Sorry if you disagree, but it’s true.
As a seller, if you’re present during showings, you’re hurting your chances of selling your house or condo, if you can sell it at all…
Does anybody disagree?
If you read the rest of this post and you still disagree, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
It is both my personal and professional opinion that as a seller, you cannot be home during showings.
I’d like to compare two arguments that sellers make; one regarding staging, and one regarding appointments:
1) “Why do I need to stage my house? Why do I even need to change a single thing? Buyers aren’t buying my paintings, plates, carpets, and photos – they’re buying my house!”
2) “Why can’t I be home during showings? I don’t come with the sale of the house, like the fridge does! Buyers won’t care if I’m sitting quietly on my own goddam couch!”
We’ve examined point #1 time and time again. In fact, there are several real estate TV shows that deal with exactly that topic!
But as for being present during showings, just think of it the exact same way.
The seller who believes that he or she has no effect, and no influence on the outcome of the showing if he/she is present, is being just as naive as the person who thinks the clutter in a house won’t decrease the perceived value.
Just as buyers don’t want to see clutter, junk, and anything else you might own, they also don’t want to see you!
First of all, it’s awkward for buyers.
Most buyers get accustomed to viewing properties at their leisure, and they’re often caught off-guard when the seller is home. They respond with that “….Oh….Geez…..sorry, um, we can come back….” At which point, the seller says, “Oh no worries, come on in.”
Then the buyers look at each other as if to say, “Should we?” It’s like when the weird man down the street would hand out candy on Halloween and say, “Come on inside, I’ve got some really good stuff in the hallway over here…” and you looked at your brother or sister and wondered if you should just stay on the front porch like you’ve done for every other house.
Secondly, buyers may not want to know who (potentially) lived there before them!
Sure, in the case of family homes, most young couples would love to know that the house was owned by a loving family for ten years, and that they were happy every single day and never cried or felt any emotion other than pure joy! What a happy story!
But in the case of condos, investment properties, or many other houses that aren’t necessarily in family-ville, you often don’t want to come toe-to-toe with the owner.
Consider that in staging, we encourage sellers to remove all personal photographs. We don’t want buyers getting distracted and looking at photos of the seller’s trip to Thailand, or that baby photo on the fridge of the ugly nephew that was 16 pounds at birth. But we also don’t want buyers to look at photos because they start to compare themselves to the people in them! It’s why we encourage sellers to remove university diplomas as well. “What? This guy only has has B.Comm? I’ve got a friggin’ MBA and a CFA! I make way more money than this guy! Why is he selling to me?” If you think that doesn’t happen, trust me when I say it does. All the time…
So now consider that if we’re removing photos of the seller/owner/tenant, then it seems to reason we should avoid that person(s) being there in the flesh during showings!
Lastly, buyers like privacy!
I know it sounds crazy – these people want privacy in your own house!
But think of the life decision that they’re making!
For some of these buyers, it could be the biggest decision of their lives. Whether you’re a first-time-buyer, or a third-time-buyer who is finally buying “the” house to stay in from age 32 to 55, you’re going to be nervous, anxious, and you don’t want to be distracted.
As a buyer, you want to keep your head in the game, and the last thing you want is for the home-owner to be standing there breathing down your neck, or even sitting on the couch in the other room. You want to roam around freely, take your time, and feel comfortable in your surroundings.
After all, if you can’t feel comfortable in that house or condo – then how can you see yourself buying it?
In my experience, sellers being present at showings often deter the buyers with their actions and/or words. Every seller has a different way about him or herself, and they may have different ways of turning off buyers, but you can usually boil it down to these three types:
1) The Overly-Helpful Seller
These people are as annoying as hell, and the crazy part is – they think they’re helping!
This seller feels like it’s his duty to walk you through the house and point out every single feature, finish, or upgrade.
“The shut-off valve for the whole house is just to the left of where you’re standing.”
