For the last several days I have been showing in a very popular area and I have been amazed at how hard the seller's have made it for me to show their home. I am working with out of town buyers so we have been looking at a lot of homes. For the most part I have been making my showings with almost a 24 hour notice. Several of the sellers changed my showing time which then throws my sequence off. I have been tripping over myself back tracking through areas that I have already left.
They have also been changing my 2 hour showing window to a 1 hour showing window. When you are showing 10 to 15 homes it is so hard to try and work a showing schedule around this tight of a window. Several times I have had to call and extend my showing time. Typically I'm good at judging my time but I'm finding this one hour window very difficult to deal with.
Yesterday afternoon I scheduled appointments for this morning. I was trying to show between 9:00 and 11:00. For one of the homes I was called back by the showing service and told that my showing was declined as they were only accepting showings after 12:00 PM. I went ahead and scheduled for noon but then had to cancel because we were finished with the homes we were looking at long before that 12:00 time. I just now called again to schedule for this evening when we are showing both Mr. and Mrs. Buyer. For this particular home there was also a two hour notice that was required so I again barely fit it in the time slot. This time it was at least accepted.
I guess the most incredible showing that I have run across lately was a seller that was only allowing showings on Sunday between 1:00 and 4:00. The particular Sunday that I tried to show their home they decided not to show it that day. My feeling is they are obviously not motivated and with so many homes on the market: next!
Now I do understand when I call at the last moment and a showing is declined. Invariably as we are driving around my clients will see a sign in the yard and want to see a home. When that happens I don't' have a problem with rescheduling at a later time. In that case I'm the one being a bit inconsiderate but I always feel like it is worth a try to show the home.
I realize that it is a pain to have a home on the market. I moved many times with children and I remember having to be ready to leave at a moment's notice. My solution to this is for the seller to wait until we arrive to leave. I don't have a problem with a seller leaving through the back door as we are arriving at the front door. I do have a problem with the home not being accessible to show (especially since for the most part I have been giving a 24 hour notice).
I would like to make one last note. The seller does need to leave. It is very uncomfortable to look at someone's home with the seller looking on. I have also found that they usually open their mouth and insert their foot.
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