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What is the worst showing experience you've had?

By
Real Estate Agent with John L. Scott

We've all had them, and some of us that have been in the market for a long time probably have MANY of these. I'm curious to see if anyone has had a REALLY interesting/scary/frustrating situation during showings. I know for me, one of the most frustrating when I was a rookie was taking a guy from NY out every day for 8 hours a shot and having him nitpick even the most perfect of listings, and he didn't want to spend above 90k back in 2003, not impossible but still, he had no room to be picky. He ended up buying something later using his 4th or 5th agent, but I sure was relieved when he told me it wasn't working out and he didn't want to waste anymore of MY time. Anyone have something better then this? I'm sure you do!

Don Bartley
Keller Williams Realty Mid-Willamette - Corvallis, OR

The worst was...  I phoned the seller, scheduled an appointment, showed up with my clients and, well, I guess they forgot to tell their teenage son. We showed up as he was walking out of the bathroom after a shower...and no towel!

Sep 07, 2009 08:02 AM
Sandy McKee
Sunstreet Mortgage - Tucson, AZ

I heard a story from a friend that said as he walked up to the home, he saw the owner with an inflatable doll... YUCK

Sep 07, 2009 08:08 AM
Charles Stallions
Charles Stallions Real Estate Services - Pensacola, FL
850-476-4494 - Pensacola, Pace or Gulf Breeze, Fl.

Shoot where would I start. Probably when the buyer and I walked in this home after knocking on the door and going in, we walked down the hall way looking at the bedrooms first and a door out the master led to the outside pool area and we were just a talking and looked back toward the living room area and saw what we later found out was the seller sitting in a chair.

We walked back through the home and walked into the living room and said hello hello it is a realtor and a buyer. Thinking the guy must be deaf or something we walked on over and I wallked around so he could see me and the buyer said _ e _ I think the guys dead and went running out the door and jumped into her car and left me there.

Yea that about sums it up. For about an hour waiting for the law and calling the selling agent, only to hear "what do you  want me to do about it" and getting the third degree from the law about where and who the buyer was and why I didn't have a number for her and on and on.

Sep 07, 2009 09:01 AM
Julie Nelson
Whalers Realty Inc. - Lahaina, HI

I had been wanting to show my buyer a really nice condo but it had been rented out (vacation rental) while the buyer was here in town and the listing agent called to tell me it was finally available for showing since the renters checked out. I walked in there a few minutes before my buyer to turn on all the lights and open the lanai doors and the place was a disaster. Unmade beds, dirty towels on the floor, dirty bandaids on the coffee table, beach sand all over on the tile floors. Obviously the renters had just checked out, but it was really embarrassing and disgusting to show this property. They did not put an offer on it, but did put in an offer on a "cleaner" property. My story was not as good as the dead guy story posted earlier. That is crazy.

Sep 07, 2009 04:53 PM
Jason Provencio
John L. Scott - Boise, ID

I don't think I've ever had anyone dead in a house when I went to show it, but we had a lady laying on a couch during a tour of homes and we couldn't ask the family if she was ok or just asleep or whatever since none of our agents spoke Spanish. It was 10am, so she SHOULD have been awake!

Sep 08, 2009 03:51 PM
Robert L. Brown
www.mrbrownsellsgr.com - Grand Rapids, MI
Grand Rapids Real Estate Bellabay Realty, West Mic

On tour years ago we went to a home and as we went thru it i went to the lower level and opened a bedroom door and lo and behold there was a couple with a sheet barely covering ALL the essentials sleeping soundly. Yes i could have stayed(lol) but i thought it's time to vacate this home ASAP.

Sep 14, 2009 04:32 AM