That’s great, but can we talk about that later? Maybe if/after we’ve bought this house?
“I see you looking over at the fireplace – I built that myself, with my own two hands! Yep, took me a whole weekend, but it’s there, it’s sturdy, and it burns a mean fire!”
Great, thanks for the value-add.
2) The “You’re On My Time” Seller
These sellers feel like it’s a hardship to sell their house for more than fair-market value in a red-hot market after only six days, and they feel like they’re doing you a favour by letting you into their home.
They feel as though nothing can stop them from getting multiple offers, and thus they aren’t going to step out of your way.
Even though most showings take place on weeknights from 5-8pm, and even though they themselves likely conducted showings around the same time on this very property years ago when they bought it, they want you to know that they’re frustrated that you didn’t come to the open house on Saturday from 2-4pm when they’d be at the Jays game.
Amazingly, these people can also be found in houses that have been on the market for months! The irony is: the reason the house hasn’t sold, is because they never leave, and are always on the couch for showings. But the lack of a sale has frustrated them, and they no longer want to leave their house for showings.
3) The Tenants
This is where things get messy!
Sometimes, you have really nice tenants – two girls, right out of university, eating Kraft Dinner and watching “The Bachelor.” They give you those imperative bullets of information such as, “Sooooo…..like, um….this is like, a really great building, and stuff,” as they feel the need to help the landlord sell the place, but despite their shortcomings, they’re harmless, and lovely!
But more often than not, you have the messy, dirty, noisy, smelly, disgusting tenants that those nice, presentable tenants with great references eventually morph into by about month-10.
Some tenants know their rights, and choose to remain home for showings, and others don’t know, and don’t care, and will never leave.
“Come on in, man. Do whatever you gotta do,” he says, as he pours white sugar on his Frosted Flakes and hunkers down to watch a 15-year-old re-run of “The Simpsons.” His hockey gear is boiling in its own stank, since it’s placed helpfully right in the corner of the room that gets the most direct sunlight, and you merely poke your head into the bedroom as you’ve clearly “seen enough.”
.
No matter who is home, I’ve had clients that didn’t want to see the property.
Time and time again, I’ll take clients out for 6-8 showings, and if there’s an owner home, they just whisper “We can skip this one.”
Now if we’re going to see one particular house that we’re very interested in, well, God himself couldn’t stop us from walking inside! But many buyers see houses and condos in batches, and sometimes they just don’t feel like walking around on somebody else’s turf.
As a seller, you need to understand that whether there is one buyer for your home or one-hundred buyers for your home, you don’t want to turn people off.
Think about trying on a swimsuit in the change-room in a store, and suddenly the salesperson walks into the booth with you. You’re feeling vulnerable, and you want to be alone, right?
It’s the same thing with home-buyers. They’re vulnerable, and they need to be in the right mindset.
If you’re selling your house or condo, and you don’t agree, then proceed at your own peril…
moonbeam!
at 7:24 am
Not to mention the hurtful comments the seller could hear if they don’t leave “This kitchen is too small to swing a cat!”
