The Selling Season is in Full Swing, What's Up With the Sellers?

The Selling Season is in full swing, what's up with the sellers?

I spent the better part of the last three days showing property. The buyers have come out of hibernation and are ready to forage for new homes. These are buyers that are well-qualified, earnest money and preapproval letters in hand, need or seriously want to buy NOW! So naturally, sellers are putting their best foot forward; homes are spit-shined and my buyers are welcomed with open arms, right?

Weeeelll, not exactly. Yes, there are many sellers out there that "get it". But the clueless seller is still a blight upon the real estate landscape. In the past three days, I had:

(Photo credit: Brown bear from Daisyree Bakker, Flickr via Creative Commons License) 

• Two appointment requests declined, one for no apparent reason and the other because it didn't suit them today, come tomorrow. Well sorry, my out-of-town buyers are here today because they HAVE to buy a home right now, and they won't be here tomorrow. Your house would have suited their needs to a T, but so will some others. Too bad, you lose.
• One house with no lock box, must schedule with listing agent to view, listing agent is out of town, no back up. Oh, and the house is vacant. Really? Did you think we were actually coming to spray paint graffiti on the walls?
• One FSBO (yes I agreed to show it, the buyers really wanted to see it), where the seller patiently explained to my buyers that an appraisal "wasn't going to work for her right now", and that if anyone wanted to buy her house badly enough, she was sure they could make up the difference in cash. We giggled all the way to the next house. Yep, there's a lot of buyers out there right now looking to flush $100,000.  
• Another house with no lockbox, the seller would meet us to let us in. You guessed it, despite our remarkable punctuality (given that we were well into our list of about twelve homes) we knocked, rang, pounded, no seller. Neeeeext!

Now I understand that having your house on the market is a PITA. I have sold homes of my own, and truly, I feel your pain. But do you want to sell your house or not? Let me share a fact of life: I can't sell it if I can't show it! Bending over backwards to accomodate us is not doing us a big favor, it is a smart move on your part towards reaching what I presume to be your goal. Try to think of us as your partner in getting your home sold, and not an unwelcome annoyance.