Sometimes the showing and access to the property does not go as planned. So here are some of the Home Showing Etiquette Mistakes and What Can Be Done About Them.
The sellers get to decide when homes are shown by other agents. Most agents tell sellers to leave their home during showings, but there is nothing wrong with staying home during showings.
What homeowners need to know?
Their buyer owns the homes and the owners have absolute rights to their homes. Showings and visits are arranged by appointment and as a courtesy only cooperating showing appointments are on an approval basis.
What agents tend to believe?
What they saw it done before is how it should be done. There is very limited Agent Oversight for these issues. Sellers can complain to the state Division of Real Estate but only if there is a law against it. Each agent is their own individual business as Independent Contractors.
What are some Issues during access to home sellers property?
- Toilets stopped up (completely)…. not with just paper
- Lights left on
- Business CARDS are RARELY left behind
- Doors left unlocked
- Stove knobs broken
- Crushed potato chips on the floor of the house
- Starbucks cups left on the counter
- Water heater warming sleeves left taken apart
- And, HEAT SYSTEM SHUT OFF DURING THE WINTER!!!!
Why is this happening?
LACK OF AGENT TRAINING.
It seems to be getting worse over time, how can an agent be held accountable? If there is substantial damage to the property a claim can be filed against their insurance.
Here is the worst example of showing etiquette mistakes.
Sellers were both working and the agent was scheduled for inspection while the teenage daughter was home alone.
NOTE: LICENSE LAW VIOLATION
TO LET AN UNLICENSED PERSON ENTER SOMEONE’S HOME WITHOUT A LICENSED AGENT ESCORTING THEM.
They make sure the teenage daughter would not be stuck in the house with strange unlicensed men inspectors for 3 hours. On inspection day, assistant Wendy goes inside and checks. What she found out was shocking!
- Front door was wide open
- Licensed agent was not there
- Two Male inspectors were in the house, unescorted.
They asked the agent why she left and she said: “She forgot she had a closing”. FYI, no agent forgets about closings – that is pay day!
They communicated this license law violation to the broker, and they ignored the written complaint. They removed $1000 off her commission, And per disclosure in the MLS at closing and just gave it to the seller for her putting their daughter at risk.
So how does a seller know agents at the house if they were not home during the visit?
- The digital lock boxes notify them the box was opened, but the technology of that system is not good enough to tell them when it is closed.
- Out of AREA, agents do not use those boxes – So they have to install secondary back up boxes.
- They are supposed to leave a card, but very few agents bother to leave a card these days!
What are some things we should have done to protect the clients from the reckless behavior of these agents and their clients?
We provide this Service: What TO DO and What NOT to Do To get your Home Ready for Sale and ensure to have TEAM of professionals.
Home is presented to the market to command top dollar, showing activity is limited to small periods to avoid issues. All are represented every step of the way. Moving is challenging enough, home Sellers do not want surprises they don’t expect other agents to make the process difficult by causing Issues in the home while visiting and demanding unreasonable repairs.
There are over 5000 agents in the Pikes Peak region.
- 74% of them sold 3 homes or less in the past year.
- 25% of THOSE AGENTS have sold ZERO homes.
Why do you care?
Lack of Experience can create unreasonable offers, unreasonable inspection demands and tie up properties with unqualified buyers.
We VET the Buyers from other agents, We fight for our Clients over unreasonable inspection repairs. So if the agent has another full time job and inexperienced agent thought it was reasonable and already submitted an inspection demand for;
- NEW FURNACE
- NEW WATER HEATER
- NEW STOVE
- NEW ELECTRICAL
- NEW WATER HEATER
- NEW WINDOWS
The outcome would be the Seller may not agree or get a new buyer that is taking the home as is at the same price!
Inexperienced agents buyer did not get the house, nor will there be any house like that going forward with 20 acres at that low price!
The sad truth is there is very little training on how to prepare a buyer to view homes, most agents meet them at the house and hope they want to buy it or hope they can buy it.
Preparing buyer to view homes;
- HOW TO SHOW A HOUSE,
- HOW TO EDUCATE THE BUYER ABOUT MARKET CONDITIONS
- HOW TO COACH BUYERS SO THEY DO NOT MAKE UNREASONABLE OFFERS OR DEMANDS
- HOW TO NEGOTIATE THE SALE TO GET THEM THE HOME
- HOW TO CLOSE THE SALE.
The problem was solved after too many frustrating events.
- RBID SYSTEM.
With the Sell for Top Dollar System, other agents never have private access to the house. The homes are pre-screened & pre inspected by our experienced inspectors whom we trust and control the flow of showings with staffed oversight. Best of all, our system is designed to get the sellers absolute top dollar!
For more info please contact below.
Website: https://yourhomesoldguaranteedrealty-barbhasthebuyers.com/
Barb’s team – 719 301 3900