Mandy
at 8:21 pm
I disagree with this , for one I know of the horror stories with showings, because I see it all the time , I work at a real estate office, front desk admin. I hear all the bad stuff, showing agents, that previously have the lbx code from showing before, just walk into the home and help themselves , Without an appt. (this is bullshit and wrong), you do that to me selling my home be sure to get an earful and I police will be called ,. that is still considered trespassing , just because you already have the code , does not mean you can just come whenever you please. then you get the people that have an apt, from say 7-8 and show up after 8 without calling saying they will be late. that’s another NO NO. once your appt up , you ant just show up , unless you have permission. Then there are the assholes that do not lock the doors. Then leaving patio doors wide open and pets getting loose, again I have a cat and dog and if something were to happen to them because the agent leaves door open , be sure that I will find out who they were and make sure they never breathe again, my Pets my family , then there is stealing, I have tons of valuable items and if something would go missing, again that’s person would have to deal with me and it wont be pretty. so sellers are aloud to be home. Go direct all the way, and if they don’t like that to damn bad, remember it is still (your home) you have every right to be there. until the keys are handed over at closing, its considered my house. Also removing shoes common courtesy people , my house is spotless hardwood floors, I don’t want peoples dirty shoes trekking through my house, you don’t want to remove your shoes, then you cant walk through. opening drawers and laying on beds umm fuck No , dressers don’t come with the house nor does the bed do not fucking lay on my bed and go through my drawers ,WTF! bringing kids to showing, NO NO No. leave them with someone for the duration. I have had compliment’s from sellers that the buyers kids running around breaking things, not cool at all. control your children or have someone watch them. My list can go on. seeing this first hand working in real estate makes me angry , how people can be so horrible. also DO NOT USE toilet, no don’t take a shit in my house and not flush also. sick assholes. no food or beverages during showings. forgot video games consoles and my tv are not for you to try nor do they come with the house either , touch them and you will no longer have hands! The list could go on.
wouldn’t be like this , if the realtors and their clients , had some respect for others property. so when selling your home make it a GO DIRECT. and just stay in one room and that’s that.
Eddy
at 9:09 am
Real Estate agents are the most irritating breed of humans right after lawyers
IanC
at 8:00 am
I agree 200%.
If your first impression is even the owner exiting, and saying that they are going out for two hours… it does not help your sale. Best to be gone before the prospective buyers arrive. Although I remember making my first offer on a place where the renter was during the entire first viewing. I must have been focused.
The BBC show “Open House” hosted by the late Kristian Digby, always puzzled me.
They would price a bit low, order champagne and food, and the real estate agents would ask the clients to be there and help sell the place in conversation. It was one day open house push, cross your fingers for multiple offers, and it would sell that day or they were doomed. The sellers were instructed to say…. “Oh, the school down the street is great”. “We love the restaurant across the road”. “Look how low our lecky bill is”. “Don’t you think my wife has a nice…” (Maybe not the last one… but you get the idea).
Guess what! The house did not always sell. Did the owners help or hurt? Perhaps it’s a cultural thing – and with houses older than your great great grandpa – people think differently about property. Fewer people want a brand spanking new place never lived in… They accept generations of lives spending but a moment (relatively) having the pleasure of calling this place home. Who knows?
A Side Note:
I once viewed a rental, looking to RENT, and the tenants refused entry – they claimed they did not get the memo or something. We were turning away and the agent (who I recognized from HGTV, he worked for a sheepish person) bribed them with a promise of a bottle of wine. They could have bought a case of nice CASE of wine if they returned the empties across the street at the beer store. They took the bait, filled their steins with something, and went to the roof, to let us view in peace. Years earlier, I rented a condo that was selling – I was never around during showings. The quicker they sell – the fewer showings there are! Duh. It can last two months or more.
David, have you ever thought of bribing tenants, who are within their rights of course, that insist on hanging around during showings? If it’s such a deal breaker for many prospective buyers, it’s worth a shot.
Joe Q.
at 9:07 am
… they feel the need to help the landlord sell the place …
My gut feeling is that tenants shouldn’t be doing any kind of representation for a property, positive or negative. They can just quietly refer questions to the listing agent. There are just too many potential legal issues.
Ralph Cramdown
at 11:20 am
Legal issues? The tenant isn’t involved in the contract of P&S as agent or principal, so you’d have to find a cause of action in tort. Tortious interference in a business relationship? You’d have to show that the buyer was very likely to buy absent tenant’s comments. Slander? Only applies to incorrect statements about the vendor, not about the property. Good luck.
Besides, we all know that tenants don’t have any money, or they’d be owners, right? Judgment proof people can say whatever they want, regardless of whether it’s a wise idea.
Joe Q.
at 11:45 am
“Tortious interference in a business relationship? You’d have to show that the buyer was very likely to buy absent tenant’s comments.”
