I am currently prepping an awesome new listing to come on the market this weekend. The clients have been absolute A + gold star sellers. They did everything I asked them to do for staging, turned down my offers to run around and do it for them, agreed with me on pricing and showing instructions. Did not complain and got it done fast. Showing instructions could have been a big deal with them as they have a toddler who goes to bed early. We talked about how to handle this and I said you really never should turn down a showing. I am a mom, and I know the rule you never wake a sleeping baby too, but selling your home is all about short term sacrifice for long term goals. We agreed she would let people come past the baby's bedtime, but she'd just tell them that the baby was asleep and they could skip that room and remind them the photos show it quite well. Problem - solution! Not ideal, but better than saying "no you can't come at all!" They want to sell and are doing what it takes to get it done.
There have been a lot of stories about sellers not showing their homes lately and there's a listing I've been following that has refused to make changes to the condition and very slow on price reductions over the course of 5 months. I asked my buyer who was interested in the listing if it were priced much lower, what she thought of the latest very tiny price reduction. She said "they don't want to sell."
Is that the message you are sending with your listing? Because that is the perception buyers will have if you are not amenable to show it or reduce the price or change the conditon after months on the market.
I said the seller and agent are delusional to think the house will sell at the price and condition it's in. But I do wonder, how many sellers are just wasting everyone's time? How many are just dipping their toe in the water thinking "that one buyer" will pay me this way above market price and love my flowered wall paper? They don't truly want to sell. I think anyone would sell at anytime for a ridiculous amount of money. I'd be a seller very fast if someone knocked on my door and offered me a million dollars cash to buy my house. Most of us would. But that doesn't mean we are going to enter the marketplace with those kind of expectations.
How many agents out there are enabling this behavior that wastes the time and energy of dozens, if not hundreds of buyers and their agents and makes the market look worse than it really is?
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