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When your house is listed for sale in Crofton, MD, or anywhere else for that matter, you want possible buyers to spend as much time in it as possible during a showing. The more buyer that look at it, the better, and the more time they spend in it, the better too.

There are some things that sellers unfortunately do that causes buyers from spending the time necessary to give your house an adequate review:

• UNSECURED PETS - I can't stress this one too much, especially as it related to dogs. If they even go in at all, buyers will not spend as much time in a house when there is an unsecured pet. I know you love your pet, but it needs to be crated, or removed from the house during a showing.
• SELLER PRESENT - I'm pretty sure your agent recommended that you not be present during a showing. I've seen it time and time again, when sellers are present, even if they stay out of the way, buyers get through the house as quickly as possible, and leave. And...they don't view everything. The best course of action is to leave when your house is being shown.
• ODORS - It doesn't matter whether it's ethnic cooking, pet smells, dampness, etc., buyers will not stay in houses too long that have what they consider to be an offensive odor.
• CLEANLINESS - Buyers are picky, and can afford to be in many markets. Houses that aren't clean, or too disheveled, usually get the quick tour by buyers. When your house is on the market, it has to be spotless.

This weekend I was showing houses, and while most of the appointments usually go pretty well, every once in a while you run into those situations where you just have to scratch your head. After all, everybody keeps telling us that this is such a buyers market, you would think that sellers, and listing agents, would go out of their way to accommodate showings. Think again.

When I'm showing several homes I normally give a one or two hour spread when I make the appointment. Too many things can happen if you try and cut it any closer than that.

One of the appointments required the listing agent to be there since there was no lockbox. I'm not a big fan of these but haven't generally had too many problems either. When I told the listing agent that I'd be there between 3 - 4, I thought that should have been acceptable. His response kind of surprised me when he said; "you're nuts if you think I'm waiting an hour for you."

The second one I had to make an appointment with the owner directly. Again, a little surprising because the listing company was a full service brokerage. When I told her I could be there between 3:30 - 4:30, she told me 3:30 was fine. I reiterated that it could be somewhere within an hour spread. "OK, if you're not here at 3:30, don't bother coming."

The last one I had an appointment between 4 - 5 and got a call from the showing service that my appointment has been "rescheduled." The owner "rescheduled" to between 7 - 7:30. Huh! Funny, the listing agent called wanting to know why I cancelled the appointment.

I'm going to chaulk these up to being out of the norm, or maybe a full moon, especially for this market. With the inventory being what it is right now, the buyers decided to pass on each of them. Too bad.

Richard Iarossi, REALTOR®
Long and Foster® Real Estate, Inc.
Crofton, MD 21114
410-451-6255 Office
443-995-9595 Cell
Web: http://www.RichSellsHomes.com
eMail: Rich@RichSellsHomes.com

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