This is what I was referring to. It might be difficult for a landlord to bring proof that the tenant’s comments affected the sale, but why take the chance? Better for a tenant to abstain from commenting on the property and to refer questions to the listing agent.
Ralph Cramdown
at 2:14 pm
Even if the vendor met the burden of proof, he’d next have to show damages, which would be what he would have received from the prospective purchaser, less what he eventually received from the final purchaser, plus any carrying costs incurred in the meantime. Difficult to quantify without knowing what the first buyer would have offered. Plus there’s all your legal and court costs, and you don’t get them back except in the most egregious cases.
What if the tenant knows about a latent defect? Is he ethically obligated to disclose? If not, would he be wrong to do so? Or is he obligated to keep quiet and hope that the vendor does the right thing?
Geoff
at 11:17 am
I totally agree, and anytime we had a scheduled showing for our condo not only would my wife and I not be home, we’d make sure our pets (cats) were out too. It meant our car was crowded but for an hour or two it was fine.
The exception was when we’d come back after being gone, and then an hour later get a knock at the door. Yeah, I’m not leaving, you obviously don’t care that much to honour the appointment YOU booked.
JC
at 6:44 pm
I hope you said as much to him/her.
Especially when the agent that shows up an hour late walks up to the door with a cellphone in her hand.
What? You couldn’t make a call to anyone to let us know you’d be late?
Sometimes its hard to know if anyone showed up at all, since it seems like many so-called “professionals” out there seem to think that leaving a business card is optional, in spite of it being part of the showing instructions.
Perfect Fit
at 12:19 pm
Buyers also like to discuss their plans for the place that would make it an acceptable purchase for themselves. That kitchen that is too small to swing a cat in? Some buyers want to talk about nuking that kitchen and opening up the main floor. How can they do that “without offending” the current owner? How can they have an honest and open communication with their Realtor about their purchasing strategy if the person that should never hear that information is sitting not 10 feet away?
I strongly believe that a lot of the problems stem from the fact that the current owners have not yet disassociated themselves from the home enough to recognize that they are now trying to sell an asset/house. Ask them to put their used car on the market and they’ll be quick to spiff it up and market it properly. But ask them to sell their home, and they continue to look at it as their home.
George
at 4:10 pm
What happens when the showing is unscheduled, with no advance notice? I remember my family selling our home a decade ago. Some potential buyers knocked, didn’t wait for a reply, and walked right in with no appointment or notice given. Agents shouldn’t expect a red carpet when they surprise a seller, and there are some really “great” agents out there.
But yes, if a seller knows ahead of time, they should clean/stage and get out of there.
Bertie Wooster
at 11:18 pm
This happened to me when I was a tenant and the landlord was selling the condo. I was working from home and was on a conference call when they barged in with no appointment. So I threw them out and didn’t let them see the unit.
jeff316
at 1:46 pm
I can relate. My wife and I were once tasked with taking care of a cousin and his pets while his mom was stateside to shop for houses and their home in Toronto was on the market. Previous to that experience, I was pretty critical of people who didn’t stage and clean and eradicate the house of pets with advance notice of showings – lazy lazy lazy.
But I have to say it was very difficult to manage two cats, a dog and a kid with notice being anywhere from hours in advance to a phone call saying “someone will be by in 15 minutes.” Piling everyone/animal in the car, cleaning the litter, putting away the mess of two twentysomethings, a thirteen year old and three pets, not to mention finding a place to go, having the kid get fed, do his homework, get to activities, asleep on time, etc., near the end, we kind of gave up, particularly with the pets and cleaning up. It was just too much to manage. She did extremely well with the place – almost 100% increase from last sale price over seven years – but I’ve always wondered if our diminishing effort (and a few outright instances of “no” near the end) limited the amount she got.
I get that Toronto’s market is hot and people want private showings – I appreciated those as a buyer – but there is something to be said in favour of the good old open house.
