Monday, 28th of April 2008 at 11:49:51 AMOkay, so now I’m going to jump on the band wagon about what you can do to prevent your home from selling. This is from the past two weeks that I have been showing homes to prospective buyers. Willing and able buyers to purchase the home that they are looking for.
If you really don’t want to sell your home:
- Don’t leave when the prospective buyer and their agent shows up. Yes, don’t leave, stay on the sofa, watch the Sun’s game. Better yet, follow us around the house and give us commentary on every little thing in sight. My clients leave houses faster in these situations and I have yet to have a buyer pick a house like this (okay, they came close once, but no offer was made). Buyers like to look around without feeling guilty about looking around. They like to freely talk about what they see, but feel they can’t when the home buyer is sitting around in ear shot.
- Don’t lock up the dogs when I show up. Had this happen, asked the seller to take the dogs out back, go for a walk, something so we don’t have to be worried about being attacked. Nope, didn’t happen, she went back to bed (yes bed, 2:00 in the afternoon and she is in PJ), dogs kept the buyers from seeing the house. Result, no sale.
- Ignore my calls and messages. I call at least 1 hour in advance and most often 4 hours, leave messages with the occupants and their agent that I want to show the home between 1 and 2 today. No call back from either party, I show up at the house and get a blank stare. “Is this your phone number?” “Yes” “I left a message at 9 am this morning, did you get it” “Oh, I haven’t checked my messages today” Okay, you just made me and you look like an idiot, how are we going to negoiate an offer?
- Present your home as if you don’t care. Okay, I’m partial here, I like the houses that I list to be staged, present in a way that shows their value. Lots of times I’ve seen a house that the pool is getting ready to be presented a green card from the Department of Health. Projects that look in complete. Just this weekend, the vanity in the master bathroom was missing (gone, down to the floor), but in the same house, there are brand new Jenn-Air appliances in the kitchen. Cut back on the appliance budget and finish the Master Bathroom.
- Have a Security System but don’t tell me the code. This one relates to number 3 above. I show a vacant property and the agent didn’t return my call, doesn’t mention that there is a security system in the MLS and here I am waiting for the police to show up and show my all offical Realtor Card (get out of jail?). Well 30 minutes later, no one showed up, but the alarm kept us from going in and really getting a good look.
So there you have it, things you can do to prevent your home from selling. Go ahead, try anyone or all of these to keep that sale from occuring. If you would like some additional material on the topic, check out Jay Thompson’s post: How to drive buyers (and their agents) insane.
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