to someone that you have not had prequalified? Then once you have determined their buying criteria why would you ever take them to a home they cannot afford?

I guess in some areas there is no buyer agency, but in my area I don't know of any agents who don't get buyers prequalified first.

I agree. The more exposure the home gets the better it is.

I work with both buyers and sellers in the Metro Atlanta, GA area. As a Buyer's Agent, I ALWAYS have my buyers pre-approved with a DIRECT lender prior to showing them properties. As a Listing Agent, I ALWAYS have any potential buyers pre-approved prior to my showing my seller's property. If the property is being shown by another agent, I trust that they are doing their due diligence with their buyer. The reason for this is simply for security purposes only. We recently had an issue where a condo owner was robbed and beaten to death by someone posing as a "buyer" to preview her midtown home. We've also seen issues with potential "buyers" touring homes and coming back later to rob the homeowners. A common criminal will be less likely to commit a crime when he/she knows that they've given someone their information. It has nothing to do with not wanting to be bothered with those who cannot purchas at that time....that doesn't mean that they will never buy, It's about protecting my clients and myself.

Yes - but it has to be the seller's requirement so it's important to make sure the seller is on board!

I don't really care if the buyer is pre-qualified or not. 
There are no guarantees that someone pre-qualified is going to buy the house.
Expose the house, as much as possible (always assuming every agent is doing their due diligence, of course, and they know who their clients are).

I would prefer everyone to be pre-APPROVED with a commitment letter (not just pre-qualified), but that's also limiting the showings, and that's not a good idea.

One never knows who will end up buying the house, and one thing is for sure ... they will have to see it first, pre-qualified, or pre-approved, or whatever... they will have to see it before they can decide.

(If they are my buyer clients, under contract, then they will be pre-approved for sure - which is always the first priority - but that also doesn't mean we'll show paperwork to the seller or the seller's agent, without seeing the house - and until we have an offer.)

Pre Approved or not, in my opinion show your listing.  I mean who knows, a buyer who isn't Pre Approved yet might know some who is and may refer your listing to that person.  (Especially in this market)

It's up to the seller. I would explain it to them and then ask them what they want me to do, but you are right that you never know where the sale is coming from, jut as we don't know where our next prospect is coming from.

Absolutely.  The last 5 offers that I have had whereby the buyer's agent did not prequalify their client and I told them that we would reply after seeing a prequalifcation letter, EACH buyer did not have better than a 560 credit score and one was at 408.  This is in the $500k to $900k range.  Hopefully, that will motivate you.

Showing homes to some one that has not yet been qualified is one thing.  But I will not wirte an offer for a buyer until they have spoken to a lender.

"Unseen is unsold"

.....that about sums it up!

Hey Jennifer: I didn't know if you knew that I lifted a few comments from this post and wrote a piece surrounding those comments.

There was a pretty interesting dialog...

You never know who (your yet to be qualified) person may talk to. I would though have them put that task on there very soon to do list while I continue to show them property. 

i imagine it would be difficult to ensure only pre-qualified buyers view the home.  The most important factor is exposure, that's why sellers want open houses.  These agents who only want pre-qualified buyers viewing their listings probably don't hold open houses!