Drive bys...Are you guilty of it?

I agree 100%.  If the buyers don't want to see the house after they arrive at least tell them you need to leave a card and walk thru the house yourself.

I usually make my buyers go inside unless the house is vacant. But sometimes, you get a strong-willed buyer who doesn't mind being rude. What do they care? They don't have to face the sellers. Think of how many buyers and sellers lie.. they promise you one thing and do another. Now if the agent defended the behavior, then I'd have a problem with it. I'm not above lecturing agents like that. As a matter of fact, I'm been known to give them instructions in advance, to make sure they look at the house since my buyers have taken the time to make the house show-ready.

How about this nuance...

I just had an agent do this TWICE over the past month.  On two separate occassions, on two different listings of mine.  I'm angry!  I made an excuse for her with my first seller, but I cannot and will not tolerate her standing up my other seller.  When she called to schedule the appointment, I specifically asked her to please call me if she ended up not going.  My seller is handicapped and I didn't want to leave him in a prepared state if she wasn't going.  Needless to say, she didn't show up!!  I am borderline not letting her ever show my listings again!  But, realistically, that could be detrimental to my seller and I am a real estate whore and will do anything for the opportunity to sell a listing!

As for my personal opinion, I've had situations where we pull up to the 10th home we are seeing, screaming babies in the back of the car and the home corners to the main road.  My buyers won't consider it and we are ALL tired.  I call the listing agent or the homeowner and profusely apologize for not showing the home.  It still might make them upset, but at least I acted professionally!

Great post!

If an appointment is made to see a home then we should be polite enough to show it, and even it it's not right for our buyers at least we've had an opportunity to preview the listing.

Always leave a card.  It is a simple as that.  Put yourself in the Sellers shoes and act like an adult.  I have always felt there should be a 'common sense' test in the exam portion of our liscencing!

Hi Tony...I always make the effort to have the clients see the inside "as long as we're here'...AND, even if they decline, I go inside and leave a card anyway so the seller knows I was there and I'll give feedback to the other agent later.

I have had a client do this to me, we pull up in front of a house I have made an appt. to see, they don't like the outside, and want to leave...at that point, to tell them we should go through the house as a courtesy the question was...who are you working for.. so i agree it's a pain, but we can't force our clients to do the right thing.. :)  (I did call the agent after our tour)

I have had a client do this to me, we pull up in front of a house I have made an appt. to see, they don't like the outside, and want to leave...at that point, to tell them we should go through the house as a courtesy the question was...who are you working for.. so i agree it's a pain, but we can't force our clients to do the right thing.. :)  (I did call the agent after our tour)

Any agent with experience and/or ethics will call you or your client and say that they have changed their mind.  Heck, lie.....but at the least, make a call.

Make a friendly email or phone call to the agent and make them feel very guilty.  Tell them this: I was concerned that something bad happened as we did not hear from you yesteday.  Obvoiusly, I know you would have called knowing that my clients prepared the home for you and they drove around until you were complete with your showing.  Please reply as we are concerned if all is OK.

Oh yeah - that one makes me grumbly!  Make a phone call, take a quick tour, do something!  Like you said, the sellers have alotted that time for the buyers and their agent - please be respectful and courteous.

A few years back I had a Sat tour arranged for 5 different properties beginning at 9am.  I get a message at 8:45 saying my Buyer needed to reschedule for another day.  I at first was worried that something horrible had happened so I called to see if there was anything I could do.  When my Buyer sleepily answered the phone and confirmed that everything was fine, but that she had partied hearty the night before,  I made arrangments to stop by at lunch time.   Well, I lit into her and told her she needed to hear what obviously nobody had told her before.  Not only did she inconvenience me and waste time that could have been spent with other clients, but that she wasted the Friday night of each of the Sellers, getting the home show ready, and their Sat morning rushing the kids out of the house when they'd most likely want to stay home and watch cartoons.  Also, the 5 other agents and their families who got the early morning call to cancel the appointments.   All in all she had inconvenienced at least a dozen people by her thoughtlessness.    I let her know I was telling her this because I knew she was a good person who just hadn't a notion of what she had done.  Nobody ever took the time to explain it to her before.   The tears just poured down her face as she apologized over and over.  She asked me for the contact details of each agent to allow her to send notes of apology to them and their clients.  We viewed properties several days later as I would no longer allow her to book weekend time, and she was early for the appointment.  It all worked out well and I will be listing her place in the spring.  I wonder what she'll do if someone does a driveby or no show on her home? 

The response is rude and unprofessional. It would have been better if the agent called in advance to say the client was changing their focus and would be considering other properties in other communities or different styles.

Tony, let me give you another one. Realtor calls to show my house. Can you get your five dogs out, we are coming over now. OK, so I will and I will give you an hour. Realtor agrees that it is pleanty of time. I drive by 1 hour later and no one there, so thinking they are here and gone. Realtor calls my cell, oh, we have not gotten there just yet, we stopped to see another house. In my rear view mirror I see them coming out of that house and heading to another. I asked her if they could come to mine as I have people due in 1 hour. Then she blew me off and told me that when I get serious about selling my home to call her.

Hi Tony - Definitely a pet peeve of mine, it's not only rude but very inconsiderate.  Some time back, I did a post on agent's leaving their card, at least that way the owner's know if the agent showed up.  It's all just common courtesy, common sense...not to mention professionalism.

p.s.  WW posting guidelines have been cleared up...now everybody should be on the same page!  Life is Good :-)

Tony, I do always tell the seller expect this to happen from time to time, that they will work to get the home is show condition only to have the buyer fail to come or not like the outside. It is part of the package when selling a home. Good Luck, also thanks for visiting my blog too.

I've occasionally had this happen.  I always try to get them to go in if possible.  Once, though, we drove up in the yard and they said...no we don't like the looks of this area...so no choice but to go on.  Here we usually get some sort of email followup so I give a comment as soon as I can so agents and sellers will know what happened.

Also, try to prepare my sellers for this way in advance when I take a listing.

Tony,

I tell my clients if they are buyers, we are here, let's take a look.  The inside might surprise you.  You can never tell a book by it's cover.

And unfortunately, the sellers have to be told, not every agent would tell their clients to at least look at the inside...

Ann

Tony - I've shown so many vacant homes lately, that considering the feelings of an occupant seller, almost has become foreign.  BUT you are absolutely correct - occupant sellers often put considerable effort into showings.  And extra courtesy and consideration towards their effort ought to be demonstrated.  The buyer agent, will gain much from the knowledge of truly viewing (previewing) the property.  It might not meet the needs of that particular buyer, but it certainly might be the ticket for others.