Awan
at 7:53 am
Eradicate pets… wow only a real estate agent can use such language
jeff316
at 10:23 am
I once went to an open house. The agent warned us upon entry – “Be quiet, grandma is sleeping in the third bedroom upstairs. If you need to look in, only take a peek.” It was extremely awkward.
David Fleming
at 6:10 pm
@ Jeff316
hahahahaha this is the best comment yet! I LOL’d! Maybe it’s the Friday evening rye-and-gingerale, but I had myself a nice little chuckle! 🙂
jeff316
at 1:38 pm
Rye and ginger – great choice, my fav.
I feel a bit bad about posting the anecdote above, I do think grandma was very ill, long-term bid ridden sort of thing, and I don’t know that they could really remove her. But it was the most awkward situation ever, we just couldn’t believe it. The agent didn’t seem sheepish and we later found out that she was a relative. The house was overpriced and never sold.
jeff316
at 1:50 pm
Though I have to say those premixed popcans of rye and ginger from Canadian club are a bit skunky…it seems like they add extra alcohol or something.
SH
at 9:41 pm
Ha! This reminds of a house we looked at many years ago, where one of the bedrooms oddly had the blinds drawn and was hard to see. I was about to walk into the darkened room when I was startled out of my skin by a elderly man who had shifted in his sleep…
I definitely agree, although I can just hear my dad calling the concept ridiculous — he’s one of those annoying BUYERS who LOVE talking to the sellers and if he doesn’t like you, likely won’t hesitate to point out what’s wrong with your home.
Lisa
at 8:46 pm
An agent once told me TO be home during showings, since I could show potential buyers around a bit since I knew the place best. Um, NO. I have absolutely no eduction in real estate but I politely declined as it made NO sense to me to be there for about a million reasons! Glad this blog post backs me up.
Annoyed
at 7:48 pm
The statement “Lastly, buyers like privacy!” is certainly one sellers should heed if they want a smooth sale.
When I bought my house I was really pissed off when the owners decided to stay at home during one of my visits after I signed the purchase agreement. I greatly regretted not having an out clause to deal with this annoying and time wasting situation. If I could I would have got out of the deal just because the owners were home following me all around the house and wouldn’t shut up. It only made me wonder what they were hiding about the house.
So to spite them, I checked the house many times over (walking up and down the stairs over and over again). I wore them out eventually because they stopped following after a while.
And then after I moved it was obvious these busybodies had already told the neighbours all about me.
Julia
at 6:28 pm
Ha ha ha – it is so true that this is a turn off. I was pretty sure that the house I eventually bought wasn’t selling because of the two elderly only-foreign-language speaking people who were always in the house. I mean, firstly it was a dump. But then you were also trailed by at least one of the couple in your viewing, with him talking and laughing with/at you the entire way in Cantonese. Anyhow, we wanted it, so we endured.
GQ
at 10:49 pm
You are right in most cases. But I am a savvy seller with business sense. I work from home. I accepted ALL showings. This is what I did each time. I turned on all the lights in the house (sun or no sun) and sprayed a little gentle scent air spray. I opened the door – said hello, then went straight upstairs and waited. When they made their way up, I went straight down and waited. By then, some (50%) left the house. The other 50% came back to the main level to view again. I went back upstairs. Not one word was exchanged in all cases. In fact, twice, I was called upon to answer some questions from the buyer and the agent. The house was sold over asking 3 days after listing with multiple offers (offers were held until open house…3 days after listing). I am talking April 2013 in Toronto East. Also, I never cooked and showered at my mom’s during these 3 days so as to keep the house clean. So being home worked for me. Plus my charm and (so they say – looks) helped. Cheers!!
Ferry
at 5:39 pm
What if the real estate agent tells you they’re not responsible for any lost or damaged items in your house and you have so many valuables in the house?
We chose to be safe than sorry as tenants.